Page 22 of A Poisonous Plot

Fifteen minutes later, a tingle of trepidation stirred in her stomach as she stood on the doorstep of Glynis’s house and raised her hand to knock for the second time. Impatiently, she stepped into the neat front garden and cupped her hands against the windowpane to peer into the living room.

Noise from inside had her hurrying back to the path.

Slowly, the door eased open to reveal Maria in a pair of floral pyjamas.

“Are you okay?” Lily blurted out, shocked by her sickly pallor.

“I don’t know.” She made an attempt at smoothing down her wayward tufts of hair. When her eyes came back to Lily, they flashed with panic. “I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Lily frowned in concern.

“Someone’s out to get us,” she muttered, eyes darting along the road. “This can’t be happening. And I got Glynis caught up in all this too. I don’t even know if she’s okay.” Again, her gaze came back to Lily. “I tried calling the hospital, but no one answered… I wasn’t up to going out.”

“Glynis is okay,” Lily said. “Are you ill too?”

Maria nodded and clutched at the pendant at the base of her throat.

“It must be some sort of virus,” Lily said. “One which is highly contagious.”

“No.” Maria’s brow wrinkled and her eyes flickered with fear. “That’s not what it is. Someone is out to get us.”

Lily cocked her head. “Should I call the doctor? You seem a little confused.”

“They’re not going to stop until we’re dead,” she muttered, the words barely audible. Her wild eyes snapped back to Lily, and she grabbed at her hand. “Come in quick, in case someone is watching.”

She dragged Lily over the threshold before she could protest.

Chapter Ten

Puzzled was an understatement.Standing in the kitchen of the quaint, homely cottage, Lily was completely flummoxed. Maria’s ramblings hadn’t made an ounce of sense. She probably had a fever. It was the only way Lily could explain the paranoid mutterings which had been cut short by Maria dashing to the bathroom.

The sound of her retching drifted to the kitchen and Lily distracted herself by messaging Flynn to give him an update on Glynis.

Her phone rang almost as soon as she’d hit send.

“There’s something really weird going on,” Flynn said, an air of confusion to his words.

“How do you mean?” Lily asked, standing beside the kitchen table and gazing at a decorative bowl which held a few bananas and apples. Papers and envelopes lay scattered haphazardly beside the bowl.

“Have you seen the food baskets people have been posting about on social media? Wait, did you get one?”

Idly, Lily pushed her hip against the edge of the table. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“A bunch of residents received baskets of food on their doorsteps.”

“Oh.” Her spine straightened. “Yeah, I got one. I thought it was from the owner of the shop since it didn’t say who it was from.”

“You didn’t eat anything from it, did you?”

“No. I barely even looked at it. Why?”

“Because it seems as though anyone who’s eaten anything from it has got ill.”

Lily sucked in a quick breath and swung around until her gaze landed on the wicker basket on the sideboard. Drifting over to it, she turned over the tag attached to the handle. “Welcome to the island,” she muttered, reading the printed text aloud. The exact same message as her basket.

“Sorry?”

“Maria got one,” she said. “Glynis’s friend… carer… whatever she is. I’m at their place now and there’s a basket. By the way, Glynis is stable. I saw her earlier.”

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