Page 6 of A Poisonous Plot

“He had a thriving Italian restaurant in central London. The reviews are fantastic.”

“So it’s not that he’s bad at his profession.”

“Definitely not.”

“Surely someone isn’t really trying to sabotage his business?”

“I wouldn’t have thought so.” Lily reached for her drink, but only tapped her nails against the side of the glass. “I suppose I can see why he’d think that. Putting myself in his shoes, I can’t imagine how horrible it must feel to get the reviews he’s been getting. If I got reviews like that for the ice cream shop…” She puffed her cheeks out and didn’t bother to finish the sentence.

Flynn shook his head. “You’re not going to poison anyone. Please don’t start coming up with more reasons to put off opening.”

“I’m not. As soon as I have my menu finalised and everything else finished, I’ll open.”

He could see the doubt in her eyes and wished there was something he could do to reassure her. Her nerves around the opening didn’t even make sense. The shop looked fantastic and the ice cream really was delicious.

“It’s going to be great.” He took another sip of his pint. “You know that, right?”

She glanced around the room, but didn’t seem to take anything in. “I don’t even know why I’m so nervous about it,” she said quietly. “If it doesn’t work out, I won’t really have lost anything. It’s not as though my life will fall apart if the ice cream shop isn’t successful.”

Financially, it wouldn’t be a big deal. At least that was the impression she gave. He wasn’t entirely sure of Lily’s situation but knew that she’d inherited enough money that finances weren’t something she worried about.

“Just because you don’t need the place to be a financial success doesn’t mean you don’t have your heart set on it doing well.”

She nodded, but didn’t meet his gaze. “I guess that’s it. I want to do well at something for once.”

“I’ve only ever seen you succeed,” he said flatly.

He genuinely couldn’t imagine Lily failing at anything. Even if things didn’t go her way, she’d pick herself up and keep going.

“I have something to show you,” he said, changing the subject. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a glossy photograph.

“What’s that?” Lily took it from him and stared at it in awe.

“The original photo of the owner,” he explained. “It’s not much better than the version you found online, but it’s not cropped. I think it’s a little clearer.”

“It is,” she said, then squinted. “It’s still difficult to make out her features properly. And I still don’t recognise her.” She sucked in a breath. “How did you get this?”

“Emailed a few people,” he said casually, not wanting to admit it was a lot of people. “I may have implied I was asking as a matter of official police business.”

“Thank you,” she said, her smile making all the emails worthwhile.

“I’m not sure how helpful it will be.”

“I appreciate the effort,” she said, but clearly she also didn’t think it would help.

“We’ll figure it out, eventually.”

“How?” Lily asked. “Gail Greenway clearly doesn’t want to be found and no one we ask has any information about her. If she’s living on the island, someone would have seen her.”

“Yes, but it’s also plausible that people wouldn’t recognise her after twenty years. She might look completely different now.”

Lily gazed down at the photo. “I don’t think I want to keep looking for her.”

“Really?”

“I want to know because I’m nosey.” Her features softened slightly. “And because I can’t seem to stop wondering. But I also can’t help but think…” She paused and chewed her lip.

“What?” Flynn asked impatiently.

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