Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Arriving at Len’s house, Lily was completely out of breath. She was also confused by the two police cars parked outside.
“What’s going on?” she asked when Flynn walked out of the house with a cardboard box in his arms. After depositing it beside an identical one in the boot of the closest police car, he turned to her with a triumphant glint in his eyes. “Len was the one who’s been robbing people.”
She swallowed hard. “How did you figure it out?”
“It occurred to me that your gut feelings about these things are usually right. So I took apart the pressure washer he was shipping off to the mainland and found a bunch of jewellery inside. I guess if we’d taken apart the vacuum cleaner the other day we’d have found something in that too.”
“What else have you found?” Lily asked as the sergeant led Len out of the house with a hand on his elbow.
“Bits and pieces. Mostly jewellery, a bit of cash, a few backpacks.”
Her eyes darted to the boxes. “Is this all the stolen stuff?”
Flynn nodded. “We’ll take it down to the station and go through it. Hopefully, we can get everything back to the owners.”
“Is my backpack in there?” she asked in a rush. “Can I have a look through and get it back?”
“Here she is!” Len sneered as he got close. “The island’s very own investigator.”
“You stole from people!” she shouted, unable to control her anger. “You stole from people who trusted you. And you lied to me. I trusted you, and you told one lie after another.”
“I don’t think you’re one to talk about lying, are you?”
“Come on.” The sergeant nudged him towards the open car door. “Don’t make a fuss. You’re in enough trouble as it is.”
“It’s her you ought to be looking into!” Len’s eyes blazed. “Someone should ask Lily Larkin questions. If that’s even your real name.”
The sergeant hushed him and encouraged him into the car before closing the door and circling around the back to close the boot.
“Wait!” Lily said as the back door came down. “He stole my backpack. I need to get it back.”
“We’ll process everything and get it back to you,” Sergeant Proctor said, heading for the driver’s door. “You didn’t report anything missing though, so you better come to the station later to make sure we’ve got all the paperwork straight.”
“No,” Lily protested, but the sergeant was already in the car.
“Don’t worry,” Flynn said. “You’ll get it back.”
“You could have just given it to me then.” She glared at him. “You promised you’d get it for me.”
“I will. What does it look like again?”
“It’s black with a little blue flower embroidered on the front pocket.”
“I think I saw that. Once we’ve got everything documented, I can bring it over to you.”
“You can’t document it,” Lily said desperately. “I already told you the sergeant can’t look inside it, or you. I need you to promise you won’t look in it.”
“Why?” He pursed his lips. “What’s in it?”
“Just promise me,” she snarled.
A smirk played on his lips. “What exactly is so embarrassing that you don’t want me to see?”
As tears filled her eyes, she turned away from him.
“Lily,” he said after a moment.
“I just need the bag back,” she said, unable to hide her emotions. “I can explain everything to you later, but first I need you to get my bag… and not look inside it.”
“What could be so bad?” he asked, searching her features.
“It’s sentimental,” she said, her voice hoarse. “Stuff I found after my uncle died. I’ll show it to you later, but you can’t let the sergeant see it.”
“Okay.” He cupped her cheek and brushed away a tear with his thumb. “I’ll get it for you. Don’t worry.”
She squeezed his hand. “Thank you.”
Flynn pulled in at the station and stepped out of the car.
“Are you okay?” he called to the sergeant, who lingered beside the Land Rover, one hand on the back panel as though steadying himself.
He nodded slowly. “Not feeling too bright. Len’s wittering doesn’t help.”
“Do you want me to deal with him?”
Again, the sergeant nodded. “Book him in.” He swiped at the glimmer of sweat on his forehead. “Since I don’t think he’s a danger to anyone, or a flight risk, we’ll interview him and let him go on bail until he has a court date.”
“Do you want me to do the interview if you’re not feeling great?”
“I’ll manage. I might need to go home after that, though.”
“Do you need to see a doctor?” Flynn asked, concerned at the sergeant suggesting going home when there was so much to deal with. He could process the stolen goods himself, but it was unusual for the sergeant to hand over control.
“I think I’m all right,” he said, moving and opening the boot. “I haven’t been sleeping well. Probably just need to catch up on some shut eye.”
Flynn opened the back door to let Len out, then escorted him inside and into the interview room.
The sergeant joined them a few minutes later and unbuttoned his shirt collar as he launched straight into the interview.
Having been caught red-handed, Len didn’t hold back, but described his crime spree over the past week, including giving the details of his contact on the mainland who he’d been selling the goods to.
Mostly, he was unemotional and unremorseful.
