Page 51 of Artful Deceit
The hi-vis vest balled in her hand was a thin, gauzy material. Nothing heavy duty – more like something a cyclist would wear. It had been sitting in the lost property box at the ice cream shop for weeks, and she was certain whoever lost it wasn’t coming back for it.
She slipped it on as she descended the harbour steps. Surelyany volunteer worth their salt wore some sort of high visibility clothing.
On the jetty, she headed quickly for the sailing boat Saffron had boarded.
“Morning!” she called confidently when she got near.
“Hello!” Saffron said. “What are you doing here?”
“Official business, I’m afraid.” She directed her words at the man and cast a quick smile at the woman and two little girls standing beside him.
“Is there a problem?” the man asked.
“No problem,” she said. “But the police are stretched thin at the moment, so they’ve enlisted volunteers to help with a few things. I’m not sure if you know that there has been a spate of thefts recently.”
The woman nodded. “The harbour master spoke to us about it when we arrived yesterday. Told us to be aware and let us know of anyone acting oddly.”
“We’re all being extra careful,” Lily said. “Any kind of suspicious activity is being looked into.” She cast Saffron an apologetic glance and remembered what Len had said about people being forgiving if they were innocent. “Unfortunately, your last-minute change in travel plans has raised a red flag. It’s absolutely not a big deal, and I don’t want to hold you up any longer than necessary, but I have to ask you to submit to a voluntary search of your belongings. If you’d rather the police do it, you’re welcome to wait for them, but we’d need to ask that you don’t leave the islands until that time.”
Saffron pressed her lips together. “I’m under suspicion?”
“This is all routine,” Lily said calmly. “I hope you won’t take any offence.”
“Oh, gosh,” the woman said, a hand pressed to her sternum. “I can promise you the last-minute change of plans was entirely spontaneous. We weren’t even planning to stop here, but then I saw Saffron’s advert, and it wasn’t much of a detour. If you think this is some elaborate plan…”
“She didn’t say that,” the man said. “She’s only doing her job. Saffron, can she check your bags so we can leave as planned?”
Saffron twirled the end of her plait around her finger. “I suppose it’s fine.” She glanced at her bags. “Everything is well packed though. If I open it here, there’ll be an explosion of clothes.”
“We can go down into your cabin if you’d prefer,” Lily said.
“That’s probably better.” She picked up one of the bags, and Lily took the other.
Silently, they lugged them through the galley and into a cosy cabin.
“This is bad,” Saffron said, as soon as she closed the door behind them. “Very bad.”
“What is?” A chill raced up Lily’s spine as she recalled the last time she’d been in the cabin of a yacht and had ended up stowed away in a wardrobe.
“Would it be okay if you didn’t search my bags? You could just say you did. We are friends after all. You could just trust that I didn’t steal anything. I could give you my word. That should be enough between friends.”
“Did you steal something?” Lily asked, the cabin feeling suddenly smaller as Saffron blocked the door.
“No.” She chewed on the end of her plait. “But sometimes the universe offers me things, and I have to accept them. I don’t want to risk causing offence.”
“To the universe?”
“Yes.”
Lily swallowed hard. “I really have to check your bags. I’m sorry.”
“That’s going to be very awkward,” she said, her tone slightly menacing.
Lily took an instinctive step back as Saffron came towards her. She reminded herself that she could handle herself in a physical altercation.
“Please don’t judge me too harshly.” Saffron stopped before Lilyand lifted the bag at her feet to heft it onto the bed. The whir of the zip filled the room before she threw back the lid of the suitcase. “Gideon gave it to me. I swear I didn’t steal anything. You can ask him yourself if you don’t believe me.”
“What the heck is all of this?” Lily lifted a Ziploc bag filled with assorted cutlery, and then another filled with Gideon’s pencils advertising the art retreat. Her eyes darted to a stainless-steel pan and what appeared to be plates protected by bubble wrap. There were tea towels and a frilly tablecloth, and most of it looked as though it could have gone into the bin.
