Page 15

FIFTEEN

The pub kitchen was filled with an array of wonderful smells from the shepherd’s pie to a stew bubbling on the cooktop. Mary, Matt’s mom, was plating something when I walked in with the dishes.

She glanced up and smiled. “Making you work for your dinner, my Mattie?”

I laughed. “My sister volunteered us to help. It’s crazy out there.”

“’Tis. And I’m grateful for it. Not so grateful that two of our servers are out sick though.”

“Well, we’re happy to help.”

“You and Lizzie are a blessing. Just set those over by the washer.” She pointed to a machine in the corner of the kitchen.

I did as she asked.

“Is there anything I can help you with?”

She nodded toward the stove. “Can you give the stew a good stir and turn the fire to low.” The stirring was no problem. It took me a few seconds to figure out which knob it was on the commercial cooker.

Before I could ask her anything, she stepped out of the kitchen with a tray of food. I couldn’t hear what she said to Matt, but then she was back inside. She pulled two bowls down and handed them to me.

“Mind serving these up? I need to pull some bread from the oven.”

“No problem,” I said.

I used the big ladle to put the rich, beef stew, topped with mashed potato into the bowls and set them on the counter. My mouth watered at the smell coming from those bowls.

Once she put the bread on the workbench, she put the bowls on some plates and added slices of the warm bread to the side of the dish.

She moved like a master of the kitchen.

“Whew, we’ve caught up, thanks to you and your sister. How is the festival going? I heard that awful James Brandt was murdered. And that woman who worked with him. What’s the craic?”

She stared at me expectantly. I was the one who needed to ask questions.

“Kieran is keeping things close to his vest,” I said. “But you said awful. It sounds like you too had a run-in with James?”

She rolled her eyes. “I dated him for a week when we were in secondary. Mind you, I was three years younger than his crowd. I was na?ve back then and stupid when it came to boys. And, if I’m honest, I was looking for ways I could disappoint the judge. God rest his cranky soul.”

She made the sign of the cross.

Her overbearing stepfather had been a difficult man and she’d been a rebellious teen.

“None of us is terribly smart about boys at that age,” I said.

“At first, I’d been flattered by his attention,” she said as she put the dirty plates and glasses into the commercial dishwasher. She shook her head. “I played hard to get for months. Then he finally wore me down.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“We went on a few dates after school for about a week. I think when it became clear I had no interest in giving him what he really wanted—he tossed me aside.”

What he really wanted? “Oh,” I said as her meaning became clear. “What a jerk.”

“Aye, he was a gobshite. As were his friends. They were quite a strong clique back then and were ruthlessly mean.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” I said.

She shrugged. “You forget I was living with the judge at the time. Nothing they could say would hurt more than that old coot. As you know, he could be cruel. But he made me tough.”

“Had you seen James since then?”

“No, not until he walked into the pub the first night of the festival. I would never do it, but I did think about spitting into his pint. He didn’t recognize me though. For that, I was grateful.”

“I wouldn’t have blamed you.”

She laughed. “He was too busy arguing with that harpy he hung out with. The other one who died.”

“Harpy?”

“Aye. She sent her white wine back because it was too dry. She was the one who asked for a German Riesling. She’s lucky we even carried it. I thought my Mattie might throw them out they were such a nuisance. Some people never change.”

“Maybe he should have tossed them.”

“Nay, we’ve had worse bullies in here. If you tossed out all the arses, we’d have no business.”

We laughed.

“Any reason why, other than he was jerk, someone might want to kill him or his agent?”

She shrugged. “He made many an enemy back in the day. I wasn’t the only one who had a run-in with him. He went through half the girls in secondary like it was some kind of game to him. We learned to be wary of that whole lot.”

“Do you know what happened to the woman in that group. I think her name was Keeley Boyle? Did she date James?”

“Nay. She and Patrick were close, but like brother and sister. He wouldn’t have let James at her in that way. He was very protective.”

“Oh?”

She nodded. “That was so long ago, but she was in some of my after-school teams and was the nicest of that bunch. When she disappeared, everyone thought the boys had killed her. I do remember that.”

“Why?”

“I can’t remember exactly,” she said. “They made right bags of that, I tell you.”

I wasn’t sure what she meant. “Do you mean they messed up?”

“Aye. If they’d told the truth from the beginning, they could have saved themselves and the Garda a lot of trouble. It wasn’t until one of them was accused of murder that they came clean and told the truth.”

“I heard she’d run off to America with her boyfriend,” I said.

“Aye, they were giving her time to get away with her beau, from what I can remember. She was in a wee bit of trouble. Something about some accounts at the university where she’d been working part-time. I believe she was cleared, or the Garda would have dragged her back. But that group had been involved in her cover-up.”

Well, that was interesting. So, she hadn’t been murdered, but she had been accused of a crime. I hadn’t seen any of that in the newspaper clippings. I needed to head back to the library to dig deeper. That was if I couldn’t find the files online.

A timer dinged.

“That will be yours and Lizzie’s shepherd’s pie. I made one fresh when I saw you coming in,” she said.

I scooted out of the way so she could get it out.

Matt came in with a couple of order slips.

“I didn’t mean for ya to kidnap her,” Matt said as he looked from me to his mother.

We laughed.

“We were just chatting,” I said.

“Aye, it was grand to have some company in the kitchen. But I’ll not keep you from your dinner,” she said. She put generous servings of the shepherd’s pie on plates, along with some of the warm brown bread. Then she handed them to me.

“I’ll talk to you later, Mary. Thank you for the background.”

“No worries, luv. Let us know if Kieran shares anything with you.”

“Wait, are you involved in the murders?” Matt asked. “Are you helping Kieran with his inquiries?”

“You’ve met me, Matt. I’m naturally curious about everything. I turn it all into my stories. And I can’t resist asking questions. And you all know what Kieran thinks about that.” It was the truth.

They laughed.

“Ma, did you tell her about when James and Sebrena came in the other day?”

“Aye, I did.”

“Did you notice anything strange?” I asked him.

“Just that they didn’t seem particularly happy to be in one another’s company,” he said.

“Oh?”

He nodded. “She griped about the wine she’d been served. But I think she was more upset by James Brandt. Never meet your heroes, right?”

“So, you’re a fan?”

“Not anymore,” he said. “They complained about everything and didn’t leave a tip.”

“Rude,” I said.

“Aye. We were glad to see the back of them. I had no idea Ma knew James from her school days.”

“He hadn’t changed much, except age had caught up with him,” Mary said. “It isn’t nice to speak ill of the dead, but he was just as nasty as he’d been back then. And I feel like that ugliness comes right through the skin, I do. He was no longer a looker. If women were interested in him, it was only for his money.”

“Tell us how you really feel, Ma.”

She gave him a look.

I agreed, even though I hadn’t known him when he was younger. I didn’t understand how he’d been able to steal women away from the other men they dated. I never judged a book by its cover, but he wasn’t the best-looking man. He’d been balding, slightly chubby, and his clothes were a few sizes too small. It was as if he hadn’t been able to understand the man he had become.

And there was something else. His treatment of Matt made me wonder how James had been with his fans. I’d been thinking the killer might have been someone in his group of friends, but maybe I’d been headed down the wrong track.

I’d talk with his former friends, and then I could move on.

If he could alienate someone as kind and forgiving as Matt, who else had he offended?

And what did Sebrena have to do with any of this?