by Fiona Leitch
I reached into my bedside drawer and rifled around in it until I was forced to concede there was no paper in there, then went downstairs, found a writing pad and pen, and went back to bed. I propped myself up comfortably on the pillows, made room for Germaine (who had gone back to her usual spot by Daisy’s feet, but had come in to see what all the commotion was about and decided my bed was comfier), and started writing.
I was woken the next morning by the ping of a text message reaching my phone, which I’d left on top of my chest of drawers. My first thought was that it was Nathan, telling me someone else had died, but when I dragged myself across the room and read it, bleary-eyed, I saw that it was a group message from the film production office, telling all extras that filming had been temporarily suspended. That’s going to put the cat amongst the pigeons, I thought, and sure enough about ten minutes later I got a text from Tony, making sure I’d got the message and asking me if I knew what was going on … to which I replied that yes, I had seen it, but I didn’t answer his question. And then five minutes later Debbie rang me.
‘What’s the goss?’ she asked, the minute I answered.
‘Good morning to you too,’ I said, stifling a yawn.
‘Yeah, yeah, whatever,’ she said. ‘Come on, spill. Callum saw Tony last night and he said you were still at the shoot, doing some dinner party. And then the next day everything grinds to a halt. What did you do? Slip some arsenic in Faith’s pudding to stop her flirting with Tony?’
‘No, I didn’t bloody poison anyone! And why would I care about her flirting with Tony?’ I said, although of course I sort of did care.
‘So why has shooting stopped?’
‘What makes you think I’d know?’
She snorted. ‘Because you’re so bloomin’ nosey.’
I sighed. It was a fair cop. I opened my mouth, not knowing what I was going to say, but was saved by a beep as another call came in: Nathan.
‘Sorry, Nathan’s calling me,’ I said, ‘and quite frankly he’s better looking than you, so…’
She laughed. ‘I ain’t one to stand in the way of true love,’ she said, because of course she had no idea that Nathan was leaving. I blinked hard, refusing to accept the sudden tears that threatened my eyes. ‘Off you go. Say hi to him from me.’
She hung up, and I answered Nathan’s call.
‘Morning,’ I said, with forced cheeriness.
‘Morning. How are you? No sickness or anything?’ he asked.
‘No, I’m fine. What about the other diners? Anyone else popped their clogs?’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t rung the hospital yet,’ he said. ‘I wanted to check on you first.’ I felt my heart swell; I’d been the first person he’d thought of. It was lucky I was already sitting on my bed or I might’ve swooned. ‘And of course they’d have rung me if anyone had died.’ Well yes, there was that, of course…
‘So anyway, I’ve been thinking…’ I said, and he groaned.
‘Here we go,’ he said, but it was good-natured.
‘How long until we get the lab results back about cause of death?’ I asked. He laughed.
‘You mean how long ’til I get the results back. I’m the police, remember?’
‘Sorry, Detective Chief Inspector, I know my place.’
He laughed again at that. He had a nice laugh. ‘Yeah, right. I think a pig just flew over my head… It helps that the lab knows what they’re looking for, so with any luck we’ll hear back by the end of the day if there was tetrodotoxin – pufferfish toxin – in the victim’s bloodstream. They’ll do a full screening, but that’ll probably take longer.’
‘Okay, so until then we shouldn’t assume anything, should we? We shouldn’t rule out other causes.’
He sighed. ‘Here we really do go again. Are you telling me you don’t think Zack did it? Because you were the one who mentioned pufferfish in the first place.’
‘I know, and I still think that was the cause of death.’
‘But…?’
‘Oh, I don’t know…’ I lay back on the bed, momentarily wishing Nathan and I were having this conversation in person, right there on my duvet. Or preferably under it. ‘I hate the thought of Zack being responsible. He’s a nice bloke and the guilt will do his head in.’
‘I didn’t speak to him much last night, but yeah, he seems like a nice fella. It was an accident, though.’
