COFFIN COVE a gripping murder mystery full of twists (Coffin Cove Mysteries Book 1)

COFFIN
COVE
A gripping murder mystery full of twists
JACKIE ELLIOTT
Coffin Cove Mysteries Book 1


Joffe Books, London
www.joffebooks.com
First published in Great Britain in 2021
© Jackie Elliott
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The spelling used is British English except where fidelity to the author’s rendering of accent or dialect supersedes this. The right of Jackie Elliott to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Cover art by Nick Castle
ISBN: 978-1-78931-753-4


CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Two Months Later
Acknowledgements
Author’s Note
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Prologue
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She was dreaming of the river again. She was standing on the bank, feeling the breeze lift her hair and brush it against her cheek. She felt the silt from the riverbed oozing through her toes and the cool water gently lapping around her knees and thighs as she waded further in.
A perfect afternoon. The silvery flashes of shoals of fish moved below the surface, the darting movements casting shadows on the rocks. She laughed and plunged her hands into the water, and then her shoulders, her skirt billowing up around her waist.
In her dream, the sun lowered in the sky, casting ominous shadows. The fish disappeared. There was just darkness below her now. She could see a figure, the outline of a man, on the other side of the river. He was waving, gesturing for her to come over. She pushed her feet against the riverbed and struck out in an effort to swim the few feet to the grassy bank. The current was strong, though, and she struggled to make headway.
The water was cold, swirling around her. She looked up and tried to call out for help, but she couldn’t shout loud enough to make the figure hear her. She tried to raise her hand to wave at the man, but he had melted away and now she felt the presence of her father reaching out his hand to pull her to safety. She was close enough to smell whiskey on his breath. She could hear him, he was imploring her, calling to her, and for a moment, she felt his tears splash against her face.
She jerked awake.
It was dark, pitch black. Why was she so cold? She struggled again to move her hand and found that it was clamped behind her back. Her legs were wet, and she couldn’t move them either.
She gasped a panicked breath, the spell of the dream gone forever. Her head was pounding, and her left cheek was resting against a hard, wet surface. Her legs were partially covered in water.
She couldn’t see, but she could still smell the river — that part was real. She was shaking violently now. She realized that her hands were bound with some kind of rope, chafing and cutting into her flesh as she struggled. Her ankles were also tied together also. She was trussed like an animal.
Where was she? What had happened?
As her eyes became accustomed to the darkness, her head cleared and she remembered.
She opened her mouth to scream and a small reedy sound came out, like in her dream. She tried again and again, as she finally realized where she was.
Then water fully submerged her legs, and she knew that it would not be long before the river crept up her body and engulfed her.
She attempted to move her legs backwards and forwards in a snake-like motion, trying to shuffle up and away from the rising current. She struggled, but despite pushing her body to the limits of her strength, she only managed to bang her head against a rock. She knew then that there was no escape.
“Daddy?” she whispered.
But she knew he wasn’t coming.


Chapter One
The man paused for a moment to breathe in the ocean air. Someone had discarded an old rusty prawn trap on the beach, and a pungent waft of dried seaweed and rotten bait mingled with the fresh night breeze. He was used to that. All he could hear was waves gently lapping against the dock and the occasional thud and groan of boats as they strained against their tie-up lines under the inward tide. All familiar sounds.
Nothing else. No voices. Far away, beyond the government dock on the way to town, there was the occasional rumble of a diesel truck engine, but they faded away into the night.
The man felt sure he was alone. But he paused for a minute or two longer anyway. No rush. He leaned against the wooden rail and fumbled in his back pocket for his cigarettes. His fingers closed around the wad of banknotes before he pulled out his smokes and lit up. His hand was