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“You okay?” he asked, looking at her intently.
“Yes.” She sucked in a lungful of air and felt immediately calmer. “I’m fine.” She looked at her hands. “Thank you.”
Sergeant Proctor and Arthur had followed them out, but lingered by the door to the office. Arthur craned his neck – unable to keep his eyes off the plant.
“Is everything okay?” The shrill voice broke the silence as Sally Pengelly emerged from a back door. “There’s an ambulance outside.”
Sergeant Proctor stepped forwards telling her not to panic and explaining there’d been an accident. She didn’t seem to panic at all. She only looked confused as the sergeant and Arthur filled her in on the situation.
“A plant did this?” she asked, standing beside Arthur in the office doorway while the paramedics lifted Gordon onto a stretcher. “Are you sure he’s going to be all right?” She aimed the question at Arthur, looking up at him with wide eyes.
He nodded. “I’ve never had any real-life experience of the plant before, but if everything I’ve read is correct, he’ll be fine.”
Sally let out a sigh and stepped aside for the paramedics. “Can I come with you in the ambulance?” she asked.
“Yes,” the female paramedic replied, then looked at Arthur. “The doctor is going to need as much information as you can give her. I imagine she’ll be about as clueless about this as we are.”
“I can send her all my research,” Arthur said.
“We’ll follow you shortly,” Sergeant Proctor said to the paramedics before they left. Then he turned to Lily, his brow furrowed. “You always seem to be in the thick of anything going on around here.”
“I just came to ask him a few questions,” she said, her whole body sagging as the adrenaline wore off.
Flynn squeezed her shoulder. “It’s good you found him. That was a fair amount of blood.”
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Arthur said, his voice full of wonder. “Nature really is fantastic. The thorns don’t even appear to be anything out of the ordinary. Yet they can slice you right open.”
Sergeant Proctor took a few strides towards the plant, which really didn’t look in the least bit menacing.
“Where did it come from?” Flynn asked.
“They’re native to Africa,” Arthur said.
Flynn tilted his head. “But how did it end up here?”
“No idea,” Arthur said.
“Was it only you and Gordon working this morning?” the sergeant asked, shifting squarely in front of Arthur to secure his attention.
Arthur nodded. “Just us.”
“Who arrived at work first?”
“I did.”
“Was the plant already here?”
“I guess it must have been. But I didn’t come into the office. I set up the cafe and then watered the plants and swept up outside.”
“Who could have put it here?”
Arthur shrugged. “It’s illegal to import them to the UK.” The corners of his lips lifted to a small smile. “I wrote a blog piece on it about a year ago.”
“Of course you did,” the sergeant said with a hint of an eye roll.
“I don’t suppose I can keep it?” Arthur asked, a flash of excitement in his eyes.
“No.” The sergeant chuckled. “If they’re not legal, you can’t keep it. I’m not quite sure what we’ll do with it, though.”