‘Yeah,’ I said, but for some reason that made me feel uneasy. I shook my head. ‘Anyway, all I was really going to say is, I’ve made a list of everything that was in the meal last night, every single ingredient we used, and I think we should get everyone who was there to make their own list of everything they ate. Just to see what correlation there is between who was sick, if any of them were, and exactly what they ate. I mean, I’ve never seen pufferfish poisoning before – I’ve never seen any neurotoxin at work, apart from on my training course – so I could be totally wrong.’
‘Hmm…’ Nathan sounded thoughtful. ‘Fair enough. Even if it was the fish, it’s still weird that Jeremy Mayhew died so quickly, while the rest of them were fine. They were, last I heard, anyway. I should probably go and check…’
We made arrangements to meet at Polvarrow House later on; Nathan had to go back to the death scene and I needed to check on the food truck – I’d left it in a bit of a hurry the night before and I was very aware of the fact that it wasn’t mine.
I could hear Daisy getting up, and then Mum moving around in the spare room (which was really her bedroom, but we still called it the spare room to maintain the illusion that she was a strong, independent woman with her own home and she was only staying over as a favour to me). It was a school morning, and the madness was about to begin.
I flopped back onto my pillow, trying to ignore the fact that I needed to get up and be a responsible adult. I shut my eyes and hoped with all my heart that this wouldn’t be the last case I got to investigate with Nathan.
Chapter Sixteen
I managed to get Daisy to school without telling her too much about the night before. She wanted to hear all about Zack, and I’d half-forgotten she was signed up as an extra too so she’d also got a text message about the shoot being cancelled. I told her it was probably just some technical hold-up and that she hadn’t lost her chance at stardom, then Germaine and I dropped her off at the gates and were about to drive away when Debbie leapt in front of the car.
‘Oh no you don’t, missus!’ she said, blocking my way. ‘There is so much you’re not telling me…’ I had to admit defeat and go for a coffee with her.
We sat in Rowe’s – where the scent of freshly baked pasties and sausage rolls was enough to make a true Cornishman (or woman) weep with longing and Germaine, who had tucked herself under the table, salivate all over my trainers – waiting for the waitress to bring our drinks over.
‘Thank you.’ I smiled up at the woman who, like at least three-quarters of this town’s inhabitants I vaguely recognised (possibly from school, although it was just as likely to be from coming into the bakery all the bloomin’ time), and stirred my cappuccino as I waited for Debbie to start grilling me.
She took a deep breath (oh, this was going to be one heck of a grilling, I could feel it) and opened her mouth. But before she could speak, the thing that had really been on my mind since I’d learnt about it yesterday – even more than Jeremy’s death – burst out of my mouth before I could stop it.
‘Nathan’s leaving,’ I blurted. She stopped mid-mouth-opening with such a look of surprise on her face that I almost laughed. But then I remembered what I’d just said and didn’t feel like laughing after all.
‘What?’ she said, looking stunned. ‘When? Why? What are you talking about?’
‘His old boss back in Liverpool has offered him a job. And his parents are getting on and his dad’s ill, and his ex still lives there and—’
‘Bloody hell!’ she said, still looking gobsmacked. ‘I can’t believe it. When’s he going?’
‘I don�
��t know,’ I said. I felt sick. I fiddled with a sachet of sugar, my fingers turning it over and over, just as my thoughts were turning over and over in my mind.
‘Well, he’s a dark horse, ain’t he? Has he told his ex?’
‘No, no, he said he’s not in touch with her anymore. I believe him. But it’s a really good job, and it’ll be near his parents.’
Debbie leaned back in her chair, shaking her head. ‘Still, I really can’t believe it. I thought … you and him… Tony’ll be pleased, though.’
I looked down at the table. Tony wasn’t the one I wanted, was he? There were good reasons why Tony would be the perfect man for me. Daisy loved him (but then she’d given Nathan the seal of approval after he’d eaten with us the other night), Mum loved him, Germaine loved him… And there was the small matter of that six-pack and his sudden, completely unexpected Darcy-esque hotness. Germaine gave a little whine and lay her head on my feet.
