A Poisonous Plot (Lily Larkin Mysteries #3)

Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Arriving at the garden centre, Lily felt a deep sense of trepidation and hoped she’d be able to catch Gordon alone. His radio interview continued to play on her mind, and she’d like to discover if it was also him who’d spoken to the press on the mainland. If so, she’d be quizzing him on his motives for that.

Surely he could see that the adage of no publicity being bad publicity wasn’t always true. Spreading the word that the islands weren’t safe for newcomers wasn’t the right approach, even if it was true. What they should work on was making sure that the islands were safe.

“Good morning, Lily!” Arthur called out to her as she passed the roses.

“Hi.” She couldn’t help but smile, given the openness of his features. “How are you today?”

“Fine, thank you.” He paused in sweeping the aisle between rows of plants and leaned on his broom. “How are you?”

“Very well, thanks.” Something she was currently very grateful for, considering her endeavours to poison-test her ice cream.

“Ready to pick out some plants?”

“Maybe later,” she said. “I actually wanted to speak to Gordon. Is he here?”

“Yes.” He pointed inside. “He’ll either be in the cafe or the office.”

“Thanks,” Lily said, before continuing to the door. The pungent scent of soil and leaves in the shop was becoming very familiar. When she reached the cafe, it was all quiet – devoid of both customers and staff.

Inhaling deeply, Lily once again hoped that Gordon would be alone in the office, and that she could avoid another showdown with Sally. Given everything else going on, she hadn’t given much thought to Sally’s threat of stopping supplies for the ice cream shop, but she supposed she ought to raise the subject with Gordon.

The office door was almost completely closed and Lily knocked lightly. When there was no response, she tried again while pushing at the door.

“Hello!” she called, her eyes doing a quick sweep of the empty room.

She was all set to retreat when her gaze went to the floor beside the desk. What on earth…

“Gordon!” Panic strangled her voice as she stepped into the room.

A moment passed with her brain trying to comprehend what she was seeing. Gordon was face down on the carpet, a red streak of blood across his forearm and pooling on the floor beside him.

“Oh my god,” Lily mumbled as she approached. “Gordon,” she said again, then placed a hand on his back and waited to feel the rise and fall of his rib cage. She let out a relieved sigh when she was certain he was breathing.

Her eyes darted over the room and she felt her heart rate soar before she got her brain in gear enough to realise that she needed to stay calm.

“Stop the bleeding and get help,” she muttered, then shot across the room to open the door wide. She called out for Arthur, then decided she needed to be louder and shouted again.

“Ambulance,” she said aloud, pulling her phone from her pocket. She almost hit 999 before deciding it would be quicker to cut out the middleman.

“Please don’t say you’re ill,” Flynn said, answering almost immediately.

“I have a problem,” she said in a rush. “I’m at the garden centre and I need an ambulance. Quickly.”

Flynn’s tone was serious. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s Gordon. I found him unconscious and bleeding. Can you get an ambulance and get up here?”

“I’m on it. Are you alone?”

“Arthur’s here somewhere.” She caught him walking through the cafe and beckoned to him.

“I’ll be there soon,” Flynn said. “I’m hanging up to call the hospital, okay?”

She ended the call herself as Arthur approached with his usual cheerful air.

“Did you find Gordon?” he asked, apparently failing to notice Lily’s panicked air.

“Yes. He’s had an accident.” She hurried back to stand beside his prone form. “I’ve called an ambulance, but I’m not sure what’s happened.” She frowned as she tried to figure it out. Then her eyes went to the blood. “Why is he bleeding? I need something to stop it.” It wasn’t gushing or anything, but there was a thick streak across his forearm and a circle of dark red on the carpet too.

Lily went to move beside him, but Arthur’s voice suddenly filled the silence and made her pause mid-stride.

“Don’t move!” he shouted in a commanding tone that Lily wouldn’t have thought him capable of. “Stop right there.”

“What’s the problem?” Lily asked, a sliver of fear wrapping around her spine as she turned to Arthur.

While her heart rate sped up again, she reminded herself that Flynn was on his way.

Arthur’s gaze wasn’t on her. In fact, he ignored her entirely as he came to stand beside her.

