Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Lily was waiting down in the shop when Flynn arrived early in the evening, dressed in jeans and a hoodie, which seemed to be his off-duty uniform.
“You didn’t eat yet, did you?” he asked, stepping inside.
“No, I assumed we’d get dinner at the pub.” It had become a bit of a routine. They’d take turns to pay.
“Good. I’m starving.”
“You always are,” Lily said, picking up her jacket and bag.
They both turned at a faint sound from outside. A tall, dark-haired man peered through the window. After raising his hand to wave, he pushed at the door, making the bell jingle. His white trainers squeaked on the vinyl floor, drawing Lily’s gaze to his bright red socks which peeked out from his turned-up chinos. His navy polo shirt looked brand new. If you kept your eyes away from his feet, he looked like a stylish middle-aged guy.
“I need help,” he said in a thick Italian accent. “There has been a crime and I need your help.”
“What’s happened?” Flynn asked, straightening up as his eyes flashed with something between hope and excitement.
“Not you.” The man kept his eyes on Lily and extended his hand. “My name is Dante Accardi. It’s nice to meet you. I need your help.”
“Me?” Lily asked, glancing from Dante to Flynn. “This is PC Grainger…”
“Yes, I know. But I heard you are an investigator. I need an investigator. Police can’t help me.”
“If there’s been a crime––” Flynn was cut off by Dante raising his hand and speaking over him.
“It’s not police matter. I need investigator. You’re new on this island, yes?”
“Yeah,” Lily confirmed.
Dante’s gaze roamed the room. “You help me and in return I’ll tell you how to make gelato like we make in Italy. We have a deal?”
Lily’s laughter came quickly, but stopped abruptly when Dante’s sombre gaze bored into her.
“You’re serious,” she whispered.
“I’m serious. It’s a good deal for you. Trust me.”
“Why don’t you tell me what the problem is and I’ll see if I can help.”
“Here’s the thing,” he said while drawing his phone out of his pocket. “I have a restaurant here. I moved here with my wife and daughter six months ago. We got settled in and I opened my restaurant one month ago. The first two weeks, everything is good. People love my food. My food is fantastic. I not lie.” He gesticulated wildly and Lily made sure not to catch Flynn’s eye for fear that she might get the giggles.
“Before I live here,” he went on. “I lived for fifteen years in London. I had my own restaurant, everything was great. But London is too busy for me. I wanted to go back to Italy and find a quiet village where life is not all rushing and busy. You know?”
Lily nodded her acknowledgement.
“My wife is British. Not speak good Italian. She won’t move to Italy. So we do the… what’s the word … compromise. We compromise! We move here. This is the place where my wife came for childhood holidays. So we came here. Nice people, not so busy. Happy Dante!” He patted his chest as he paused. “Then terrible thing happen,” he said, lowering his voice and shaking his head. “This is not nice to see, Lily, but I must show you…” As he tapped on his phone, Lily braved a glance at Flynn, whose eyebrows had drawn close together.
“If it’s disturbing images…” Flynn said.
“It is disturbing all right,” Dante said, thrusting the phone at Lily. “But not images, words. Disturbing words. Read this. I can’t look.”
Lily took the phone from him. “It’s reviews,” she said as she scanned the screen. “Reviews for your restaurant?” She shifted slightly so Flynn could see the screen.
“Yes. These reviews say my food is bad, that it makes people sick.” Dante shook his head furiously. “This is crazy. I am a top chef. I make wonderful food. No one gets sick. Then I come here to these Scilly Islands. Open my restaurant. Two weeks everything is good and then this…” He jabbed a finger towards the phone.
Lily winced as she read through the dozen or so reviews where people complained of varying degrees of upset stomachs after eating in his restaurant.
“I’m not sure how I can help,” Lily said when Dante stared at her. “What makes you think a crime has been committed? There’s nothing illegal about the reviews. They look as though they’re from legitimate accounts.”
“I’ll show you the problem.” Dante took the phone back and scrolled for a moment. “This review,” he announced after a moment. “This one is where problem starts…”
Lily read the five-star review aloud. “ Great food and atmosphere and the owner is a lovely, friendly man. A lot of foreigners keep arriving to take island jobs though. ” She glanced at Flynn. “That’s weird.”
“That’s when the problem started,” Dante said.
“But his review of the restaurant is really good,” Lily pointed out. “It’s confusing. It also doesn’t make a lot of sense since you haven’t taken a job from anyone. Aren’t you providing employment by opening a restaurant?”
“My wife and daughter work for me.” He shook his head. “But I might employ more people if I had more customers.”
“It’s a weird review anyway,” Lily said.
“Some weird people. Many, many weird people. But I tell you this is when the problems started. You need to find this person.”
Lily read the name of the reviewer. “The Secret B.”
“This is the big problem with the internet,” Dante said loudly. “People hide behind false names. But you are an investigator. You can find him. Bring him to me and I will take care of things from there. In return, I teach you about gelato.”
Lily’s brain struggled to keep up with the conversation. “You really think this person has set up some kind of hate campaign against you? He’s writing fake reviews to run you out of business?”
Dante shook his head and stared at her as though she’d missed the point entirely.
“These are real reviews,” he said as a deep frown furrowed his brow. “People really got ill. I know because I got ill too.”
“Maybe it was a stomach bug,” Lily suggested. “It might not have been down to the food.”
“It’s the food,” Dante said with certainty.
“I’m sorry, I’m a bit lost.”
“This man…” He jabbed at the phone. “This man poisoned my customers. You find him for me and I’ll deal with him the way we deal with things in Italy. Okay?”
“That’s definitely not okay,” Flynn said.
Dante’s eyes jerked to Flynn as though only just remembering he was there. “This not a police matter. Not concern you.”
“It will concern me if you go all vigilante and decide you’re the Italian mafia of the island. You can’t take the law into your own hands.”
“Vigilante! What are you talking about? I said I deal with problem like in Italy. In Italy we deal with problems man to man. We sit down and talk and drink and eat… and we keep talking until we understand each other.” He clicked his tongue. “ Italian mafia! You watch too many films.” With a shake of his head, he dismissed Flynn and retrieved his phone from Lily. “I’ll give you a few days. In this time I must close the restaurant and do big cleaning and try and fix this mess.”
“Wait,” Lily said as he strode across the room. “How on earth would he have poisoned them? Surely you’d have noticed someone slipping into the restaurant every evening to poison the food.”
“I don’t know how he did it,” Dante said dramatically. “Maybe he did something to the water or put something in the air or tampered with something else. When you find him, you bring him to me and I’ll ask him what he did. Then we’ll know and we can fix everything. I rely on you, Lily.”
“Hang on,” she said desperately, but he was already gone.
Flynn flashed her a smug grin. “You get all the fun cases.”
“This is not a case,” Lily said. “Clearly, the man is a bad cook. Or he bought some dodgy ingredients or something.”
“That’s for you to figure out,” Flynn said.
Lily gave his arm a friendly shove and glared at him.
“You could also go to the restaurant and tell him you don’t accept the case, but you may end up ill.”
“I also don’t think he’ll take no for an answer.”
“Are you actually going to look into it?”
Lily pulled her bag onto her shoulder and shook her head. “I’ll just tell him I couldn’t find anything when he comes back. Now, are we going for dinner or what?”