Page 15

FIFTEEN

We didn’t hesitate to run toward the scream, which probably says so much about Lizzie and me regarding danger. We would most definitely be killed early on in any horror movie. We ran down the long hallway away from the kitchen and toward the dining room.

Sally Airendale was in hysterics, seated at the table. She shook from head to toe. Her husband had his hands on her shoulders and was whispering to her. Kieran was standing there too, staring at the buffet with a weird look.

“What happened?” I asked, but I didn’t wait for an answer. I headed toward the buffet.

Lizzie went straight to Sally and knelt beside her chair. She put her hand on the woman’s arm and sat there with her, not saying a word. She’s like that, my sister, very intuitive to other’s needs. Me, not so much.

It took a minute for my mind to register what Kieran was staring at. There, under a cloche on the buffet table, was a dead animal.

“Is that a raccoon?” I asked. “Are they native to Ireland? I haven’t seen one here before.”

“Invasive species but not uncommon,” he said.

“I’m guessing it’s not meant to be an Irish delicacy.” It was a terrible joke, but my sense of humor was warped.

“No,” he said. But there was a hint of a grin on his face.

“Why would someone put this here?”

“To frighten the guests,” he said. “There is no other explanation.”

“Someone wants to get them out of the house. But why?”

“So they can continue with whatever they were doing before you and the others arrived.”

“But now you are here as well. It seems dumb for the criminals to draw attention to the place by killing the victims.”

“Unless those victims were going to give something away,” he said.

He had a good point.

Sheila and one of the other officers came in with an evidence kit. They dusted for fingerprints on the cloche.

“I’d like to take my wife to our room,” Alex Airendale said. “And we will be leaving shortly. I don’t know what is going on here, but we want no part of it.”

“You may take her to your room, but everyone will remain on the premises for the next twenty or so hours. If you haven’t noticed, it is raining again outside, and the river has flooded and is the only way out of here,” Kieran said. “We’ll also need to take both of your fingerprints to rule them out.”

Alex did not look happy about that fact.

I hadn’t noticed the rain, but Kieran was right. It was pouring down in sheets outside. So, once again we were all stuck here whether we wanted to be or not. I had a feeling Kieran had a dual purpose for the fingerprints. He wanted to see if the Airendales had any run-ins with the law.

“Before you go, I have a few questions,” Kieran continued.

The other man sighed but then nodded. “What do you want to know?”

“What were you doing in here?”

“They keep tea out for those needing a snack throughout the day,” he said. “We came down for a bite before the next class.”

“And where were you just before you came in here?”

The other man frowned. “Why would that matter?”

“I’m trying to establish if you saw anyone coming or going from this room before you arrived.”

“We were in our room,” he said.

I could back that up, as I’d heard them in their room when I’d been snooping. However, I was not about to share that information with Kieran, yet. He wouldn’t be happy with me.

“Did someone scream?” Rob asked from the doorway. Scott, Lolly and Brenna were with him. Not long after, Nora came in.

“Is everyone all right?” Nora asked. She stormed over to where I stood with Kieran and Alex. Her eyes went wide when she saw the raccoon, and then she shook her head. “Who would do such a thing?”

“Someone trying to scare the wits out of my wife,” Alex said angrily. “Now, if you’re finished with us, Detective Inspector, I’d like to look after her.” He didn’t wait for an answer, taking Sally by the hands and pulling her up from the chair.

Lizzie stepped to the side out of the way.

“Come on, love,” he said.

“I want to go home,” Sally said.

Alex glanced over at Kieran, who shook his head.

“That’s not possible right now. But I’ve got you. Nothing else is going to happen.”

“I’ll be sending someone to take those prints shortly,” Kieran said.

Once they left, Kieran started peppering everyone with questions.

“Did any of you see someone enter or leave this room?”

“No,” Lolly said. “Our group was in the library. They have some historical documents on display. We weren’t anywhere near here.”

“Did any of you see someone roaming the halls who maybe didn’t seem to fit in with the staff?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Anyone who wasn’t wearing one of the gray uniforms.”

Again, everyone shook their heads.

“Is it true about the flooding?” I asked.

“Yes,” Sheila said as she closed up her kit. “We barely made it back over in the boat. Even with that, it isn’t safe right now. It’s like a running rapid with all the rocks. It’s a wonder the bridge is still standing given how fast the water is rushing over it.”

“So, we’re trapped with a killer and someone who puts dead animals in a cloche. Yay,” Lizzie said. It was the first time someone had said killer out loud, but thankfully, it was just our crew and Nora.

Gallows humor was how we dealt with uneasiness. She’d picked up Mr. Poe and held him tight to her.

“I’m so, so sorry,” Nora said. She sat down at the table and put her head in her hands. “I don’t understand why this is happening. We’ve never had any trouble here at Inishmore. My husband and I have lived here for thirty years. He took over when his father died. I mean, we say there is a family curse, and maybe it’s not some folktale. I’m beginning to believe it is true.

“Until this weekend, we’d never had any sort of crime, let alone the violent things that have been happening. Who is doing this to us? And why are they so against us doing whatever it takes to protect the estate?”

I sat down next to her. “I’m sure Kieran has asked this more than once, but is there anyone you know of on the staff, or from the outside world, who doesn’t agree with what you are doing?”