“It can’t be,” he whispered, shaking his head and leaning towards the bushy plant on the edge of the desk. “That’s not possible.”

“Arthur!” Lily snapped. “Can you focus on Gordon? We need something to stop the bleeding. Clean towels or something.”

“Yes, yes, of course.” He straightened up and finally seemed to register Gordon’s unconscious state. “I’ll find something.” He took a step away, then turned back to Lily and wagged a finger. “Do not go near that plant. Stay right where you are.”

“We can talk about plants later,” she told him in frustration. “For now, let’s focus on helping Gordon.”

Arthur hurried away and was back a moment later with a stack of clean tea towels.

“Here.” He thrust them at her and immediately switched his attention back to the plant.

For a moment, Lily hesitated, confused by Arthur being more interested in a plant than his incapacitated boss. Then she gave a quick shake of her head and got to work helping Gordon.

“Something cut right through his arm,” she said, once she’d dabbed at the blood enough to find the long gash.

“The thorns,” Arthur said, then pulled his phone out.

“Do you have a phobia of blood or something?” Lily asked, pressing onto the wound and trying to not jump to conclusions about the way Arthur was intent on pretending his boss wasn’t unconscious and bleeding all over the carpet.

“No.” His head whipped around and he ran his gaze over Gordon. “The cut came from a thorn.”

“Excuse me?” Lily said, her voice oddly squeaky.

“They’re illegal in this country. I never thought I’d get to see one in person.” His attention shifted again, and Lily watched him hold his phone close to the plant and heard the distinct click of a photo being taken.

“What are you doing?” Lily asked. “Aren’t you at all concerned about Gordon?” She stared at Arthur’s profile and the glimmer of excitement in his eyes as he continued to photograph the plant. “Arthur!” she snapped when he ignored her completely.

Slowly, he looked over at Gordon again. “You called an ambulance, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“He’ll be fine. The thorns are razor sharp, so they’ll give you a nasty cut, but the poison isn’t deadly or anything.”

“Poison?” Lily said, pressing harder on the wound. “What are you talking about?”

“The thorns are sharp,” he said, pointing. “They deposit poison directly into the bloodstream to incapacitate their predator.”

“Predator?” Lily echoed.

“Wrong word in this case, I suppose. It’s fascinating, though, that plants can have such an effective defence mechanism. In nature, they’re usually warding off birds and small mammals, but they can take a grown man down too.”

Lily blinked slowly. “You’re saying this plant is the reason Gordon is currently unconscious?”

“Yes!” Arthur beamed. “Amazing, isn’t it? You really have to look closely to even see the thorns. They’re the exact same green as the leaves so they blend right in.”

“I’m not sure amazing is the word I’d choose,” Lily mumbled, eyeing the short, bushy plant with its abundance of vibrant green leaves. “What kind of plant is it?”

“Hmm.” Arthur squeezed his eyes closed. “I’m sorry, I’m never very good at the Latin names, and it’s an especially long one. In my head I can see how it’s written, but I’m afraid I’d bungle the pronunciation.”

“Does it have a common name?” Lily ventured.

Arthur nodded vigorously. “The Thorned Sleeping Beauty.”

Her eyes went to Gordon’s face. Aside from being a little squished against the carpet, he did appear to be sleeping soundly.

“It acts like a natural anaesthetic,” Arthur went on. “It’s been studied to see if it could be used for surgeries, but its effects are unpredictable.”

“So he’s just sleeping?” Lily asked.

“Not your standard sleep. He’s unconscious, but he’ll wake up as though he’s been in a deep sleep. The time it takes to come round varies depending on a person’s body composition, but people usually wake up groggy after an hour or so, then experience extreme fatigue for anything from twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”

“How have I never heard of this before?” Lily asked.

“The plants are rare. They grow mostly in Africa and people tend to give them a wide berth. In recent years there’s been some black-market demand for them.”

“Wow.” Lily wiped her brow with the back of her hand and felt a wave of relief at the sound of sirens in the distance.

“It’s beautiful,” Arthur said, attention back on the plant. “I wonder how it got here.”

“I imagine Gordon is going to want to know the same thing,” Lily said, then sighed heavily.

Apparently, he might have ruffled some feathers with his radio interview.