Page 39 of A Poisonous Plot

“No. Why?”

He pointed to the mass of dark clouds out at sea. “I reckon we’re going to get soaked.”

“No.” She wrinkled her nose. “It’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, right.” He rolled his eyes. “You’ve brought me out in a storm.”

“How was I supposed to know? The weather was fine when I set off.”

He turned to continue on the sand-strewn path, which was bordered by rocks near the top of the beach. “The weather on this island is always so unpredictable. Sometimes it seems to change from one minute to the next.”

Lily only faintly registered Flynn’s words. Her gaze was fixed on a lone figure at the other end of the beach.

Grabbing at Flynn’s arm made him stop at the same moment she did.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

She pointed. “I think that’s Arthur.”

“I thought you said he’d be out for the afternoon.”

“He’s supposed to be.” Instinctively, she changed course, trampling over the dunes. “I guess the weather put him off going to Tresco.”

“Where are we going?” Flynn asked, close behind her.

“I don’t want him to see me.” She slipped behind a patch of long marram grass and crouched low. “Get down!”

He did as he was told and Lily peered out, but had lost sight of Arthur.

“He’s down there,” Flynn said, pointing him out, strolling along by the waterline.

Lily grimaced. “I assumed he’d cut up onto the path. If he turns now, he’ll see us.” Without a lot of thought, she dropped to her bum and reclined onto the sand.

With an amused twinkle in his eyes, Flynn stretched out beside her and propped himself up on his elbow. “Lovely day for a bit of sunbathing.”

“If I’m lying down, he won’t see my face.”

“Or he might be concerned that someone’s collapsed and come to investigate,” Flynn said, apparently finding her panic wholly entertaining. He had a point, though. They would look pretty weird lying in the sand when a storm was about to break.

“If he spots me, he’ll know I’ve been snooping around. I don’t want him to know I’m on to him.”

“You seem pretty certain he has something to hide.”

Lily braved a look down the beach, but dropped back again when Arthur turned in their direction.

“He could easily have put something in my smoothie,” she said.

“This morning you said any of the staff could have done it. You also mentioned that a staff member had been acting defensively when you were asking questions.”

“Denzel? Yeah, he was shifty. He has an alibi, though. Arthur doesn’t. At least not a verifiable one. What’s he doing?” Shedidn’t want to look again, so stayed flat on her back while Flynn peered around the grass.

“Heading this way.” His lips twitched in amusement as he looked down at her. “It would have looked far less suspicious if we were just out for a walk on the beach and not hiding. This will look dodgy.”

Annoyingly, he was right. Hiding in the sand dunes wouldn’t be so easy to explain. Unless…

No, it was a stupid idea.

And Flynn would laugh at her.

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