Page 96 of A Poisonous Plot

“That’s got to be a first,” she joked.

This time, when he reached out to tickle her, his fingers hit the exposed skin between her vest and her pyjama trousers and sent goosebumps rippling over her skin. She batted him away with a smile and a gentle admonishment.

After turning out the lamp, she sank back into her pillow, tired but entirely content.

“I should probably call my mum,” Flynn said while they ate a full English breakfast in Lily’s small kitchen the following morning.

“Does she know you were in hospital?” Lily asked, spearing a piece of bacon and dabbing it into the yolk of her fried egg.

“Apparently not.”

“What does that mean?”

He bit into a slice of toast. “She’d have called me about a hundred times by now if she knew. Not that it matters. It’s probably better she didn’t know.”

“How come you seem annoyed?” Lily asked. “What am I missing?”

His shoulders shifted in a nonchalant shrug. “My dad knew I was in hospital, but he clearly didn’t think it was worth informing my mum.”

“Has your dad been in touch?”

“Nope.” A muscle in his jaw twitched and he kept his gaze fixed on his food.

“That’s a bit weird, isn’t it?”

She thought back to the way Sergeant Proctor had looked when she’d asked if he knew Flynn as a child, and wondered if there was more to Flynn’s relationship with his dad than he let on. He’d mentioned that his mum had essentially raised him as a single parent and he’d only seen his dad sporadically growing up, but she didn’t know much more than that. She’d assumed there was some sort of connection, given that his dad was also a police officer.

“I’d probably have been more surprised if he had called.” He rubbed at his forehead with the back of his hand. “You’d think I’d be used to him by now and it wouldn’t bother me.”

“But it does?”

“He’s my dad,” he said, then took a deep breath and tucked into his breakfast again. “I forgot to tell you, I had an interesting conversation with the sergeant yesterday.”

“What about?”

His smile slipped and a flash of uncertainty hit his eyes and was gone again in an instant. “He told me I’m a good officer and he likes working with me.”

“That’s high praise.” Lily smirked. “Are we certain someone didn’t poison the sergeant? It sounds as though he was confused.”

“Shut up,” he said, giving her a playful kick under the table.

He loaded the last of his bacon and egg onto his fork and polished off his meal in one huge mouthful. His gaze was on the pin board hanging beside the table when he washed it all down with a swig of coffee. “Now that you’ve solved the mystery of the poisonings, we should get back to figuring out the other mystery.” Reaching out, he unpinned the picture of the cafe owner and set it between them.

“I told you, I think I want to leave it be. Besides, we’ve had no luck in finding her so far.”

“Don’t be so defeatist. I really think we’ll find her, eventually.”

Lily set her cutlery on the plate and let out a long sigh as she picked up the photo. “I wish I had your confidence.” Her eyes snagged on something at the bottom of the photo and she shifted her grasp of it slightly as her heart rate went haywire.

“What’s wrong?” Flynn asked.

She forgot to breathe as she shifted her thumb to partially cover the object at the bottom of the picture.

“Lily?” Flynn said.

“It’s not a crucifix,” she muttered, more to herself than Flynn.

“What isn’t?”

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