A Sprinkle of Sabotage by Fiona Leitch (bill gates book recommendations TXT) 📗

he was wrong and that I was going to investigate it myself, he’d thought it was the most hilarious thing he’d ever heard. I’d enjoyed proving him wrong. My tummy rolled over at the thought that I might not get to prove him wrong ever again.

Nathan laughed. ‘I didn’t know you properly then. Coffee?’

‘If I say yes, does that mean we go back to the food truck and I have to make it?’

‘Yes. And if you’ve got any biscuits floating about, I’d be happy to take them off your hands. Didn’t have time for breakfast.’

‘I think we can do better than that,’ I said, an image of me dressed as a Fifties housewife (complete with frilly apron) making breakfast pancakes for him floating across my mind. In his dreams! I thought, then felt sad because that obviously wasn’t in his dreams if he was leaving. I cleared my throat. ‘I mean, I’ll make you something if you like.’

We walked back to the truck and I made some coffee. Nathan wouldn’t let me make him breakfast, but I found one of Zack’s protein bars and gave him that instead. Then we sat at one of the picnic tables, Nathan bundled up in his thick coat opposite me and me wrapped in a blanket that Gino had tucked away. Germaine sniffed around Nathan’s feet, hoping for a little piece of whatever he was having, then gave up and whined until I picked her up and sat her on the bench next to me, where she rested her nose in my lap.

I fumbled in my pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper as Nathan blew on his coffee. ‘Here. A list of everything I used in last night’s meal, just in case.’ He reached for it and his fingers touched mine for a second, making them tingle. Oh my God, get outta here with your Mills-and-Boon stuff, I thought, but I couldn’t help it. Nathan looked at me but didn’t say anything, then pulled the list towards him and started to read through it.

‘Blimey, Jodie, what is half this stuff? ‘Fukujinzuke’?’

‘Japanese pickled veg. I didn’t make it; it was in a jar. I should probably have listed what was in it…’

‘Yeah, well, maybe if the lab results come back negative for tetrodotoxin. This is everything you served them last night, then?’

‘Yes,’ I said, but then something occurred to me. ‘No, wait, they had cupcakes too, if they got round to eating them before poor Jeremy carked it. I didn’t make them, either.’

‘Were they from a shop or did someone here make them?’

‘I don’t know.’ I looked at him, my mind working furiously. ‘I was busy doing something and then I looked up and there they were, on the counter, in a proper cake box. I didn’t see who delivered them, and Zack didn’t know anything about them. They looked like they’d come from a shop, but there wasn’t any name or anything on the box, so I couldn’t say for certain.’

‘Hmm…’ Nathan looked thoughtful. ‘Maybe one of the others could have ordered them? I’ll make a note of it.’

‘So did you talk to the hospital? Were the rest of them ill?’

Nathan nodded. ‘Yes. Aiko Takahashi seems to have had the worst of it.’

‘Zack said she was throwing up most of the night.’

‘Yes, the doc said he called her at one point because he was so worried about her. She’ll recover, but it’s really taken it out of her. She checked on Sam Pritchard around midnight and he’d just been sick. The nurses didn’t see much of Mike Mancuso – he managed to wangle himself a private room – but he was apparently talking to the toilet bowl half the night too, and Faith says she felt ‘funny’ but managed to sleep it off.’

‘What about Kimi?’

‘Kimi said she was fine and discharged herself after they told her the dog couldn’t stay at the hospital, even if she was in a private room.’

‘Did she actually eat any of the fish?’ I asked. ‘She’s supposedly vegan, but only when it suits her. She told Zack she’d eat it.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Nathan. ‘But it would explain why she wasn’t ill.’ He looked at me. ‘And it would make it even more likely that it really was the pufferfish.’

I sighed. ‘I know…’

He copied my sigh. ‘But…’

I reached across the table and swatted him. ‘I’m not that bad!’

‘I know,’ he said, then sighed again. ‘But…’ I reached across the table to playfully slap him again, but he laughed and grabbed my hand. ‘I could have you for assaulting a police officer, you know.’

I snorted. ‘I’d like to see you try.’

He smiled, but didn’t let go of my hand. ‘I’ve noticed something. Every time I try to talk to you lately, we either get interrupted or you run away.’

I felt my face get hot. Don’t talk to me about your new job, I thought desperately, I don’t want to think about it. But he clearly was going to talk to me about it.

‘Ever since I mentioned that job offer—’

‘Are you DCI Withers?’

Nathan held my hand and my gaze for a few seconds longer, then dropped both and turned to the owner of the voice. David Morgan stood behind Nathan, looking thoroughly annoyed.

Nathan gave him a placatory smile. ‘What can I do for you, sir?’

‘That policeman over there’ – he gestured vaguely towards Zack’s caravan, where Davey was still on guard – ’he told me you’re in charge. Can you please tell me what the devil is going on here? I’ve just heard some of the crew saying they’re pulling the plug on the shoot, and there’s all sorts of wild rumours flying around.’

‘And who might you be, sir? I don’t believe we’ve met.’

‘David Morgan,’ he snapped. ‘I’m the owner of Polvarrow House.’

‘Nice to meet you, Mr Morgan,’ said Nathan, holding out his hand to shake. Morgan’s irritation subsided, eroded by Nathan’s charm. ‘Has no one from the production company contacted you?’

‘No, I’ve heard nothing,’ said Morgan. ‘To be