Page 23 of A Poisonous Plot

“Good. But the basket… make sure you tell Maria not to eat anything from it.”

Lily lifted the bag of pasta, which was half empty, and then eyed the open pouch of mixed herbs.

“I think it’s too late for that,” she said. “She’s currently vomiting, and she looks deathly pale. What’s going on?”

“As far as we know, they were delivered to about a dozen people across the island. They all have a welcome message, but don’t indicate who they’re from.”

“So if they all have welcome messages, that means…”

“They were only delivered to newcomers to the island.”

“All delivered anonymously?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s weird.” She squinted at the message on the tag. “At least that explains why Maria thinks someone is out to get us.”

“What?”

“She was ranting, and I thought she meant that someone was out to get me and her specifically, but I guess she meant newcomers in general. She must have read about it on social media.”

“What’s in the basket Maria received?”

Her eyes roamed over the contents. “Fresh pasta, a bag of Italian herbs, loose leaf tea… a bar of chocolate…” Glancing around the room, she spotted a glass jar by the sink. “Possibly a jar of pasta sauce. I guess that’s what she ate – the pasta and sauce.”

“Sounds the same as all the others. Can you tell her not to touch it? I’ll be over to collect it later. I’ll need to call over and collect yours as well.”

“Okay.” Her mind whirred, trying to make sense of everything. “Do you think someone did this on purpose?”

“We don’t know. The sergeant is assuming it’s accidental poisoning, but it’s weird that the baskets were delivered anonymously.”

“And just to newcomers,” Lily mused, a niggling feeling at the back of her mind. “Did you get one?”

“No. I don’t know whether to be affronted at being left out, or happy that I wasn’t subject to food poisoning.”

“I’d choose the latter,” she said, frowning at the basket on the counter. “Do you think maybe Dante was right?”

Flynn gave a quizzical grunt.

“The owner of the Italian restaurant.” She paced the kitchen. “He thought someone wanted to sabotage him because he’s not from the island.”

“It’s possible,” Flynn said, but didn’t sound convinced.

“I need to speak to him again.”

“I’m working,” Flynn said. “I’ve got to collect these baskets and question the recipients. I’m fairly sure the sergeant won’tagree to me questioning Dante, at least not until I’ve finished with all of this.”

“I wasn’t inviting you,” she teased. “But I will let you know what I find out.”

“I’ll talk to you later.”

She’d just slipped her phone back into her pocket when Maria shuffled into the kitchen. “Sorry about that,” she murmured, moving past Lily to get a glass of water.

“Do you need anything?”

She shook her head.

“I only just heard about the baskets,” Lily told her. “I got one too, but I didn’t eat anything from it, thank goodness.”

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