Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Maybe she should have been more direct with Maria.
Stopping in the middle of the deserted lane, Lily contemplated turning and marching back there to accuse her of lying about the fire.
She could also ask her outright if she could explain why Uncle Derek had kept forged passports for the two of them, and enough cash to disappear without a trace.
Was it to do with Lily and her parents, or did he have a shady past that predated him becoming guardian to his niece?
“Are you okay?”
Lily’s mind returned to the present. Glynis stood before her.
“You look pale,” the old lady said, resting a comforting hand on Lily’s arm. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I was visiting Maria,” she said, glancing back towards the house.
“That’s nice. It’s good that you two are getting to know each other properly.”
“Yes.” Lily gave a small shake of her head, clearing away her previous thoughts. “How was your lunch?”
“Very enjoyable. I met up with Mirren Treneary. It’s been ages since I had a proper natter with her.”
“She’s lovely,” Lily said automatically. Her mind went to the first time she’d met the warm, local woman. She’d been trying to track down the owner of the ice cream shop, and Mirren had given her the name.
Lily’s eyes snapped to Glynis as it occurred to her that it wasn’t only Maria who might give her information.
“What’s that look for?” Glynis asked suspiciously.
“I know you hate talking about Maria behind her back,” Lily said. “But I still can’t figure things out. I don’t know if Maria can’t remember, or if she’s purposely keeping things from me…”
“Why would she do that?” Glynis asked.
“I don’t know.” Lily pressed her lips together. “You told me that Maria had an old friend here to visit. Now I know that was my uncle, and I was with him. But I need to know if I was here when there was a fire at the ice cream shop. Do you remember if Maria had visitors at the time?”
“Not that I recall.”
“Surely you’d remember if she had,” Lily mused, more to herself than Glynis.
She blew out a breath. Maybe Maria had been telling the truth. Perhaps her memories of being here at the time weren’t real. Or maybe it was something different. It could well be that it was only burnt toast that had set off the smoke alarm when Lily was a kid.
“What’s going on, Lily?” Glynis asked.
“Nothing. My mind is playing tricks on me. Ignore me.” She forced a smile. “Enjoy the rest of your day.”
Leaving Glynis, she walked with an urgency that had her breathless by the time she marched up the path to the front door of Mirren Treneary’s house.
Surprise must have been clear on her features when it was Denzel who opened the door rather than Mirren. It took her a moment to remember that the local landscape gardener was dating Mirren.
“I assume from that look it’s not me you’re after?” he said.
“No. Hi.”
“Hey.” He turned back to shout into the house that Lily was here, then stepped outside. “I was just leaving. Got to get back to work.”
“Nice to see you,” Lily murmured, then stepped inside and followed Mirren’s voice to the kitchen.
“This is a nice surprise,” Mirren said, crossing the room to hug her.
“Does Denzel live here now?” Lily asked, glancing through the large window to watch him stride to his truck.
“Not officially. He still has his own place, but he’s here most of the time now that we’re not hiding things any more.”
“That’s nice.”
“It is,” Mirren said with a bright smile.
Lily declined a drink and took a seat at the kitchen table. “I wondered if I could ask you some more questions about Maria.”
Mirren scratched the bridge of her nose. “Who?”
Lily gave a small shake of her head. “Gail Greenway. The owner of the ice cream shop.”
“Of course.” Mirren rolled her eyes. “That’s a funny business if you ask me.
Glynis was actually filling me in on it at lunch today.
But I also bumped into Maria at the supermarket the other day, and she said hello.
I wouldn’t have recognised her, but she explained that she goes by her middle name now.
” She sighed. “Said she had a mid-life crisis years ago and felt like a change.”
“It is a little odd,” Lily said. “She knew my uncle. I don’t know if Glynis told you that.”
“She didn’t,” Mirren said, her brow furrowed. “Why didn’t Maria mention that to you earlier? What was all the secrecy for?”
“It was a long time ago that she knew him,” Lily said defensively. “I really don’t think she meant any harm.”
Mirren gave a one-shouldered shrug. “What did you want to ask me?”
“I wondered if you remembered much about the fire at the ice cream shop?”
Again, she shrugged. “I remember Gail – sorry, Maria – being shaken up. A few of us pitched in to clean the place up.”
“And there was only Maria there at the time of the fire? She didn’t have friends staying or anything?”
“No. I’d remember that.”
“Are you sure? It would have been a man with a child?”
