Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Patel’s lively living room fell silent when Flynn walked in behind Mrs Patel.
Familiar faces stared up at him. He caught Caroline’s eye and smiled politely.
She was the neighbour he knew best due to her cleaning his flat every couple of weeks.
Her son, Liam, sat beside her on the couch.
He tipped his chin in greeting and continued to stroke Pixie, who sat on Gigi’s lap.
Aiden was there too, sitting on one of the straight-back chairs which appeared to have been brought in specially for the occasion.
“Flynn’s having relationship problems,” Mrs Patel announced.
“I thought that between us we could find some comforting words.” She beamed at Flynn.
“Sometimes just talking everything through will help. It’s times like these that you need people to lean on.
Which is exactly what I was explaining to Mrs Silverton earlier… ”
Flynn’s gaze went to the older lady in the armchair by the window. He wanted to introduce himself but couldn’t get a word in.
“That’s the sort of community spirit we have in this building,” Mrs Patel said. “We look out for each other.”
It dawned on Flynn why he’d been so forcefully dragged over there. Mrs Patel was on a mission to make them appear to be exemplary tenants, and Flynn had given her the perfect opportunity to demonstrate how they look out for each other.
She was going to be disappointed when she figured out she’d read the situation all wrong.
“I’m not having relationship problems,” he told her.
“That’s not what you said a minute ago. You were very agitated by it then.”
“Not about my relationship,” he said. “That’s not the problem. My main problem is that you’ve just locked me out of my flat.” He looked at Mr Patel, perched on the arm of the couch. “Can you give me the spare, please?”
With an eager nod, he took his keys from his pocket and began to move the single key around the ring.
“You just told me Lily isn’t answering your calls,” Mrs Patel ploughed on. “Or responding to messages. That sounds like some fairly obvious problems in your relationship.”
Aiden sucked air through his teeth. “Sounds as though she ghosted you. That’s bad luck, Mate.”
“She hasn’t ghosted me.”
Mr Patel paused from twisting the key and looked at Aiden. “What does that mean? Ghosting? Like ghouls?”
Flynn felt the sudden urge to bolt from the inane chatter. There was no way he could get to Truro and back before his shift, but he was about to start a new job, anyway. How much trouble could he really get into for missing work?
“It means she’s decided the relationship is over,” Aiden explained to Mr Patel. “But instead of telling him, she’s just cut contact.”
Mr Patel stared at Aiden in shock. “That’s harsh.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty harsh,” Aiden agreed.
Flynn gritted his teeth. “That’s not what’s happened.”
“A long-distance relationship must be hard,” Mrs Patel said, kneeling by the coffee table and pouring tea into a dainty China cup. “And I don’t want to sound critical, but you working when she came to visit last week probably wasn’t the best idea. The poor thing was alone the whole time.”
Flynn almost pointed out that wasn’t entirely true since she’d spent a lot of time with the people in the room, but he didn’t want to get into that.
“It’s really not a relationship issue,” he insisted, then checked his phone again. Still no word from her. “I’m concerned she’s in danger, not that she’s just ignoring me.”
“Pff!” Mrs Patel passed him a cup and saucer and pointed to a chair.
He didn’t want to sit and drink tea, he wanted to figure out what was going on with Lily.
The drink was shoved into his hand, and Mrs Patel gently steered him to the chair.
“Why would she be in danger on the Scilly Isles?” Caroline asked. “Isn’t it one of the safest places in the UK?”
“We watched a documentary about the Scillies,” Mrs Patel added. “It did seem to be a very safe place.”
“She’s not on Scilly,” he said, exasperated.
“She left here to track down her grandmother, who she just found out might not be dead. And she also thinks someone might have killed her parents, so she’s been looking into that.
I’m worried that her asking questions might have got her into trouble.
That’s why I’m panicking about her not being in contact. ”
When he stopped talking, everyone stared at him in stunned silence. “Sorry,” he muttered. “That was a lot of information, and it probably sounds crazy, but I’m genuinely worried about her.”
“Someone killed Lily’s parents?” Caroline asked, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees.
