Page 33 of A Poisonous Plot

She grinned. “That sounds very exciting to me!”

“Do you feel like cooking, or shall I bring something?”

“I’ll rustle something up,” she told him and ended the call feeling energised.

Hurrying off the beach, she strode purposefully back to the shop. She’d make a couple of new batches of ice cream, then she’d figure out what to make for dinner. She also wanted to delve more deeply into Arthur’s blog.

The afternoon went by in a blink and she felt a little flustered when Flynn arrived.

“I’ve only just started on dinner,” she said as he followed her into the steam-filled kitchen.

“It smells great.” He inhaled deeply. “What are we having?”

“Sweet and sour chicken with rice. The kind where the sauce comes from a jar, because I lost track of time and needed something quick.”

“Sounds good to me. What have you been doing all afternoon?”

“I made a few batches of ice cream. Then I got caught up in Arthur’s blog. It’s kind of fascinating. He certainly does his research.” She nodded to the table where her notes were laid out beside her laptop. “As far as I can tell, all the symptoms of the people who got ill could be attributed to some common garden plants.”

“How do you know everyone’s symptoms?”

“I don’t, but there’s a lot of chatter about it on social media. I took as much info as I could from there.” She jabbed at the open notebook. “My symptoms would fit with daffodils, but that just sounds pathetic, doesn’t it?”

Smiling, Flynn flicked through her notes. “I asked the sergeant about Arthur Penrose.”

“And?” Lily moved to the stove and pushed the chicken around the pan with a spatula.

“He wouldn’t even entertain the idea that Arthur would poison people. Apparently, he knows him well and has a very high opinion of him. He seemed quite put out by the suggestion that he had anything to do with it.”

“Even after you told him about the blog and the review?”

“Yeah. He says Arthur is harmless, and he sounded quite protective of him.”

Lily wiped her hair from her forehead. “Seren was the same when I spoke to her about him.”

“How old is he, by the way? Because the sergeant talked about him almost as though he was a child.”

“I guess he’s around thirty,” Lily said. “But he comes across as quite childlike.” Her mind drifted, thinking of the way Sally had also talked to him in a somewhat condescending way.

“I’m under strict instructions not to question him,” Flynn said.

She glanced over her shoulder. “Thankfully, I have no one telling me who I can and can’t talk to.”

“Are you going to the garden centre tomorrow, by any chance?”

“I need plants,” she said innocently.

Chapter Fifteen

Usually,Lily employed a covert approach to her investigations, but sometimes directness was needed. Given that Arthur Penrose didn’t seem to be making any attempts to hide anything, it made sense to be upfront with him.

When she arrived at the garden centre the following morning, she found him wiping down the counter in the cafe.

“Hello!” he said cheerfully. “Sally said you might be here today. Would you like me to give you a tour and tell you about the plants?”

“I would like to talk to you about plants, but I don’t need a tour. Do you have time to chat?”

He nodded eagerly. “Would you like a drink?”

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