Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty-Five

When the nurse returned, Lily wandered to the door, looking up and down the corridor. At the end of the hall, Sergeant Proctor was chatting to the receptionist.

A memory came to Lily out of the blue.

It was during her first visit to the island. She’d been on the ferry with Flynn, trying to figure out who’d killed the guy on the cliffs … what had Flynn said to her?

Sometimes in policing we bluff…

Back then, he’d asked her to give him her best guess as to the perpetrator. Then he’d pretended to know more than he did and watched how the suspects reacted.

Her breath hitched as she looked back at Flynn. Deep in her gut, she was sure she knew who’d done all this. She just needed to trust her instincts the way Flynn always did.

After a couple of deep breaths, she pulled her shoulders back and strode along the hall.

“Sergeant Proctor!” Lily called out, stopping him in his tracks as he walked towards the door. When he turned, she shouted again. “I know who’s been poisoning people.”

He squinted, presumably annoyed with her for screeching so loudly in the hospital. The stern look he gave her didn’t deter her.

“It’s Sally Pengelly,” she called out, loud and confident. “You need to arrest her before she hurts anyone else.”

The sergeant’s eyes flashed with annoyance as she approached him.

“Calm down,” he hissed. “Whatever theory you have, we can go somewhere private and you can tell me properly. There are sick people here and you’re yelling loudly enough to disturb them all.”

“Sorry,” she said, barely lowering her voice at all. “It’s definitely Sally Pengelly, though. I just figured it all out. It’s obvious, if you think about it…” She trailed off as Gordon Pengelly stepped out of a room further along the corridor.

The grimace hit her lips immediately, and she did her best to look sheepish.

“You’re right,” she said to sergeant Proctor quietly. “This should probably be a private conversation.” She took a step closer so that only he could hear. “We need to be quick though, before she figures out we’re onto her.”

“What’s going on?” Gordon asked, striding over to them. “I heard Sally’s name mentioned.”

Lily offered him a weak smile. “Unfortunately, there’s been another casualty. PC Grainger was cut by one of those sleeping beauty plants. He’s currently unconscious.”

“Oh, dear,” Gordon said, his lips twisting to the side. “I’m sorry to hear that. What’s that got to do with my daughter?”

“I’m very sorry,” Lily said gently. “But there’s evidence that Sally is at the root of these crimes.”

Heat blazed up Gordon’s throat and his cheeks flushed too. “That’s absurd. She’d never be involved in anything like that.”

Ignoring him, Lily appealed to the sergeant. “We really need to find her. I’m concerned she’s going to do something else. We need to put a stop to this. And quickly.” Her gaze went to Gordon. “Is she here with you?”

“No. She dropped me off. I was going to call her to pick me up.” He gave a small shake of the head and puffed his chest out as he addressed Sergeant Proctor. “These allegations are ridiculous. I hope you’re not going to pay her any attention.”

The sergeant looked down at Lily. “You mentioned evidence? You’re sure it’s Sally?”

She nodded. “I can explain everything in the car, but we should go and find her.”

“You can’t be serious.” Gordon Pengelly huffed out a laugh. “You’re letting some clueless girl do your job instead of doing proper police work?”

“I’d hardly call her a girl,” the sergeant said gruffly. “And I’ve never been above taking information from our residents. That’s what gives our community strength. We work together.”

“Of course,” Gordon said, abashed. “I just don’t understand how she can point the finger at Sally.”

“Sally did it.” Lily looked pleadingly at Sergeant Proctor. “I know we don’t always see eye to eye, but please trust me on this. We need to find her. Right now.”

“You can’t go harassing people based on hearsay,” Gordon said. “Surely you’re above that, if nothing else.”

“I don’t intend to harass anyone,” Sergeant Proctor said flatly. “If Sally is innocent, like you say, then she’s got nothing to worry about.” He tipped his head towards the door and Lily fell into step beside him.

“She’ll be looking at jail time, won’t she?” Lily asked as they made for the door. The sergeant gave her a puzzled sidelong glance, but she barely registered it. “Even if she didn’t physically touch Flynn, this will still count as assaulting a police officer, won’t it?” She didn’t wait for an answer. She didn’t need one. “I hope she gets locked up for a very long time.”

Outside the building, Lily finally stopped wittering.

“You’re sure it’s Sally?” the sergeant asked, stopping in front of the Land Rover.

“No,” Lily whispered. “I’m not sure of anything.”

His eyeballs looked as though they might take flight from their sockets. “Then what the hell was all that about?”

“Shh! Just trust me. I have a hunch.” She glanced back at the hospital doors. “Let’s just wait a minute…”

“I have no idea what is going on,” Sergeant Proctor grumbled.

Lily was worrying that she’d got everything wrong when Gordon stepped out of the hospital.

“Wait!” he shouted. “Just wait. I need you to explain this. I can’t for the life of me understand why you’d think Sally was behind any of this.”

“I’m afraid we’ll have to fill you in later,” Lily said, heading to the passenger door of the police car. “We’re in a rush.”

“It wasn’t Sally,” Gordon said firmly. “Why is no one looking into Arthur like I told you to?”

“I did look into it,” Lily said. “And what I found led me to Sally.” She opened the car door. “Get in the car,” she muttered to Sergeant Proctor.

“I’m sorry,” the sergeant said to Gordon. “I will keep you updated, but I have to follow all lines of enquiry.”

“I don’t see what the rush is?” Gordon said, putting a hand on the passenger door to stop Lily from closing it.

She eyed him warily. “People keep being poisoned. You don’t think that warrants some urgency?”