Mirren looked briefly as though she was going to ask questions of her own, but thought better of it. “Definitely not,” she said. “I wasn’t there at the time of the fire – Kit was still little, so I stayed at home with him, but Terry went down to help.”
“Your husband? He went to help with the fire?”
She nodded. “Terry was a volunteer firefighter. He got the call and went straight down there. I’d have known if there had been a child staying there. I’d remember something like that.”
“Yes, I suppose you would.” Which meant Lily must have got it wrong.
She scrubbed her hand over her face. It should have been a relief that Maria hadn’t been lying, but she still felt she was missing some fairly large pieces of the puzzle. Ones that would explain her forged passport.
The thought of it made her stomach lurch. She needed to stop focusing on twenty-year-old fires and put her attention on retrieving her stolen items.
“Sorry,” she said to Mirren, feeling slightly dazed as she stood. “I didn’t mean to disturb your afternoon.”
“You didn’t.” Mirren followed her to the door. “Are you okay?”
Lily nodded. That was all she could manage.
The gesture didn’t convey the truth in the slightest.
Back at the shop, Lily sent Jessica for a late lunch break.
She tried to concentrate on customers while her brain whirred over her next move for tracking down her backpack.
The only thing she could come up with was to head back to the art retreat after the shop closed and use the excuse of speaking to Gideon about his paintings.
It turned out, all the time spent mulling over her next move was for nothing. Gideon Rowe called the ice cream shop in the middle of the afternoon.
“Len Marrack said you want to look at my paintings,” he said down the phone – straight to the point, no small talk. “I’m back at the studio now and will be available to show you my paintings for the next couple of hours if that would suit you.”
Lily stammered a little before saying that would be fine and she’d be over shortly. With Jessica more than happy to be left alone again, Lily didn’t bother waiting until closing time.
She was halfway to Gideon’s place when her phone rang. Flynn’s name flashing on the screen didn’t bring the usual sense of joy, and she found herself hesitating to answer. In the end, she couldn’t bring herself to ignore the call.
“What have you been up to today?” he asked cheerfully.
“Not much. Just working.”
“Oh.”
“Why?”
“No reason.” He sounded oddly unsure of himself. “I called in at the shop,” he said after a brief pause.
“When?”
“Before lunch. Jessica said you were out somewhere, but she wasn’t sure where…” He trailed off. “And now it sounds as though I’m checking up on you.”
“Jessica must have forgotten to mention you stopped by, otherwise I’d have called you. I actually went to visit Maria.”
“How was that?”
“Uneventful.”
“Did you ask her about the fire again?”
“Yeah. She said Uncle Derek and I had already moved to Italy. So I guess I was imagining things that didn’t actually happen.”
“I can’t imagine it’s as simple as that. Maybe Maria was lying.”
“I don’t think so, because I also asked Glynis and Mirren if they remembered someone staying with Maria at the time of the fire. I’m sure they’d remember if a child had been there.”
Even in the silence, she could feel his sympathy.
“Things seem a little quieter here,” he said eventually. “I can wander over to the shop for a bit.”
“Don’t,” Lily said, then cursed herself. “I mean, don’t feel you have to. I’m fine, and I need to do some shopping, so I might not even be around.” It wasn’t technically a lie. Just that the implication was she’d be food shopping and not pretending to shop for artwork.
“Are you annoyed with me?”
“No,” she said impatiently. “Why would I be?”
“Because you were upset about Maria and I didn’t have time for you, and––”
“You did have time for me,” she said, cutting him off. “You sat on the beach and listened to me when you should have been at work.”
“Yes, but…”
“I’m not annoyed with you,” she said, forcefully this time.
“Okay. Well, I want to hear all about it later.”
“Thanks,” she muttered. “Is there anything new concerning the burglaries?”
“No. It seems as though the thief went on a spree and then stopped. Which makes sense since they’ve lost the element of surprise – people are being more careful about security.”
Lily suspected the real reason was that they’d decided they’d hit the jackpot with her backpack and could retire from their life of petty crime.
“We’ve got people on the lookout for anyone suspicious leaving the islands by sea or air,” Flynn went on. “So we should still have a good chance of catching them.”
“Fingers crossed.” She smiled at the young woman pushing a buggy and waved at the little one, who she knew was partial to her banana ice cream.
“Hi, Lily!” the toddler said, waving madly.
“Hello,” she cooed in return.
“I should let you get on,” Flynn said. “You sound busy.”
Grimacing, she told him she’d talk to him later before ending the call.