“They died in a fire when she was a kid,” he explained.
“It looked like an accident, but Lily thinks it might have been arson, so she went back to the village. Most of her old neighbours still live there so she started asking questions. Last night she got a note from someone claiming to have information about her parents’ deaths.
They asked her to meet on the jetty yesterday evening.
She promised me she wouldn’t go alone, but I haven’t heard from her since. Her phone seems to be switched off.”
“Goodness,” Mrs Silverton said. “That doesn’t sound good.” She locked eyes with Flynn. “I met Lily last week, she was very kind.”
“What could have happened to her?” Mrs Patel asked fiercely. “And what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know what to do,” Flynn said. “I keep hoping she’ll get in touch, but maybe I should get the local police to check on her. I’m not even sure where exactly she’s staying, though. I only know the name of the village.”
“Maybe she just lost her phone,” Liam suggested.
“She knows he’d be worried though,” Gigi said quietly, eyes fixed on the dog in her lap. “If she’d lost her phone, she could get in touch another way. Social media or email.”
Flynn straightened his spine. As calmly as possible, he set his cup and saucer on the table, then took his phone from his pocket again.
“You’d have seen a notification if she messaged you another way,” Liam said.
“I don’t have many notifications on my phone,” Flynn said. “Definitely not emails. They used to pop up every few minutes and it drove me mad, so I switched them off.”
“And it didn’t occur to you to check your emails?” Mrs Patel asked.
“I had three hours of sleep. I might not have been thinking straight.” He focused on his phone, and his entire body sagged when he saw a message from Lily. “She’s okay,” he said as his eyes darted over the brief message.
“What did she say?” Mrs Silverton asked.
“Just that she lost her phone, but she’s fine and will call as soon as she gets a new phone. Hopefully today, she says.”
“That’s a relief,” Mr Patel said, a hand at his chest. “I grew very fond of Lily. I’m glad to hear she’s safe and well.”
“Me too,” Flynn said. “I hate thinking of her being there alone.”
“When have you next got time off?” Mrs Patel said. “Perhaps you could go over and be with her.”
“I’ve got one more shift tonight, then I have a week and a half off before I need to be on St Mary’s.” His head whipped towards Mrs Silverton. “I wanted to talk to you about that. I’ll be moving out very soon. I’m not sure how things stand here…”
She flicked a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry. I’ll find someone else to take over the flat.”
“Thanks.” He switched his attention back to Mrs Patel. “After my shift tonight, I need to pack up my flat and get ready to move. Otherwise I’d be over to Truro like a shot.”
“It shouldn’t take too long,” Mrs Patel said. “Not with Henry helping you.”
“I could help too,” Gigi said, finally looking up.
“If it would help you leave quicker, I could absolutely lend a hand.” She sucked in a dramatic breath and pressed her hand to her mouth.
“That sounded awful. I only meant that you’d be able to go and help Lily.
She was very kind to me, and I don’t like thinking of her dealing with such a horrible situation alone. ”
Flynn noticed the awkward looks around the room and was fairly sure Gigi did, in fact, just want him gone from the building as fast as possible.
“I can help too,” Caroline said. “I’ll clean for you – as a favour, not for payment. Just focus on emptying the place, and I’ll give it a deep clean once you’ve gone.”
“I can help with that,” Aiden said. “I’ve actually got the next two days off, so I can help with anything else you need, too.”
“I think between us we can get it all done in record time,” Mrs Patel said. “We’ll get you to Lily as quickly as possible.”
“That would be great,” Flynn said, slightly dumbstruck.
Mrs Silverton smiled fondly. “It’s lovely to know there are still good people in the world. After all this business with Mr Latham, I started to wonder.”
“We’re always helping each other out here,” Mrs Patel said proudly.
“We might even be able to help you out with finding a new property manager to look after the building.” She gestured to her husband.
“Henry isn’t working at the moment, and he’d be perfect for the role.
If you want references, you could ask anyone here. ”
The enthusiasm in the room made Flynn smile. He picked up his tea again. He’d drink it and then go and continue his packing.