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It was a rickety, creaky old wooden dive boat with an even more rickety engine that stopped and started like a dog growling at a mischievous squirrel. Even in the deep, moonless dark, it was clear the paint was peeling…

It was well after one when I got distracted by a soft glow coming in through the doorway. I must have left a light on somewhere. But that was confusing because I was pretty sure it had been dark everywhere.…

Now, I have a theory about life, and I am going to be very grand and share it with you here. My theory is an old one, but it is one I have recently found to be true. The point…

It was a half-hour drive back to the house, much of it over bumpy roads. I felt tired and worried, and my ankles were the size of volleyballs. I imagined all this stress and heat was not advisable so soon…

I pictured the photograph on the website, the one with the St. Christopher necklace. A strange feeling washed over me, reminiscent of leaving a door or gate ajar. But that door or gate was me. “It was one of the…

He had the look not so much of a pirate but a castaway, with unkempt hair and a beard escaping his face in every direction, and youthful eyes that shone like a sunrise through an ancient ruin. His eyes aside,…

An hour later, I was on the beach. A short arc-shaped stretch of busy sand. There was a restaurant—a fresh-fish and paella place. A rustic-looking straw-roofed boutique selling summer dresses and swimwear. The beach itself was full of people and…

Head to the Las Dalias hippy market … and say hello to my friend Sabine. That is what her letter had said. So, having nothing else to do, I did this. The market was very busy. It was how I…

I tried my best to put all this detective stuff behind me, to give up being Miss Marple for a while. So I did what most British people do on a Mediterranean island. I went out and had a holiday.…

The Guardia Civil officer, a man of indeterminate age, sat behind his desk in his immaculately ironed short-sleeved military-green shirt, staring at Christina’s letter to me. He chewed gum as he read it. There was a soft glitter of sweat…

I went online. I had brought my laptop—my ten-year-old laptop with a Harley-Davidson sticker on it. It had been Karl’s; the Harley-Davidson sticker was meant to add a frisson of danger to his civil engineer life—so upgrading it would have…

I was hungry and in need of a drink. I washed down some bread and cheese with a gin and tonic while sitting on Christina’s little sofa, half-watching a dubbed version of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I have…

On my return to the house, I noticed a plant growing right outside the front door. It was quite tall, nearly reaching my knees, with thin yellow petals, right in the middle of the dusty path. Though tall, the flower…