Page 19 of Death at Inishmore Castle

“This is going to take a few hours. Like I said, go get some rest. We can talk later,” Kieran said.

“Come on, Mercy. I’m exhausted.” My sister pulled me down the hallway. “Now we have to figure out how to get back to our room,” she said.

Rob and Scott had already gone back up, so we were on our own. But I had been keeping track of our movements through the castle.

“Right. Left. Up the stairs and to the right again,” I said.

“Thank goodness you were paying attention.”

When we reached the second floor, Mr. Poe growled in Lizzie’s arms.

“What is it?”

I turned to look behind us. I had a strange feeling that someone was watching us.

My sister followed my glance over her shoulder. “Is someone there?”

I didn’t want to spook her. She’d been through enough the last few hours.

“Nothing. I was just curious about why Mr. Poe was growling.”

“You know him, it could be squirrels outside. He seems to hear everything. Besides, this is an old place with lots of creaks.”

“True,” I said.

The lights flickered out again. I felt sorry for Kieran and his team trying to work the crime scene in the dark.

There was a weird groaning sound down the hallway.

My sister shivered in the light from my phone.

“Has to be the wind,” I said.

“Right,” she said. “Or one of those ghosts Nora keeps talking about.” She was joking, but I could tell from her tone that she was nervous.

Who could blame her? It had been one strange night.

We hurried to our room and locked the door quickly behind us. Then we changed into our PJs.

We’d been lying in our beds for a few minutes, but I couldn’t seem to calm down. Too much had happened.

“You’re thinking too hard,” Lizzie said.

“You know it’s the way my brain works.”

“Yes. But I also know if you get some rest, you’ll be a lot more on it later today. You know how you are. Even if Kieran did ask you not to ask questions, you’ll want to be fully aware and ready to roll.”

“That sounds like a bad line from a cop show.”

She laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound.

“Maybe we’ll wake up to find Kieran has solved the case,” I said, more for her benefit than mine. “He might get lucky and the killer left fingerprints on the letter opener.”

“That’s more positive than I’ve ever heard you be.” She yawned.

I smiled.

“Do you believe in curses?” Lizzie asked. “When I spoke to Nora, she said the family has had a stream of bad luck over the last five hundred years or so. Even before the castle was built.”