Page 80 of A Poisonous Plot

“I did look into it,” Lily said. “And what I found led me to Sally.” She opened the car door. “Get in the car,” she muttered to Sergeant Proctor.

“I’m sorry,” the sergeant said to Gordon. “I will keep you updated, but I have to follow all lines of enquiry.”

“I don’t see what the rush is?” Gordon said, putting a hand on the passenger door to stop Lily from closing it.

She eyed him warily. “People keep being poisoned. You don’t think that warrants some urgency?”

“I mean, what’s so urgent that you can’t take a few minutes to explain your logic? Not that I believe there is any logic to your allegations.”

“Fine.” Lily turned in the seat. “For a start, I’m fairly sure it was Sally who tried to poison me.”

“What are you talking about?” Gordon asked.

“I got ill after drinking a smoothie from the garden centre. That’s how I always knew it was someone who worked at the garden centre. Sally had transferred my drink into a takeaway cup and I’m sure that’s when she added something to it.” To avoid having to elaborate, she didn’t pause. “For a while I thought it was Arthur, and then Denzel, but finally I narrowed it down to you or Sally. Obviously, it can’t have been you or you wouldn’t have fallen victim to the sleeping beauty. Also, since you were in hospital, it can only have been Sally who planted evidence at Arthur’s house.” Finally, she stopped for breath.

“What do you mean, she planted evidence?”

“Someone left evidence of the poisonings at Arthur’s place to incriminate him.”

“How can you know that? Surely if you found poisonous plants, that’s evidence that Arthur was the one behind all this, which is what I kept trying to tell you.”

“It wasn’t Arthur,” Sergeant Proctor said in a tone that brooked no argument. He hadn’t got into the car, but had moved beside Gordon. “We know someone tried to set Arthur up. We’re currently trying to figure out who. The forensic team will go over the evidence from Arthur’s house. With any luck there’ll be fingerprints.”

“This is ridiculous,” Gordon said, looking hot under the collar. “You can’t honestly think that Sally sneaked into Arthur’s greenhouse and left a bunch of poisonous plants. She and Arthur are very close friends. She wouldn’t do that to him.”

Lily fought a smile. Backing Gordon into a corner felt immensely satisfying. “Who said anything about a greenhouse?”

“What?”

“You said the plants were in Arthur’s greenhouse, but I never said that.”

Once again, the skin of his neck turned red. “I just assumed. It seems like the logical place.”

“The logical place to plant evidence?”

“That’s not what I…” He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, then turned and looked at Sergeant Proctor. “Are you really going to let her speak to me like this?”

“I think she has a point. It is odd that you knew the plants were in the greenhouse. Given the gravity of the crimes, I’m afraid I’m going to have to take both you and Sally into custody until we’ve sorted this out. For the safety of the island residents.”

“Not Sally!” he shouted. “Sally had nothing to do with any of this. Keep her out of it.”

“How do you know she had nothing to do with it?” the sergeant asked pointedly.

He closed his eyes for a moment. “It was me.” He threw his hands out. “It was me and nothing to do with Sally. She didn’t know what was going on.”

Lily wanted to say something but decided to leave space for Gordon to seal his own fate. “It wasn’t even so bad,” he said, looking desperately at the sergeant. “A few people got ill, that’s all. There was no real harm done.”

“Considering Glynis Ward is still in hospital on the mainland and one of my officers is currently unconscious, I’m going to disagree with you there.” Sergeant Proctor’s features were set in a hard frown. “Why on earth would you do this?” he growled.

“Because the island is being overrun! Anybody who wants to waltzes over here to set up home and open their businesses. And while they’re at it, they drive the true Scillonians away. You must see how difficult it is for local kids to get jobs here. How many youths move to the mainland to get work each year?”

“They move because they want a different life,” the sergeant said. “Most of them move by choice, not because they can’t find jobs.”

“What about Sally?” Gordon snapped.

“She didn’t want a job here,” Lily said. “But even if she couldn’t find a job, it doesn’t give you the right to poison people.”

“What were you thinking?” the sergeant asked.

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