Page 51 of A Poisonous Plot

“Really?” Lily asked, cursing the sergeant for bringing her into it.

“Yes. He said you’ve been looking into it. To be honest, I’d heard something about you being a private investigator, but I thought that was just a wild rumour.”

“It’s not an official thing,” she said. “I just like to look into things sometimes. Especially when they impact me directly.”

“And how do these supposed poisonings impact you?” he asked.

“I got a basket too.” She hesitated, debating whether to mention the smoothie before deciding not to mention it for the time being. “I didn’t eat anything from the basket, but a friend of mine received a basket and she got ill. They were all delivered to newcomers to the island, which definitely makes me nervous.” As a thought occurred to her, she stopped dead. “I’m also opening a business, like Dante,” she said, speaking her thoughts aloud. “I don’t want my customers to get ill.”

She felt vaguely ill herself at the thought of the products which had come from the garden centre. It’d just been fruits and herbs though, nothing dried like had been in the welcomebaskets. She’d have noticed if they’d been tampered with. Wouldn’t she?

“Ah, I see.” Gordon’s voice in her ear pulled her from her thoughts, but the subtle sense of unease stayed with her. “I’m sure you’ve got nothing to worry about. I can’t imagine anyone around here is out to get anyone. The islands have always been a very welcoming place for visitors and newcomers.”

“Good to know,” Lily said quietly as she continued walking.

“Anyway, as well as the sergeant mentioning you, I also heard from Sally that you’d been questioning people here about their whereabouts at the time the baskets were delivered…”

He let the sentence hang in the air. Lily winced.

“Yes,” she said slowly.

“You can’t actually think one of my employees had anything to do with this?”

“At the moment, I don’t know what to think. I’m just asking a few questions to see what comes up.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” he said reluctantly. “I imagine you’ll find it’s all a waste of your time, though.”

She arrived in front of the shop. “How so?”

“I just can’t imagine there’s anything sinister going on. Sometimes food makes people ill, that doesn’t mean it’s intentional.”

“Odd though, isn’t it, that the baskets were delivered anonymously?”

“It was probably someone who wanted to do something nice but remain anonymous. Honestly, if it weren’t for people getting ill, I’m sure no one would have thought anything about it.”

“People did get ill though. If it was genuinely an accident, why wouldn’t the person come forward and admit to it?”

“Wouldyou?” he asked. “If you realised your good deed had made people ill?”

Lily inhaled a lungful of salty air. She wanted to say yes, she would come forward, but she wasn’t sure it was true. It was hard to know since she couldn’t imagine anonymously delivering welcome gifts to people she didn’t know.

She ignored the question and changed tack. “If it turns out it was an accident, I’ll be very happy.” She’d also be incredibly surprised. “But I think it’s better to err on the side of caution until we know for sure.”

“I suppose you may have a point there. No harm in being vigilant to keep islanders safe. I’m just concerned that you may be unnerving people with your questions.”

Her mind flicked to Denzel slamming his car door, and she knew for a fact that her questions were ruffling feathers.

“I’ll try to be more tactful with my questions,” she said, her jaw tight as she lied. Tact wasn’t her strong suit and sometimes being tactful was entirely over-rated.

“I’m glad we can talk so openly,” Gordon said, before ending the call.

Lily opened the door to the shop and was halfway up the stairs to the flat when she fired off a message to Flynn telling him she’d had an interesting morning.

Relief flooded her when he immediately called her. She flopped onto the couch as she answered and proceeded to fill him in on the latest developments.

Chapter Twenty-Three

When the doorbellchimed early the next morning, Lily all but jumped off the couch. After her phone call with Flynn yesterday, she was hoping everything was back to normal between them. He was working today, so she wasn’t sure if he would call in.

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