Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
By the time he left Lily’s place that evening, Flynn was pretty sure he’d messed things up between them. On the surface, things were relatively normal. She’d prattled on about Arthur Penrose and Denzel Harris and her theories about the poisonings, then moved on to chatter away about the ice cream shop. It wasn’t as though it was anything new for her to talk a lot, but there was a nervous energy to her wittering now – as though she didn’t want to deal with any lull in conversation.
Even lounging on the couch to watch TV with her had felt odd. There was a tension in the atmosphere which he wasn’t sure how to get past. With any luck, it would just take time and they’d slip back into their carefree friendship.
Thankfully, he was working first thing the following morning so he could focus on that and avoid dwelling on things with Lily.
“Did you hear from the lab about the stuff in the welcome baskets?” he asked Sergeant Proctor when he arrived at the station and wandered into his boss’s office.
“No.” He looked over his computer screen at Flynn. “I did have a conversation with Dr Redwood yesterday. She’s in touch with the hospital on the mainland and there’s no change with Glynis Ward, but they’ve ruled out a virus or infection so she thinks it’s most likely food poisoning. I’d already sent her the articles Arthur Penrose had written about poisonous plants. She agreed that if someone was intentionally trying to make people ill, the blog post would be a good resource.”
“So someone really could have used common plants to poison people?”
“It’s possible.” He tilted his head. “Still seems far-fetched to me.”
“Did you speak to Dante Accardi?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “That guy can’t half talk. Difficult to get a word in edgeways. As far as I can tell, there’s no evidence anyone is out to get him. He sounds paranoid when he talks about it all.”
“He only sounds paranoid if he’s wrong,” Flynn pointed out. “If he’s right that someone is sabotaging his business, then he just sounds panicked and frustrated, which is entirely understandable.”
“What else has your friend uncovered?” the sergeant asked wearily.
Flynn squinted in confusion. “Which friend?”
“How many friends have you got around here?” Sergeant Proctor asked with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. “Your investigator friend. She’s been nosing around, I take it?”
“Yes.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Do you actually want to know what she’s found?”
“Don’t make me beg for information.” He nodded to the chair and Flynn took a seat.
He proceeded to fill him in on Lily’s theory that the garden centre was connected to the poisonings.
“No one at the garden centre would do anything like this,” the sergeant finally said, leaning back in his chair. “Especially not Arthur. He’s as gentle as they come.” He dragged in a deep breath. “I know Sally Pengelly was looking for a job on the island a while back, so I suppose it makes sense for her to be frustrated with people coming to the island and taking jobs, but I really can’t imagine her harming anyone. Maybe I’ll go over there and have a chat with Gordon. See if anything feels off.”
Flynn nodded and stood up. He paused in the doorway and looked back at his superior. “When we get the lab results back, you won’t mind me sharing them with Lily, will you?”
“I can’t imagine I could stop you,” he said. “As long as she doesn’t impede our investigations, I’m happy for information to be shared both ways. Providing there’s nothing confidential.”
“Of course,” Flynn said. “Thanks.”
As he moved out to take up position at the front desk, he automatically took his phone out, intent on messaging Lily to fill her in on the surprising conversation with the sergeant.
He paused, remembering that he’d kissed her yesterday and made things awkward. It didn’t mean he couldn’t message her.
After staring at his phone for a moment, he put it away.
He was still overthinking things when his shift ended. At his flat, he got changed out of his uniform and considered calling one of his mates in London. The situation with Lily would sound trivial though, and since none of his friends knew her, or anything about his life on the island, they just wouldn’t get it.
These days, if he needed to talk to someone, it was always Lily, but this was hardly something he could chat to her about. As he pulled a T-shirt on, he had the fleeting idea of going to the Mermaid Inn to see if Seren was around. Except talking to her about it would be weird, and anything he said would likely get back to Lily.
It wasn’t as though he didn’t have friends on the island.
Maybe that wasn’t true. The sergeant had probably been right when he implied Lily was his only friend. He had acquaintances, though, and some of them felt as though they could evolve to friendships.
Whenever he saw Jago Treneary, they always chatted easily. In fact, the last time he’d seen him, Jago had told him he should have a look at his brewery sometime.
It wasn’t exactly a firm invitation and there was the chance he was only being polite, but Flynn was suddenly motivated to take him up on the offer of a tour.