Fatal Connection by Malcolm Rose Page B

seabirds. There was one drinks can, partly buried in sand.
    ‘It probably came down the river,’ Lexi said. ‘It’s not in good condition. Corroded. It’s been here longer than a couple of weeks.’
    Troy nodded.
    They went over to the only other object lying on the beach. At the high-tide mark near some rocks, there was a rotting fish.
    Lexi squatted down by it and grimaced. ‘We’ve come all this way for one dead fish. It doesn’t mean anything. No hook in its mouth as far as I can see. It could have died of old age or got left behind in a pool. But …’ She sighed and pulled on a glove.
    ‘Because you’re methodical …’
    ‘Yeah. I’m going to take it back to test it for mercury.’ She slid the smelly corpse into an evidence bag and sealed it. ‘I’m going to take a sample of the river water as well – just in case Ethyl Products are still pumping out pollution.’
    Troy bent down, picked up a flat stone and skimmed it across the surface of the sea. It managed three bounces before a wave lurched upward and swallowed it. Overhead, two gulls screamed at each other.
    ‘Ready to go back to civilization?’ Lexi asked.
    ‘The end of land’s always a bit magical.’
    ‘Magical?’
    Knowing his partner wouldn’t understand, Troy smiled. ‘Yeah. I’m ready. Let’s go back.’

SCENE 22
    Monday 12th May, Afternoon
    At first, Lexi struggled to control the drone smoothly and, at the same time, remember the instructions that the police technician had hastily told her. But soon she got the hang of it and, apart from an occasional blurry image, she was successfully recording a bird’s-eye view of the area.
    The two detectives were sitting in a café at Loose End, surveying the rugged landscape without even moving, without breathing all that fresh air. They were able to cover far more ground far more thoroughly than when they were hiking over it. Theycould even zoom in on any particular area – once Lexi had mastered the software downloaded into her life-logger. But there was too much information to study in detail.
    ‘This is the best way to appreciate the countryside,’ Lexi said. ‘Inside, with a beer, fudge laden with crickets, and a drone doing the hard work.’
    The unmanned aerial vehicle was flying parallel to Loose End Edge. On the screen of Lexi’s life-logger, they watched the movie. Vertical scars marked the positions where water cascaded down and occasional black patches were the tell-tale signs of the mouths of caves. Lexi had instructed the drone to continue its journey to the sea. That would be the limit of its range, but it would allow them to explore the second bay at a distance.
    ‘What’s that?’ Troy tapped the corner of the screen.
    At the base of the vertical hillside, there were boulders and something dark, obscured by surrounding trees.
    ‘Not sure,’ Lexi said, peering at the monitor. ‘I’m zooming in but I still can’t make it out. It’s not the camera’s fault. It’s this screen. It’s too small and the resolution’s not great.’ She let out a frustrated breath and said, ‘I’ll let the drone carry on. When it’s finished the whole area, let’s collect it and go back toTight End. We can put all the data on a large screen in Crime Central. Maybe then …’
    ‘Okay.’
    ‘What we really need to do is to narrow it down,’ Lexi said. ‘Then we stand a chance. Right now …’
    ‘We’re looking for the legendary needle in a haystack.’
    ‘Something like that.’
    ‘Actually, it’s harder,’ said Troy. ‘We don’t even know what we’re looking for. The needle’s a red herring. We’re chasing a small unknown in a giant haystack.’
     
    On the way to Tight End, Troy sat on one side of the car and Lexi on the other. The drone occupied the space in between them, its battery almost exhausted. But its camera had successfully transmitted huge amounts of data to Crime Central and to Lexi’s life-logger. The lightweight device at her hip also vibrated