HELL'S HALF ACRE a gripping murder mystery full of twists (Coffin Cove Mysteries Book 2), JACKIE ELLIOTT [best ereader for graphic novels .TXT] 📗

“It’s part of Dagg’s property, I think,” Hephzibah said. “The easiest way is to follow the trail from the gravel pit. There’s a path from the far beach, but that’ll be impossible to access when the tide comes in.”

It had been a frustrating morning, following an equally unproductive afternoon and evening. As with most bad, scandalous and just about every other kind of gossip, the discovery of a dead body somewhere in the woods near the Daggs’ home did not stay a secret for long.

The day before, after leaving City Hall, Andi had gone straight to the detachment. Sergeant Rollins and the new constable were nowhere in sight. So Andi had rushed back to the office.

“They’ve found a body. It must be Ricky Havers. And Jade Thompson nearly fainted when she heard the news.” The words spilled out of her.

Ignoring Jim’s startled look, she ran to her desk and started frantically rummaging through the drawer.

“Whoa, whoa, calm down, start from the beginning.” Jim threw his hands up in the air and waited until Andi composed herself.

She took a breath and told him what she’d heard at the mayor’s office.

“So Katie Dagg found a body?” Jim started taking notes immediately. “Poor girl, what a shock. And she was out in the bush somewhere?”

Andi nodded. “Yes, somewhere near her parents’ house. Looking for the site of an old church or something? She was there with Clara Bell, whoever she is.”

“She used to be the museum curator, but never mind that. Has the body been officially identified?”

“Well, no. I don’t know yet. But who else could it be?” She felt a little defensive.

Jim put his pen down, exasperated. “Just about anyone, Andi! A homeless person looking for shelter, maybe, who died of exposure. It isn’t like you to jump to conclusions. Come on, now.”

“I wasn’t the only one,” Andi said. “You should have seen Jade Thompson’s face. She was terrified.”

Jim didn’t react. He thought for a minute.

“OK, you know the procedure. They’ll get the coroner there first. Then we’ll know more. Have you been to the detachment?”

Andi sank down into her chair. “Yes. Nobody there.”

Jim nodded. “Charlie Rollins is probably as impatient as you to find out if it’s Ricky. He was supposed to have searched everywhere. Won’t be good if they missed this.”

“You’re right,” Andi said, and then a thought struck her. “Jim,” she asked, “should I tell Sandra?”

Jim shook his head. “There’s nothing to tell yet. We’re just speculating. This is the worst news anyone can ever get, Andi. We can’t get it wrong.”

He and Andi had called everyone they could think of, but the day ended with no more information.

Andi had hardly slept that night.

As soon as Andi’s alarm rang at six o’clock in the morning, she was up and showered and out of her apartment as fast as she could. She made her way to the tiny two-man detachment. When she got there, it was already swarming with RCMP officers. From Nanaimo, Andi guessed.

She knew the basic police process. She figured that if the body was found the day before, then the coroner would have visited by now, but nobody was giving her any information. Andi didn’t know what the official identification procedure would be, but there wouldn’t be a public announcement until next of kin had been notified.

First Andi tried to phone Nadine. Nobody at the Dagg residence was answering the phone. George Gomich wasn’t at home, and Andi heard at Hephzibah’s that the mysterious Clara Bell had threatened police officers with her shotgun when they drove out to take a statement. They’d calmed her down, but Jim advised against driving out to talk to her.

“Don’t worry about Clara. I’ll talk to her. You camp out at the detachment and wait for a statement,” he’d said, when Andi met him at the office just before noon.

Andi didn’t like waiting for anything, so she took a drive up to the gravel pit, but there were almost as many officers camped up there and zero chance of her sneaking down to the site. Forensics would take a while, she supposed.

Sandra had not phoned her, and Andi was relieved. She hoped Sandra hadn’t heard anything yet, but given the efficiency of the gossip network, and the obvious police activity in the town, she doubted that would last.

After a fruitless morning, Andi had headed back to Hephzibah’s, the hub of all information, but tired of sitting around and unable to drink any more coffee, she had decided to chance the beach.

“You’d better get going,” Hephzibah had said, after giving her directions. “High tide’s in a couple of hours.”

As soon as Andi saw the police tape in the distance, she knew it was unlikely she’d get anywhere near the scene today. But even so, it would only take half an hour to check.

Andi hunched her shoulders against the afternoon breeze, which had turned chilly, and tried to stave off her own sense of rising dread. She wasn’t usually perturbed like this. It was the thought of being close to death once more, she realized. It reminded her of her own mortality, and she couldn’t shake off this morbid feeling.

She trudged down the beach, scrambling over the rocks to avoid getting wet, and headed towards the trail entrance.

Andi could see two figures on the beach. One was a police officer and the other a woman.

As she got nearer, Andi could hear the conversation was animated.

“Please tell me if it’s him,” the woman was almost screaming at the police officer, who was holding out his hands in a dual attempt to calm her and stop her going up the trail.

When Andi got closer, she could see it was Sandra Havers, Ricky’s mother.

Before Ricky went missing, Andi had only met Sandra Havers once. It had