As if she knew what I was thinking, Debbie said, ‘One thing’s for certain, Tony’ll never leave Penstowan.’
No, I thought. That was probably the main reason we’d only ever been friends, apart from those two weeks in 1994.
‘Anyway,’ I said, ‘I don’t really want to talk about it. And that’s not what you ambushed me for, is it? You want the skinny on the shoot.’
‘Yeah,’ said Debbie, although she seemed less interested about it now. She clearly wanted to keep discussing Nathan and Tony but I made it equally clear that I didn’t. ‘So what’s going on?’
‘You have to keep this to yourself for the moment. It will get out, but you are sworn to absolute secrecy for now.’ She laughed and went to speak but I stopped her with a serious look. ‘No, I mean it.’
‘Okay, I promise. I won’t say anything.’
I told her what had happened. She let out a loud ‘WHAT?’, but then shut her mouth and listened intently.
‘So what’ll happen to the movie now?’ she asked. I shrugged.
‘No idea. I suppose it depends on how many of Jeremy’s scenes they’ve already shot. If it’s only a few, they could just recast the part and shoot them again.’
‘Yeah…’ she said. ‘Or they might be able to use a stand-in and CGI. They CGI’d Carrie Fisher into a scene in one of the newer Star Wars films, didn’t they? They might be able to do that.’
‘Maybe. But the one thing they probably can’t do is just stop. They must’ve already poured a lot of money into it, and they won’t get that back unless they finish shooting and get the film out there.’
We finished our coffees and said our goodbyes, Debbie pulling me in for a hug that took me by surprise and made me feel a bit weepy. Then Germaine and I made our way to Polvarrow House.
I was horrified to discover that I’d left the food truck in a much worse mess than I remembered. The lights had gone out while I’d been in the middle of washing up, and then Nathan had turned up, somewhat drenched and windswept and looking a little bit Heathcliff, if truth be told (although, as book boyfriends go, Heathcliff didn’t really do it for me; he was a bit of a bully); it had taken all my strength to not trot out some cheesy line about ‘getting out of those wet things’. And then we’d heard a scream (Kimi), and the night had descended into chaos…
I apologised to Germaine as I tethered her to the caravan steps, leaving her a long enough leash that she could have a sniff around. I left the door open so she could see I was still there, but she was too busy nosing around in the grass, following all the exciting scent trails as far as she could before being restrained by the lead.
‘Sorry, sweetheart,’ I said. ‘I will take you for a good long W. A. L. K. later, I promise.’
I pulled the plug on the sink full of cold water and refilled it with hot soapy bubbles, putting away the bottles of cooking oil, soy sauce, and so on while I waited for it to fill. Thank God I’d remembered to turn the deep-fat fryer off the night before, otherwise there might not have been a food truck to come back to. Germaine gave a little yap and I knew someone was there before they spoke.
‘All right?’ I looked up to see Zack standing hesitantly in the doorway. He looked awful. I smiled sympathetically at him and motioned him inside.
‘How are you this morning?’ I asked. ‘Were you ill last night?’
He nodded. ‘Yeah, a little bit. Threw up once and felt better. Not like Aiko.’ He grimaced. ‘She was up nearly all night being sick, and she had a splitting headache.’
‘Oh no! Is she all right now?’
‘She’s fine now, just really wiped out,’ he said. ‘They discharged her and she’s back at the hotel now, resting.’ He smiled, but it was a sad, almost tearful smile. ‘It was pretty scary, if I’m honest. I thought I might have killed her too…’
‘Oh Zack…’ I gave him a big hug and we stood like that for a few seconds, while I patted him on the back and he got himself together. I stood back and looked at him seriously. ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself…’
He snorted. ‘Who else is there to blame?’
‘I know, I know, but it was an accident, wasn’t it?’ Like all the other ‘accidents’ that have been happening, I thought, but what else could it be? We might not have had the test results back yet, but it had definitely been something Jeremy had eaten, and one of the things he’d eaten had been the notoriously poisonous pufferfish. It had to be that. And yet…
And yet it niggled at me. Something had niggled at me when I’d spoken to Nathan earlier, but I hadn’t known what it was; it had felt like a vague uneasiness, or a faint itch inside my brain. No matter how hard I tried to ignore it, it was still there, whispering to me. Just another accident? Or something else?