“No,” she said. “And I’m being honest. We have tenants, but they all understand how important this new business venture is, if we are to become sustainable. It’s taken years of preparation to get the estate ready for visitors, and they understand how much we need the money to keep going. Many of them have donated hours of labor without charging us.

“I cannot imagine anyone that knows us doing something like this. What are we going to do? Word is going to get out, and we’ll be done before we really begin.”

I patted her hands, which were in fists on the table. “It’ll be okay. When Kieran finds out who is doing this, he’ll make it clear in the press that it was an outside party trying to harm your business. Right, Kieran?”

“I can’t…”

“Speak on an ongoing investigation,” the rest of our crowd finished his sentence. Then we all smiled.

“But you really need to think about your staff,” I said. “From what I’ve seen so far, the person who is doing this has a great knowledge of the inner workings of the estate. They can come and go easily.”

“Our staff has been with us for years. I can assure you that they didn’t do this. We should have put security cameras in the rooms we were opening. I didn’t see any reason for the expense,” Nora said. “Now, I wish I’d listened to my husband.”

“Why did he think you might need them?” I asked.

“Because we were inviting strangers into our home,” she said. “Obviously, he was correct. Do you think it might be one of the guests?” She glanced up at me for the answer.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Two of the guests are gone. And while I don’t know for sure, my mystery writer brain says there had to be a connection between them.” At least, Kieran couldn’t be mad about me saying that.

“A priest and a nun died on our first weekend. How is that going to look?” She gasped. “I mean…” She stared at Kieran as if he was going to berate her for spilling it had been murder. We’d all been going by the line that the nun was indisposed, and priest was missing.

“Don’t worry,” Lizzie said. “You’re among friends, and we’ve sort of figured things out on our own. I just said the same thing.”

“They didn’t just die,” I said. “They were killed. My guess is this may have nothing to do with you and your business. Well, at least, not in the way you think.”

“What do you mean?”

I glanced back at Kieran. He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Go ahead. But you are not to discuss any of this with anyone outside this room.”

Rob shut the wooden pocket doors into the dining room. Then we all sat down around the table.

I explained my theories about it possibly being one of the guests, but I left out the fact that someone was moving around behind the walls. I didn’t mention anything that Kieran had shared with me.

“While I don’t know how,” I lied, “I think the nun and priest knew one another. They were here at the same time for a reason. I don’t believe in coincidences. That they just showed up. I believe someone was looking to settle an old score.”

“But why here?” Nora asked.

“Well, that’s the big question, right? If we knew that, we might be able to figure out who is behind all of this. But it either has to be one of the other guests, as no one at this table knew the victims. Or it has to be one of your staff.” Or, it could be her and Gordon, but I couldn’t come up with a motive for them. Until we found out who was doing this, everyone was still a suspect.

She opened her mouth and closed it. “I was about to speak up for our staff, but I don’t know what I think any more. Do you have any other ideas as to why they picked our estate for this nasty business?”

“Well, greed is a good motive,” I said.

“What do you mean?” Rob asked.

“In the study alone there are hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of books on the shelves.”

Nora frowned. “Are there really? We haven’t had the books appraised yet. We were focused on the artwork. It’s expensive having the experts come in to do all the appraisals. Our accountant had the art appraised and most of it is fake. We had to have everything appraised for insurance purposes.”

Experts. Something jiggled in my brain. Was it possible that one of the appraisers had mentioned something to the killer, the priest, or the nun? Or maybe, one of them had worked for the appraiser? It was a lead at least.

Kieran had moved to the doors and had his notebook open. My guess was he had the same thought. That might explain why they were here, though not why the killer had knocked them off.

“That’s understandable,” I said. “But I know that you have a lot of money sitting on those shelves, and most likely in your library as well. And this is all conjecture, but what if the priest, nun, and the killer had planned to work together to take some of those things?

“You have so many, it might have taken a while for you to figure out what was missing. Years even. They would be long gone, and much richer.”

“What you’re saying makes sense,” Lolly said. “But why now?”

“It was the first weekend you had a full tour of guests,” I said. “The third party may have been waiting for an opportune time to bring them both here for nefarious purposes. It may have been his or her plan all along to get rid of them and pin the murders on someone else. Perhaps one of the other guests.”

“I can’t imagine someone out there who hates us so much,” Nora said.

“I’m not sure I’d take it that way,” I said. “Criminals don’t care who they hurt. My guess is this is some greedy revenge plot. At least, that is how it is playing out. Since we have some idea why they are doing this, maybe, we can figure out who it is.”

Lizzie shivered. “We may be stuck here but my sister and Kieran will figure it out.”

I hoped she was right.

“To be safe, you’ll travel in pairs, always,” Kieran said. “I don’t want any of you roaming the castle without at least one other person with you.” He stared pointedly at me.

I may have smirked. And yes, I should have told him about the secret passageway off our room. But I gave myself the excuse that there were too many ears in the room at the moment. I would tell him later.

“And we need to keep our eyes open,” I said. “If you see anyone who looks like they aren’t a part of the household staff, don’t confront them. But do go tell Kieran. Whoever is doing all of this is dangerous.”

“That’s great advice,” Kieran said. “I’d appreciate it if all of you would take it.” He looked even more pointedly at me.

“Why the raccoon, though?” Nora asked. “That is pure maliciousness, and it feels directed at Gordon and me.”

Hmm. I hadn’t thought about that.

Kieran and I stared at one another. There was only one reason why someone would do that.

“A diversion,” I whispered.