Dan Padgett’s loss of Nathan Oliver’s blood sample begins as a careless accident at the harbour, but its consequences extend beyond the objects that sink. The mishap provokes Oliver’s fury, creates the need for a replacement sample, and is followed by Oliver’s failure to attend the appointment arranged to provide one. A later search uncovers a phial labelled with Oliver’s name and a date, adding a separate, significant blood-sample clue to the investigation without establishing that it was the specimen lost overboard.

The Errand and the Loss

The incident comes to Rupert Maycroft’s attention when Millie Tranter hurries into his office, barely containing her excitement. Oliver has ordered Maycroft to come to the harbour at once: Dan has lost the blood sample. The commotion also involves several unrelated items. Jago Tamlyn explains that the bag contained library books belonging to Mrs. Burbridge, shoes and handbags belonging to Dan’s mother that Dan was taking to Oxfam, and Oliver’s sample.

Dan gives Maycroft a direct account of the accident. He had the packet containing the sample, along with the other belongings, inside a canvas bag slung over his shoulder. As he leaned over the rail to look at the water, the bag slipped off. The physical explanation is plain, but the mixed contents make the mishap consequential: one dropped bag takes a medical specimen and charitable donations out of reach together.

Maycroft asks Jago whether the launch could have been stopped or the bag caught with a billhook. Jago says the shoes were heavy and sank quickly; he heard Dan shout, but it was already too late. His explanation establishes why the bag could not simply be retrieved, while also distinguishing the moment of loss from any deliberate disposal. The evidence presents the incident as an accident caused by the bag slipping, not as an intentional act.

Oliver’s Anger and the Need to Repeat the Test

Oliver’s response is sharply out of proportion to the practical value he assigns to the other lost belongings. He sarcastically ranks the library’s loss and the disappointment of a pensioner seeking cheap shoes above the inconvenience of giving blood again. His controlled but staccato anger makes clear that the sample matters to him, even as he mocks the hierarchy of losses being discussed. He insists that Dan answer for what happened rather than letting Jago speak in his place.

The missing sample means Oliver must provide another. Jo Staveley later tells Maycroft that Oliver is expected at the surgery at nine the next morning to give a replacement. The prospect is unwelcome to both of them: Oliver hates the needle, while Jo notes that her professional skill makes it easier to find a vein on the first attempt. The account turns an apparently minor harbour mishap into a specific medical appointment, with Oliver’s dislike of the procedure already part of the problem.

Maycroft raises the furore at the harbour later with another person, referring to Dan as the idiot who dropped the sample. Jo confirms that Oliver is due the following morning and that she does not expect him to look forward to the needle. The replacement plan seems straightforward; its importance changes when Oliver does not arrive.

The Missed Appointment and Oliver’s Disappearance

At nine twenty-five, Jo telephones Maycroft because Oliver has not appeared for his nine o’clock appointment. She has already called Peregrine Cottage. Miranda Oliver says she heard her father leave at about seven-twenty but did not speak with him and does not know where he was going. Dennis Tremlett is at the cottage, working, and says he has not seen Oliver since the previous day. Neither can account for his absence.

The small domestic details sharpen the uncertainty. Oliver made tea, and the pot was still warm when Miranda entered the kitchen, but he had eaten only a banana. He had not said the previous evening that he planned to go for blood. Jo considers that he might be avoiding the appointment or taking a walk, but his failure to arrive gives her cause for concern. The routine created by the lost sample has become the occasion on which his absence is noticed.

Maycroft initially weighs the island’s custom of leaving visitors undisturbed against his responsibility for Oliver’s safety. Organising a search could itself be an unwelcome intrusion if Oliver had simply gone for a walk; doing nothing could be indefensible if the older man had collapsed. After Oliver has been gone without explanation for two hours, Maycroft decides that they must begin looking. He tells Jo to notify Guy Staveley, arranges to contact others, and asks her to remain at the surgery in case Oliver turns up. Thus the missed replacement appointment marks the transition from an argument about a dropped specimen to an active search for a missing visitor.

The Blood Sample as Later Evidence

The blood-sample thread returns during the murder investigation. In a later search of Puffin Cottage, Kate Miskin and Francis Benton-Smith discover a phial concealed beneath butter in a tub. Beneath the butter are foil and two small packages; one contains blood in a phial with Oliver’s name and a date still on its label, while the other contains a hair sample wrapped in tissue paper. The label is handwritten, allowing the sample to be identified. The find establishes that a labelled sample belonging to Oliver was concealed at the cottage, but the evidence does not identify it as the original sample that fell into the sea.

The distinction matters to the event’s place in the larger chain of evidence. The first specimen is explicitly lost with Dan’s bag, and Oliver is expected to provide another. The later discovery is a separately described, labelled phial found hidden in Dan’s cottage. It gives the investigation a concrete object to examine and connects the blood-sample episode to the search of Puffin Cottage, but it does not undo the original loss or explain by itself how the concealed phial came to be there. The accident’s significance therefore lies both in its immediate practical consequences and in the way the missing appointment and later recovered sample become distinct points in the investigation.