Page 25 of Death at Inishmore Castle

I assumed binos were short for binoculars.

“But he didn’t want to chat. He said he was there for the peace and quiet. Put me in my place. He was beyond rude, even for an Englishman. I’m not a religious person, but I thought clergy were supposed to be kind to their fellow humans.”

“Me too,” I said. “Not that I know that much about religion.” What I did know was from researching the subject for my books.

“How long were you at the pond?”

“Oh, probably two or three hours. They have a grouping of conifers on the north side, where I saw the owl. I took some pictures if you’d like to see them.” She bent down and pulled a fancy camera from her knapsack.

I didn’t care much about the bird pictures. But then I wondered if it was possible she might have caught something that she hadn’t realized.

“I’d love to see them.”

She’d gone back to stirring her ingredients together. “Let me get those pictures for you. Just click this arrow on the right when you want to move to the next one. I’m no professional, but I’m quite proud of the quality of some of these. Coming to the castle was an excellent idea. I can’t wait to show my friends.

“I told Nora that birders will come in flocks once they see these pictures.”

Flocks. I smiled.

If she had killed the priest, she wasn’t trying to hide much. I didn’t think I’d see much more than birds, but I went through her digital camera roll all the same. As I suspected, most of it was pictures of owls and many different types of birds.

“These are actually quite beautiful,” I said.

She smiled shyly. “Thanks. I’ve sold a few, though only to fund my habit so I can travel the world looking for all kinds of species.”

“Now, we’re going to shape the loaf,” Nora said from the front of the room.

I continued to flip through the pictures, and then stopped at one. Fiona had been taking a picture of what looked like a duck at the far end of the pond. But behind it was the priest and the nun pointing fingers at one another. While their faces were a bit of a blur, their body language spoke volumes. That made Sister Sarah a suspect for sure.

But even more so was the figure who stood at the top of the hill, watching them. The zoom had been on the duck, so everything was blurred in the background, but there was definitely a figure there. Maybe it was just someone passing, but given the circumstances, I would call them suspicious. They seemed to be looking at the pair who were arguing.

I needed to show this to Kieran.

If the nun hadn’t killed the priest, it might have been the person in the background of the photo.

Then it hit me. I glanced around the room. All the guests, including our gang from the court, were in attendance. That is, except for one person. It was almost eleven in the morning, and she still hadn’t come down.

Sister Sarah was missing.

SIX

After asking if I could borrow Fiona’s camera to show something to the police, she agreed.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked.

I smiled. “Oh. No. Nothing like that. I just thought since the priest and Sister Sarah were speaking to one another, the detective might like to see it. That way he can ask her about their conversation. I promise, I’ll bring it right back to you.”

“Once you shape the loaf, it goes into the pan,” Nora said as she instructed the class on how to make the bread.

Fiona waved me away.

I wonder where Sister Sarah is?

I headed back to the incident room. Kieran typed, well, hen-pecked, his keyboard as he sat at a long wooden table going through some files.

“I feel like someone who is on the computer as much as you, should have great typing skills.”

“Are you back to insult my typing, or do you have some information for me?” He pointed toward the camera in my hand. “Did you find your sister?”

---