Page 76 of A Poisonous Plot

“Thank you.” The sergeant walked out of the greenhouse and took a few steps before turning back. “Be careful!” he called, then let out a long sigh and caught Lily’s eye. “I assume you’re getting a lift with me?”

She nodded eagerly.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Neither of themspoke again until they were halfway to the hospital.

“What made you go snooping around Arthur’s place?” Sergeant Proctor finally asked.

“I wasn’t intending to snoop.” Not this time, anyway. “I wanted to talk to him because Gordon was throwing accusations around and Sally was worried that her dad might fire Arthur. I wanted to help clear his name.”

“Instead, you found incriminating evidence.” He gripped the wheel harder. “I’ve always maintained that this couldn’t have had anything to do with Arthur but I’m slightly concerned my judgement might have been clouded. Are you sure we haven’t left PC Hill with a dangerous criminal?”

“Arthur isn’t dangerous,” Lily mused. As the fields rushed by outside, her thoughts drifted back to Flynn looking so lifeless. She swallowed hard and forced her mind away from the unproductive train of thought.

“If it wasn’t Arthur, then who was it?” she pondered aloud. “Not Denzel…”

“How did you rule him out?”

Lily winced. “I ruled him out based on his alibi for the time the welcome gifts were delivered, and through an abundance of glowing character references. It’s not him. Which means if it’s someone from the garden centre, it’s either Gordon Pengelly, or his daughter, Sally.”

The sergeant snickered. “You think Gordon Pengelly poisoned himself?”

“No.” Lily tapped on the dashboard. “I’d ruled him out of my investigations because he was poisoned, but now I wonder…”

The sergeant loosened his grip on the steering wheel. “What?”

“What if hedidpoison himself?”

“Why would he do that?”

“So no one would suspect him?”

“It seems drastic, if you ask me.”

“Whoever did this will be looking at prison time, won’t they?”

“I’d say so.”

“When you weigh it against going to prison – and the entire community finding out you’ve been poisoning people – a night in hospital probably doesn’t feel that drastic.”

“It still seems like a stretch.”

“It could be Sally,” Lily suggested.

“I feel abutcoming…”

Lily tried to come up with some rational explanation for her gut feeling that it wasn’t Sally. “My instincts say it’s not.” That was the best she could come up with.

“So there’s nothing to say it wasn’t Sally?”

“No, but…” She rarely had to defend her gut feelings since Flynn pretty much treated them as fact. Apparently, Sergeant Proctor needed more than that. “She seems to have a soft spot for Arthur. I find it hard to believe she’d try to pin everything on him.”

“Maybe that’s exactly what she wants you to think,” the sergeant said. “Or maybe you’ve got your sights set on the wrong people entirely. Perhaps it wasn’t someone connected to the garden centre at all.” He pulled up in front of the hospital and looked suddenly sombre. “I’ll have to call Flynn’s dad, I suppose. Just what I need – explaining to my old friend that his son is in hospital.” He huffed out a breath. “I’ll get an update from the doctor first.”

Lily opened her mouth to speak, but the sergeant was already getting out of the car, so she waited until they were heading into the building.

“You know Flynn’s dad?” she asked.

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