Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Half an hour after leaving the mobile phone shop in Truro, Lily sat in the car in a multi-storey and marvelled at modern technology. With everything saved to the cloud, she quickly had the new phone configured exactly the same as her previous one.
Flynn would still be asleep after his night shift, so she hesitated over calling him. In the end, she fired off a message to say she had a phone again and asked him to call when he was up.
The phone rang immediately, and she relaxed into the seat at the sound of his voice.
“How come you’re awake already?” she asked. “You must only have been in bed for a few hours.”
“It’s difficult to sleep when I’m panicking about you,” he said, the lightness of his voice not disguising the tension behind the words.
“I’m fine,” she said, feeling her forehead wrinkle. All she’d told Flynn was that she’d lost her phone, so there was no reason for him to be worried.
“So there isn’t some sinister reason behind you losing your phone?”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“What happened?” he asked softly. “I assume it’s to do with the note? Who was it from?”
“I don’t know.” She explained what had happened at the jetty and how Marcie had come to her rescue.
Flynn listened quietly, but she could imagine the tightness in his jaw and the tension in his shoulders.
“Where are you now?” he asked eventually.
“In Truro. I just bought a new phone.”
“What’s your plan now?”
She drew in a breath. “I’m going back to Malporth to figure everything out once and for all.”
“Can I propose a new plan?” he asked tersely.
“You can, but if you tell me not to go back there you’ll be wasting your breath. I promise to be careful, though.”
“I’m not daft enough to think I can convince you not to go back,” he said.
“What were you thinking then?”
“I’ve got one night shift left,” he said. “Once I’ve got that out of the way, I can focus on packing. I have a bunch of volunteers eager to help, so I can probably get it done in a couple of days.”
“Who’s helping you now?”
“Who isn’t? Everyone in the building offered to help.”
“Oh!” Lily sat up straight. “Did you go to the meeting with Mrs Silverton today?”
“Yes. I wasn’t intending to, but Mrs Patel dragged me over there. It ended up being pretty entertaining.”
“How’s Mrs Silverton?” Lily asked, eager to get all the details.
“Still in shock, I think, but she seems to be managing okay.” He chuckled. “It looks as though Mr Patel might have got himself the job of building manager.”
“He’ll be great at that,” Lily said, smiling at the thought of the gentle man. “Was that his wife’s idea, by any chance?”
“Yes. She spent a good while telling Mrs Silverton why he’d be perfect for the job. She seemed quite taken with the idea. Especially with the rest of them giving their glowing character references.”
“That sounds fun. I miss your neighbours. I’ll bet it was entertaining.”
“It was,” he agreed. “And I had a lot of offers of help with my packing. Gigi seemed especially keen to get me all packed and out of there as quickly as possible.”
Lily grimaced. “Did she say that?”
“Pretty much. Then she backtracked and insisted she only wanted to be helpful.” He paused. “Funnily enough, none of my neighbours seem particularly upset about my imminent departure.”
Lily knew it wasn’t anything personal. They’d just feel safer about their secret without a police officer living next door.
“Maybe because you hardly ever spoke to them,” she said kindly.
“That could be it,” he said, but his tone suggested he knew there was more to it than that. “Anyway, with my team of helpers, I can be ready to go in a few days. Why don’t you hole up in a hotel in Truro for now. Then I’ll come and help you figure all of this out.”
“No way you’ll get everything done so quickly,” she said with a frown. “And you need to get to Scilly and settle in there before you start work.”
“I really think I can get packed up quickly. My mum is taking my car, so I don’t need to worry about selling it. I can be with you in a few days and have the best part of a week before I need to be on St Mary’s.”
“Won’t it be too much of a rush for you?” she asked without a lot of conviction. The thought of having him with her in a few days was tempting enough that she wouldn’t argue too strongly.
“It’ll be fine,” he said. “Better than you chasing psychopaths on your own.”
“I’m not on my own,” she said slowly. “I haven’t told you that bit, have I?”
“About the police officer helping you? Where was he when you fell in the river?”
“I don’t know what’s happened with Roy. I couldn’t reach him yesterday evening, and I haven’t had my phone, so I haven’t heard from him since. Anyway, there’s more news – I met my grandmother this morning.”
“Seriously?” Shock was clear in his tone. “How did you find her?”
“It turned out the woman from the gift shop knows her, she’d just been reluctant to say anything, but after the incident yesterday she told me where to find her.”
“And you met her this morning? How was the big reunion?”
“Really weird.” She rubbed her temple. “I probably should have been happier to see her, but I struggled to be enthusiastic. I was angry, and I had so many questions. She did too.”
“Was she happy to see you?”
“Yes.” Lily smiled. “She was, and she seems nice. I just don’t know her. Maybe I thought I’d remember more stuff when I saw her, but I didn’t. She’s a stranger to me.”
“It’ll probably just take some time.”
“Yeah. She also refused to let me go back to Malporth alone.”
“Good. I like her already.”
Lily beamed. “She said she’d come with me. We’re meeting there later. She’s going to stay with me and help me investigate.”
“No,” he grumbled. “Don’t do that. Having a little old lady with you isn’t going to make me feel any better about the situation.”
Lily hadn’t particularly liked the thought of her grandmother putting herself in harm’s way either, but she hadn’t been able to dissuade her.
“It’ll be okay,” she said. “At least now I know I can trust Marcie, and there’s Nancy, and Roy, too. Assuming he just missed my call yesterday.”
“There’s no chance he’s shady, is there?”
“No,” she said, but the doubt was clear in her voice. “I don’t think so anyway.”
“What about telling the police what happened yesterday?” he said. “The actual police, not a retired officer.”
“I thought about it, but the note was in my pocket when I went into the river, so that’s destroyed.
I have no proof that someone intentionally moved the barrier on the jetty.
” She tapped the steering wheel. “I should probably at least tell them about that so someone can fix it. Maybe Marcie will have done that.”
“Can you please wait for me to get there before you dig around any more?”
“I’ll be really careful,” she said, dodging the question.
He sighed. “Send me the address of where you’re staying, please. At least I’ll know where to come looking for you if you go off radar again.”
“I’ll send the address, but I have a phone now, so you can contact me.” She felt a spark of positivity. “And you probably won’t need to come here. I’ll have figured it all out by the time you’ve finished packing.”