Page 105 of Glasshouses

“Don’t you know? It was Lily’s Blooms. I used to tell him I wanted my own gardening business, but making things look pretty, and I’d call it Lily’s Blooms. I knew he’d find me one day.” She smiled again, looking ten years younger, dark eyelashes against pale skin and white blonde hair. “I think he’ll visit me in hospital this time. Do you?”

I didn’t know if Stefan was dead or alive, but I knew he wouldn’t be visiting Lily any time soon. “No, I don’t. Stefan makes you do bad things.”

Her eyes widened, her expression altering, all placidity erased. “Or was it me who suggested the bad things?”

“I need to thank you for coming back and unlocking the door.”

I watched for her reaction.

“You’re my friend and it’s good to have a detective as a friend.” She stretched her legs out on the bed. “You will come and visit me, won’t you? I know I have to go back to Millstone, but I like it there. I wanted to stay there last time.” She was relaxed again, expression serene.

“Did you help Stefan with his father?” I already knew she wouldn’t be deemed fit to be questioned formally so this was probably my only opportunity for some answers.

She didn’t say anything, just looking at her fingers. “I’ll have to cancel my clients. They’ll be disappointed, but it’s out of my control. Maybe I can still do some designs in Millstone. They have a garden there that I used to look after, and I expect it’s been left to overgrow since I’ve been gone. A bit like the glasshouses at Roselea. Some looked like they used to, though.”

“Did you used to grow plants in the glasshouses, Lily?”

She nodded, still smiling. “My father didn’t like the glasshouses, they made him feel claustrophobic, which was weird. I thought it was because he couldn’t throw his stones in there.”

“What do you mean?”

“People in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones, Mia. Didn’t you know that?” She pulled her legs up again, wrapping her arms around them and hugging herself.

“Did Stefan throw stones, Lily?”

She shook her head. “Why are you asking me about Stefan?”

“Because of what you did together. The fire at Roselea.” I couldn’t tell if she didn’t remember what she’d told me yesterday.

“I’m not sure what you mean. Will you come and see me at Millstone?” She picked up a book, an old encyclopaedia of gardening.

I stood up, knowing I’d get nothing more out of her that was coherent. “I’ll come and visit.” Then one day I might find out the truth.

I put off Vinny and didn’t go straight home once I’d been discharged with advice to rest for the next couple of weeks, which I had no mind to follow. Cade was in the same hospital as where I’d been taken, so I decided to pay him a visit.

His gran was sitting beside him, crocheting something that looked like a tea cosy but I wasn’t quite sure and didn’t like to ask. He was in bed, still with tubes going up his nose, but he had a handheld computer game and the bandages on his arms didn’t seem to be hindering his skill level.

“He just needs to complete this level,” his gran said. “Is that okay?”

I nodded, sitting down at the foot of the bed, admiring the cards and balloons and gifts that had been sent. “How’s he doing?” I asked, still waiting.

“Good. He can probably go home after the weekend. He’s young and healthy so he’ll make as good a recovery as can be expected. Have you found who set the fire?” She put her crocheting down.

I nodded, shifting a balloon so I could see her better. “We think so. He’s been in a fire himself, so we haven’t been able to interview him yet.”

“I hope he’s in agony. Right, Cade, put that down. I can see you’ve won that level.” She tapped his arm.

Cade winced but put the console down. “Are you one of the police officers? Am I going to be in trouble?”

“Not this time. Was it you who grew all the plants in the glasshouses?” I didn’t really need the answer.

He nodded, looking a little sheepish. “I like gardening. The other kids at school think it’s weird, but I like doing it.”

“You can make a career out of it if you like it that much. How did you find the glasshouses?” I thought of a business that needed a new owner, a wave of sympathy floating up to Lily.

Cade looked at his gran, whose expression was stern. He sighed and looked irritated as only a thirteen-year-old boy could. “That house is a legend in Urb Ex. No one had got in because it’s the middle of nowhere, and people keep locations of houses secret because they don’t want idiots going inside and wrecking it. Proper urban explorers aren’t people who damage property, they just want to record it, like modern-day historians.” Someone had been reading a bit too much on social media. “I knew where it was and took my bike out there. When I looked round the back, I saw the glasshouses and started to look at what was already growing there and added some to it. I looked in the house a few times too and took videos of it. I didn’t damage anything.”

“Apart from yourself,” I said, because he needed a warning. “I get that you’re not damaging anything, but entering anywhere like that can put you at risk.”