Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Flynn had a bad feeling as soon as he got off the phone with Lily.
The phone call from PC Jones had put him on edge, but he shouldn’t have been so grumpy with Lily.
When he’d called PC Jones back, he’d been really good about the whole thing and hadn’t questioned the story about the AirPods.
Flynn felt slightly guilty about that too – he’d trusted Flynn’s word without question.
And the whole time Flynn had been knowingly lying to him. He didn’t like it.
Even so, it wasn’t that which played on his mind for the rest of his shift. It was guilt over snapping at Lily. Not that she’d hold it against him. Knowing her, she’d act as though it never happened.
He owed her an apology, though. Once he made it through what felt like a never-ending shift.
It was shortly after nine when he finally walked back into the flat.
Lily bounded out of the living room to greet him. She definitely didn’t seem annoyed with him. In fact, she looked as though she might combust from excitement.
“You won’t believe what I found,” she said, bouncing on her heels.
All the tension left him, and he tilted his head. “Was it the butler in the living room with the bookcase?”
Her laughter filled the hall. “Don’t tease me,” she said, but flung herself at him and kissed his lips.
“What did you find then?” he asked, settling against her with his arms firmly around her waist.
“He didn’t own the building!” she said, eyes sparkling.
“What?” He wrinkled his brow and untangled himself from her to remove his coat. “Who?”
“Mr Latham didn’t own this building.”
“Okay,” he said, slipping his feet out of his trainers. “So was he the agent, or what?”
“I don’t think so,” Lily said. “At least not that I can find any evidence of. Also, I asked Mrs Patel where they pay their rent and she said it went into Mr Latham’s private account, not a business account or anything.”
“That’s right,” Flynn said. “The account is in his name.”
“If he were the agent, or collecting rent for the owners, surely the money wouldn’t go into his private account.”
“No,” Flynn said, taking her hand and leading her into the living room to sit on the couch. “How do you know he doesn’t own the building?”
“I suspected he faked asbestos so he could buy it for cheap. I checked the Land Registry to see when he bought it, except apparently he didn’t buy it.”
Flynn stared at her. “Who owns it?”
“Mr and Mrs Silverton.”
“Who the heck are they?”
“I’m not sure, but Mrs Patel spoke to a friend who lived here previously. She said Mr and Mrs Silverton owned the building. She thought they’d sold it to Mr Latham.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Flynn said, continuing to stare at her as theories flew around his head, with one in particular at the forefront. “Oh no,” he said, dropping his head into his hands. “No. Oh my god, no.”
“What’s wrong?” Lily asked, peeling his hands from his face.
“Are you about to tell me I’ve been paying a conman this whole time?”
Lily grimaced. “Maybe. I’m not quite sure, but I’d say that’s a definite possibility.”
He flopped back onto the couch. “You need to come up with some different possibilities, because if that’s true I’m never going to live it down at work.”
She grinned and snuggled into his chest.
“Sorry for snapping at you earlier,” he said, stroking her hair.
“No worries.”
“I’ve been a bit stressed, and working extra shifts when I could be hanging out with you isn’t helping. But I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”
“It’s really okay. I put you in an awkward position.” She pulled back and grimaced. “I’m fairly sure someone killed Mr Latham, though.”
“They saved me a job anyway,” he joked, then went for a more serious tone. “What else did you find?”
“Someone planted evidence in my coat pocket. The screws that were holding up the bookcase.”
He blinked a few times while he tried to process that. “What did you do with them?”
“Put them in the bin in the park. I wasn’t sure what to do for the best.”
She looked at him as though he’d know the best course of action. Sadly, he was stumped.
“Can we figure this out tomorrow after I’ve had some sleep?”
She nodded sagely. “We need to figure out how to track down the Silvertons.”
“And you’re meeting Mr Harper in the morning.”
She winced.
“You hadn’t forgotten, had you?”
“No. But with everything going on, I haven’t had a chance to dwell on it. Which is probably a good thing.”
“If you don’t want to meet with him, you don’t have to.” He knew her better than that, though. There was no way she wouldn’t meet with him.
“I want to meet him,” she murmured, settling against his chest again. “I need to find out if he knows anything about my parents’ deaths.”
He kissed the top of her head. Apparently his day off tomorrow wasn’t going to be a relaxing one.