I pulled myself together. It wouldn’t help Zack if I mentioned my misgivings, and they turned out to be wrong.
‘What are you doing here, anyway?’ I asked. ‘You don’t need to be on set, surely?’
‘I left my knives and everything here,’ he said. ‘Although I don’t think I’ll be using them again any time soon.’
‘Now that would be a waste,’ I said. ‘I was impressed with your knife skills last night. They’re better than mine, and I went to catering college.’
He smiled and pulled himself up with a bit of mock-swagger. ‘I grew up in South London, didn’t I? I’m well used to knives.’
I laughed. ‘Yeah, yeah, whatever. I lived in South London for the best part of twenty years, it ain’t that bad.’
‘Did you? Whereabouts?’
I thought about making something up, but dammit, I was a good copper and I wasn’t going to lie about it. ‘I was a police officer in the Met. Based at Stockwell.’
If Zack was horrified, he managed to hide it. ‘Were you? Wow. I’m from Deptford.’ He leant in towards me. ‘Don’t tell anyone because it’s bad for the image, but I never had any real run-ins with the police. I had mates that were always in trouble, but I was more likely to be at drama club than running wild.’ His smile faded. ‘That’s all gonna change now though, ain’t it?’
‘Don’t be daft; it was an accident. The coroner will rule it as death by misadventure. You didn’t intentionally contaminate the fish, and you didn’t force it down Jeremy’s throat.’
He sighed. ‘I still don’t see how I contaminated it. I didn’t puncture any of the organs, or let the skin touch the flesh, and those are the bits that contain the poison. I just don’t understand it.’
I patted him on the back. ‘Well, let’s wait for the lab results and make sure that is what killed him, before you start writing off your cooking skills.’
He stared at me, a look of faint hope on his face. ‘Do you think there’s a chance it was something else? Like he was allergic or something?’
‘Well…’ I said, gently. ‘Maybe. But of course you and Aiko were sick as well, weren’t you? And maybe the others too.’
‘Yeah…’
Poor Zack. I had washed up his knives last night, along with the chopping boards he’d used to prepare the fish, so I handed them over an
d sent him on his way.
I finished washing up everything else, then picked up the two bags of rubbish I’d left by the door the night before and carried them outside, making sure not to trip on the broken stair. Like all the other ‘accidents’, I thought again. Hmm. I carried the bags over to the big rubbish dumpster in the courtyard, threw in the one of vegetable peelings and general kitchen debris, and then stopped. The other bag was full of fish waste – the internal organs and skin of the pufferfish. I turned on my heel and headed to Zack’s trailer.
The trailer was cordoned off, although the forensics team had finished their initial investigation and left; as far as anyone else was concerned it was an accident. It was just me who was beginning to think it wasn’t, but I had absolutely nothing to base that on.
Davey Trelawney had just come back on shift and was standing guard outside.
‘All right, Davey?’ I said. He nodded.
‘Aye, I’m all right. Looking for the guvnor, are you?’ he asked. I wondered if he knew Penstowan would be looking for a new DCI soon. I nodded.
‘Is he around?’
‘Just talking to the SOCO,’ he said, nodding over to where a police squad car and a couple of unmarked ones were parked. Nathan was talking to a Scene of Crime officer I didn’t recognise; Penstowan didn’t have its own forensics people, and had to use the team based at Barnstaple.
‘Thanks,’ I said, grasping my bag of rubbish tightly and striding over to them. Nathan looked up as I approached, and a smile spread over his face. He quickly wiped it off and turned back to his companion, ever the professional.
‘Hello,’ I said. The SOCO nodded at me and went to get in his car. ‘Hold on,’ I said, stopping him. ‘I’ve got a present for you.’ I held up the bag of rubbish. It was starting to smell. ‘Fish guts.’