Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Considering it was Saturday, the garden centre was surprisingly quiet when Lily arrived in the middle of the morning. An elderly couple arrived at the same time as her and smiled before setting off to wander the outside area. Lily went in the other direction, walking slowly and hoping something might jump out at her as being out of place.
She was contemplating how she might go about subtly questioning the staff as she made her way inside.
The till inside the entrance was unmanned and her eyes lingered on the assortment of ribbons in a dispenser at the edge of the desk. The welcome baskets had been tied with ribbon. She smiled to herself, thinking how convenient it would be to catch someone with an incriminating strip of ribbon. As though the person who’d put the baskets together might still have a piece trailing from their sleeve.
At the back of the building, the cafe was empty, though there were signs of life, with a laptop open on one table and a bunch of papers and notebooks spread around it. Instinct had Lily drifting in that direction, while glancing around, expecting the owner of the belongings to reappear at any moment.
“Hello!” she called, stopping beside the table. No reply came and her gaze dropped to the open notebook which overflowed with sketches of plants and flowers. She reached for a piece of paper as the words at the top jumped out at her.
“Poisonous plants in your garden,” she muttered, reading aloud. “Lily of the valley, hydrangea, bluebell, foxglove, oleander, daffodil, ivy…” Her gaze snapped up before she’d finished the list. A chill rippled up her spine as she set the list down again.
Was this connected with the welcome baskets? And the smoothie?
“Hello?” Lily called again, venturing towards the counter at the back of the cafe.
“I’ll be with you in a minute!”
The voice came from the direction of the office and sounded distinctly like Sally Pengelly.
Lily didn’t wait for her, but drifted back there and gave a gentle knock on the door, which was slightly ajar.
“Sorry.” Sally looked up from the computer screen. “It’s been so quiet this morning that I slipped in here to get caught up on a few emails.”
“It’s fine,” Lily said. “I just thought it was odd that there were no staff around.”
“You haven’t bumped into Denzel? He should be here somewhere.”
“I haven’t seen him.”
“What are you after?” Sally asked, her warm persona practically oozing from her pores.
“How do you mean?”
Lily was hoping to nose around and see what she came up with, but she supposed that might not be so easy if people saw her as an investigator. That was probably why most investigators kept their identity anonymous. But that wasn’t so easy when you lived on an island with less than two thousand residents.
“Houseplants, I assume?” Sally said as she rose from the chair.
“Yes,” Lily replied, happy that Sally had assumed she was there to buy plants, rather than investigate. “I don’t know anything about plants, though.”
“I can help you pick some out. People tend to just go for what they like the look of, but that’s usually a mistake.” She passed Lily and walked into the cafe. As she talked animatedly about the different levels of care and attention plants needed, Lily trailed behind her, then stopped at the edge of the tables.
As though she’d imagined them entirely, the laptop and papers were gone.
“Everything okay?” Sally asked, turning back to Lily.
“Do you know who was in the cafe before?”
“We had a few customers first thing,” Sally said, forehead crinkling. “No one I knew. Why?”
“There was a laptop on that table.” She pointed. “And some papers. I was only in the office for a moment. How have they just vanished?” Her eyes scanned all around but there was no one to be seen. “You said Denzel was here? Would he have been working at one of the tables?”
“On a laptop?” Sally’s lips twitched at the corners. “That would be very high tech for him. I mean, he has his own business, so you’d think he must have a laptop, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t. The man doesn’t even have a smart phone. If you want to speak to him, you have to call him. It’s quite annoying that he won’t message or email.”
“Who would have been sitting here with a laptop?” Lily asked, annoyed at herself for giving the person time to pack up and leave without her clocking them.
“I couldn’t tell you.” Sally looked a little unnerved by Lily’s frantic tone. “Arthur was here earlier, but I think he left a while ago.”
“ Someone was here,” Lily said, setting off towards the exit. “They were just here!”
Outside, she dodged around plants, her eyes darting manically as she searched for the person who’d been researching poisonous plants. They couldn’t have gone far, but when she reached the car park, there was no sign of anyone.
“Lily!” Sally called, following at a gentle run. She stopped right in front of Lily and grabbed at her upper arms. “Are you okay?” she asked breathlessly.
“Yeah.” Lily continued to glance around, sure that there must be someone lurking nearby.
“Do you feel all right?” Sally asked, staring directly into Lily’s eyes.
“I feel fine,” Lily replied, backing away and shrugging Sally off. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t want to panic you, but can you tell me if you received a basket of goodies to welcome you to the island?”
Lily raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Because some people got ill from the stuff in the baskets. Most of the symptoms were stomach related, but I think I heard someone mention confusion.” She looked at Lily sympathetically. “You’re acting a little odd.”
“Oh.” Lily stifled a laugh. “It’s nothing like that. I got a basket, but didn’t eat anything from it. Maybe I’m just on high alert because of it. And the papers on the table…” She trailed off, not sure how much she wanted to share with Sally. “It was odd how they were there and then gone.”
“You’re sure you’re feeling okay?” Sally asked.
“Yes.” Lily dragged in a deep breath. “Does anyone else work here? Is there a cook for the cafe or anything?”
Sally gave a small shake of her head. “The sandwiches and cakes are delivered each morning. Whoever is here first makes a batch of smoothies. Usually two different ones, but it’s not a lot of work. We keep things simple.”
“So it’s just the four of you working here? You, your dad, Arthur and Denzel?”
“Yes.” Her lips pulled to a bemused smile. “What’s with all the questions?”
“Sorry,” Lily said. “I guess all this talk of poisoning on social media has got me a little rattled. I think I’ll come back and look for plants another day.” She definitely couldn’t concentrate on anything now, and it would be good to have an excuse to come back.
“Take care,” Sally said as Lily walked away. Her voice carried its usual sweetness, but somehow the words sounded ominous to Lily’s ears.
She quickened her steps to get away from the place.