“I mean, what’s so urgent that you can’t take a few minutes to explain your logic? Not that I believe there is any logic to your allegations.”

“Fine.” Lily turned in the seat. “For a start, I’m fairly sure it was Sally who tried to poison me.”

“What are you talking about?” Gordon asked.

“I got ill after drinking a smoothie from the garden centre. That’s how I always knew it was someone who worked at the garden centre. Sally had transferred my drink into a takeaway cup and I’m sure that’s when she added something to it.” To avoid having to elaborate, she didn’t pause. “For a while I thought it was Arthur, and then Denzel, but finally I narrowed it down to you or Sally. Obviously, it can’t have been you or you wouldn’t have fallen victim to the sleeping beauty. Also, since you were in hospital, it can only have been Sally who planted evidence at Arthur’s house.” Finally, she stopped for breath.

“What do you mean, she planted evidence?”

“Someone left evidence of the poisonings at Arthur’s place to incriminate him.”

“How can you know that? Surely if you found poisonous plants, that’s evidence that Arthur was the one behind all this, which is what I kept trying to tell you.”

“It wasn’t Arthur,” Sergeant Proctor said in a tone that brooked no argument. He hadn’t got into the car, but had moved beside Gordon. “We know someone tried to set Arthur up. We’re currently trying to figure out who. The forensic team will go over the evidence from Arthur’s house. With any luck there’ll be fingerprints.”

“This is ridiculous,” Gordon said, looking hot under the collar. “You can’t honestly think that Sally sneaked into Arthur’s greenhouse and left a bunch of poisonous plants. She and Arthur are very close friends. She wouldn’t do that to him.”

Lily fought a smile. Backing Gordon into a corner felt immensely satisfying. “Who said anything about a greenhouse?”

“What?”

“You said the plants were in Arthur’s greenhouse, but I never said that.”

Once again, the skin of his neck turned red. “I just assumed. It seems like the logical place.”

“The logical place to plant evidence?”

“That’s not what I…” He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, then turned and looked at Sergeant Proctor. “Are you really going to let her speak to me like this?”

“I think she has a point. It is odd that you knew the plants were in the greenhouse. Given the gravity of the crimes, I’m afraid I’m going to have to take both you and Sally into custody until we’ve sorted this out. For the safety of the island residents.”

“Not Sally!” he shouted. “Sally had nothing to do with any of this. Keep her out of it.”

“How do you know she had nothing to do with it?” the sergeant asked pointedly.

He closed his eyes for a moment. “It was me.” He threw his hands out. “It was me and nothing to do with Sally. She didn’t know what was going on.”

Lily wanted to say something but decided to leave space for Gordon to seal his own fate. “It wasn’t even so bad,” he said, looking desperately at the sergeant. “A few people got ill, that’s all. There was no real harm done.”

“Considering Glynis Ward is still in hospital on the mainland and one of my officers is currently unconscious, I’m going to disagree with you there.” Sergeant Proctor’s features were set in a hard frown. “Why on earth would you do this?” he growled.

“Because the island is being overrun! Anybody who wants to waltzes over here to set up home and open their businesses. And while they’re at it, they drive the true Scillonians away. You must see how difficult it is for local kids to get jobs here. How many youths move to the mainland to get work each year?”

“They move because they want a different life,” the sergeant said. “Most of them move by choice, not because they can’t find jobs.”

“What about Sally?” Gordon snapped.

“She didn’t want a job here,” Lily said. “But even if she couldn’t find a job, it doesn’t give you the right to poison people.”

“What were you thinking?” the sergeant asked.

“Arthur had laid everything out in his blog,” Gordon said as though Arthur were still to blame. “I only wanted to give it a go. It’s not as though I was trying to kill anyone.”

“Where did you get your hands on that sleeping beauty thing?” the sergeant asked.

“I got a couple of them imported ages ago. It’s actually not difficult.”

“Why?” Lily asked.

“Arthur had been going on about them and I was intrigued.”

Words failed Lily.

“And you put evidence in Arthur’s greenhouse,” Sergeant Proctor said. “You tried to set him up.”

“That lad is too stupid to defend himself properly. Everyone would have believed it was him.”

The sergeant glared at him. “You’d have let him take the blame?”

“I wouldn’t have needed to blame anyone if she hadn’t been asking so many questions.” He jabbed a finger in Lily’s direction. “I was only going to make a few people ill and then cause a bit of a stir… make it seem like the islands aren’t such a friendly place… but she just kept asking questions and messing everything up.”

Lily blinked rapidly as she tried to comprehend what she was hearing.

“I’m going to need you to come down to the station,” Sergeant Proctor said, suddenly business-like.

“You weren’t serious about prison, were you?” Gordon asked.

“Very. Food tampering and poisoning are serious offences. You could also be charged with grievous bodily harm.”

Gordon shook his head. “I need to go and explain everything to Sally.”

“I’m afraid the only place you’re going is to the station with me. You can call Sally later.”

“No. I’ll come to the station later, but I really need to explain this to Sally in person.”

“I don’t think you understand,” Sergeant Proctor said. “I’m arresting you.”

Gordon’s eyes bulged. “I thought you’d just need to question me to start with. And surely I need a lawyer.”

“You’ll definitely need a lawyer,” the sergeant said. “But we’ll get to that later…”

Lily hopped out of the car. “Before you read him his rights and all that fun stuff, I think I’ll say goodbye.”

“I’ll need to speak to you later too,” the sergeant said to Lily, while he opened the back door for a dumbfounded Gordon.

Lily pointed at the hospital. “I’ll be with Flynn.”

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