Page 62 of Dead in the Water

“Hmm.” Flynn sighed heavily. “Did Maria have any answers for Lily about her parents? Did she know them?”

“No. That’s what Lily was mostly upset about. It sounds as though she’d got it into her head that Maria was somehow connected to her parents.”

“I think she wanted that to be the case.” His heart sank at the thought that she’d been dealing with that revelation alone. No doubt that situation was another reason she’d thrown herself into the situation with Joseph’s friends.

“I’m on my way to speak to Lily.” Glynis touched his arm. “I called in yesterday, but she wasn’t there. Is everything okay between the two of you?”

He wasn’t sure how to respond. The easiest thing would be to say things were fine, but he didn’t have it in him to lie. “Things aren’t great,” he said eventually. “I’m sure we’ll work it out, though.”

“I’m sure you will.” She gave his arm a reassuring pat. “You take care.”

“You too,” he said as she ambled away.

Glancing along the road, he contemplated heading back to the station before deciding the sergeant wouldn’t mind if he took a little longer.

With a determined stride, he set off towards Glynis’s house. If he couldn’t get an account of the conversation from Lily, he’d get the information from Maria instead.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Maria answeredthe door quickly once Flynn clanged the knocker.

“Oh, hello,” she said, then glanced nervously over her shoulder. “Glynis isn’t home at the moment.”

“I was actually hoping to speak to you for a few minutes, if you have time.”

“Yes, okay.” She opened the door wider and he stepped inside, then continued along the hall to the kitchen.

He’d been to the house a few weeks ago, collecting a basket of contaminated food which had been delivered to Maria. That might be a good way to break the ice, instead of jumping in with questions about the ice cream shop.

“Are you fully recovered now?” he asked, smiling warmly.

She nodded to the chairs but didn’t offer him a drink – the typical greeting when he visited people on the island. Sometimes, they wouldn’t even ask, just make him a brew and set it in front of him. Often with biscuits too.

“I feel fine now, thank you.” She sat and clasped her hands in her lap. “I thought you were finished with investigating that. Didn’t the guy confess in the end?”

“Yes. I’m not here to dig into it. We just like to check in and make sure people are fully recovered.”

“Glynis and I are both fine.”

“That’s great.” He waited for her to say more, but she didn’t seem to be the chatty type. She’d been aloof the last time he’d visited, too, though she’d also been quite ill. “I didn’t actually come here in any official capacity,” he said to fill the silence.

“Okay,” she said curtly.

“I heard you own the ice cream shop.”

She pulled her necklace from her neckline and toyed with the pendant. “I do,” she said, the words clipped.

“You didn’t want anyone to know,” he stated, wondering how he could get her to open up.

“That’s not a crime, is it?”

“No.” He smiled, hoping to ease the tension in the room. “Lily was looking for the owner when she came to the island. She thought maybe you were connected to her parents.”

Maria inhaled through her nose. “I don’t know how she got that in her head, but I told her I didn’t know her parents. I’m sorry if she was expecting something from me, but as I told her, I don’t know anything, so I’m afraid I can’t help her find whatever it is she’s looking for.”

Flynn nodded. He’d interviewed enough people to know when you could entice people to say more and when nothing would make them talk. People wouldn’t talk until they were ready to. Especially when they were lying.

And he was reasonably certain Maria was lying.

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