“Why did you do it?” Flynn asked eventually.
He flexed his fingers. “My hands are shot. Arthritis. I won’t be able to work for much longer, and how will I manage then?”
“So you thought you’d steal from people you’ve known for years?” Flynn said contemptuously.
“Me?” he scoffed. “What about them? They’ve been robbing me blind for years! They slip me cash and make out as though they’re doing me a favour. What they really did was shaft me when it came to my pension.”
Shaking his head, Flynn leaned back in his seat and let the sergeant take the lead again.
After a few more questions, he drew the interview to a close by charging him with burglary and theft, then left to make some phone calls.
“I bet you feel really high and mighty,” Len snarled at Flynn when they were alone. “Sitting there judging me.”
“If things were really so bad, you could have applied for benefits.”
“Benefits wouldn’t be enough to live on. Not around here.”
Flynn leaned back in his chair. “So you thought you were entitled to just take what you wanted?”
“Too right. I’ve worked myself to the bone all these years and barely get by. The people I’ve cleaned for, they have it easy in their big houses. And what about your little friend? Talk about getting everything handed to you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Lily Larkin, or whatever her real name is. She leased that ice cream shop for an absolute steal. I asked about leasing it years ago and was sent on my way. That would have been a nice little earner for me, but no, it goes to some prissy rich girl. Now that was a prize – robbing her.”
Flynn squinted in confusion.
“I hope you’ll be asking her a few questions too,” Len added.
The door opened again, and the sergeant approached the table.
“You can leave on bail,” he said, sliding the papers across and informing Len of his court date in Truro the following week, as well as the consequences for not showing up.
He heaved in a breath and looked at Flynn.
“Make sure he understands the conditions of his bail before you let him go.” He trudged to the door and left them alone again.
“Let’s get this over and done with,” Flynn said, taking the papers to go through everything with Len, explaining that he shouldn’t go near any of the properties he’d burgled or anyone he’d stolen from.
He also gave him the friendly advice to keep a low profile, since word was bound to get out that it was him who’d committed the burglaries and thefts.
With the paperwork signed, he escorted him through the station and watched him go, then he ventured back to the sergeant’s office.
Sergeant Proctor was sitting at his desk. On the floor was one of the boxes of stolen goods. The other was on the desk, obscuring Flynn’s view of the sergeant.
“If you need to go home, I can deal with this,” he said, clocking the weariness in his superior’s features.
“Do you know about this?” The sergeant’s voice was oddly aggressive as he flicked the back of his hand at the backpack on his desk.
Flynn registered the blue flower embroidered on the black material. “I think it’s Lily’s.”
“So you knew about it?”
“She told me Len had stolen a backpack from her. I don’t know the details.”
“Do you know what’s in it?” the sergeant asked through gritted teeth. “I’d think carefully about your answer if I were you.”
“What’s going on?” Flynn asked.
He pulled a bundle of clothes from the bag, then tilted it in Flynn’s direction.
His eyes widened. “That’s a lot of money.”
“You don’t know why she has so much cash?”
“No.” It shed some light on Len’s comments, though. Flynn thought back to how panicked Lily had been earlier. “She said the bag contained things she’d found at her uncle’s house after he died.”
The sergeant flicked a finger towards a couple of passports on the desk, which Flynn hadn’t noticed. “Any idea why she has two passports?”
Flynn shrugged. “She grew up in different countries across Europe, so she probably has dual citizenship.”
“I’d agree with you on that if it weren’t for the fact that there are two different names in these passports.”
“What?” He lifted the passports and opened one and then the other. “This doesn’t make sense.”
“Not unless she has an identical twin we don’t know about, who shares neither her last name nor her nationality.”
“I don’t understand it,” Flynn said, staring at the passports.
“You really knew nothing about it?”
He swallowed hard and shook his head.
“We need to question her.”
“I can go and speak to her. I’m sure there’s some simple explanation.
” Though he couldn’t imagine what it was.
“That’s why she was looking for the thief,” he muttered, sinking into a chair.
“She did have a vested interest in finding them. But she didn’t tell me anything about it.
” Not only that. She’d outright lied to him.
“Flynn?” Sergeant Proctor said, interrupting his thoughts. “I think it’s probably better if I question Lily.”
“Maybe,” he agreed. “Yeah. That might be better.” He wasn’t sure he could remain professional. While he was keen to know why exactly Lily had a bag full of cash and two passports, he mostly wanted to question her about why she hadn’t spoken to him about it.
Whatever was going on, she should have been able to confide in him.