Page 23 of Death on the Rocks

“I’m afraid there isn’t much I can tell you about the building,” he said. “It closed down around twenty years ago.”

“Because of a fire?” Lily asked.

He removed his glasses. “There was a fire, but it was only minor. As far as I’m aware it wasn’t the reason for the closing.”

“Whatwasthe reason?”

“The owner moved back to the mainland.”

“Just out of the blue?” She frowned. “Why would they move away and not do anything with the building? Given its location, I assume it’s worth something, and I know there’s a demand for the property because Kit told me he’d been trying to buy it.”

“So youdoknow Kit?”

“Not really. I bumped into him and we got chatting about the ice cream shop. Anyway, why didn’t the owner sell it when they left the island?”

He shrugged. “I suppose they wanted to hang onto it.”

“Theyas inownersplural? Or did you meantheyin the non-binary sense, or are you being deliberately obtuse?”

“The latter,” he said dryly.

“It’s a woman though, right? The owner is the same person who owned and ran the shop twenty years ago?” In Lily’s memory it had been a woman who’d shown her the ice cream machines, and she was convinced she’d been the owner.

He nodded slowly.

“So the owner is a she. Why has she never sold the place?”

“Because she wanted to keep it, I suppose.”

“You suppose?” she asked, exasperated by his lack of openness.

He shrugged again. “I don’t ask a lot of questions. That’s not part of my job.”

“What is your job?”

“Legal advice for the owner.” He hesitated. “I also have power of attorney over the building.”

“Does that mean you could sell it?”

“No.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I can’t make decisions like that. If there’s any kind of tax issue, or local council concerns… something of that nature, I’m authorised to deal with it.”

“Council concerns?” Lily asked.

“Complaints about the building being an eyesore, that sort of thing…”

“Have people complained?”

“There was some discussion around it,” he said blithely. “Around the same time Kit Treneary set his eye on the place, though he swears the complaint didn’t come from him.”

Lily shook her head, realising they’d got off topic. “How long was it an ice cream shop before it closed down?”

His lips pinched together. “I think it would have been around two or three years.”

“Not long then,” she mused. “Was it profitable?”

The question seemed to take him by surprise and his eyebrows dipped.

“If it wasn’t, that would at least explain it closing. It still doesn’t shed any light on why the building wasn’t sold.”

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