Page 40 of Death at Inishmore Castle

She sighed. “Is it something that could get you into trouble?”

“If I don’t tell you then you won’t be in trouble with me. Nor can you be blamed in any way for helping me do something I probably shouldn’t.”

“Mercy, leave the detecting to the professionals. Whoever is doing this is serious. That’s three people he or she has attacked.”

“I am going to be very careful. I’m not going after anyone. I just want to look at some things. You go on up to bed.”

“Remember when you said we wouldn’t be going anywhere alone? That goes for you as well. Just tell me what you need me to do.”

I suppressed a grin.

She might be the more sensible of the two of us, but she was clearly just as curious about what had been going on as I was. While she was usually reluctant when it came to investigating cases, she had my same sense of needing to know things. Maybe not quite to the extent I had, but it was in our DNA.

“Follow me, then,” I said.

TEN

The door to the incident room Kieran and his team had set up was unlocked. He must have forgotten to do it in his rush to reach Gordon and me. And yes, if I’d asked, he probably would have allowed me to take a look at his files. He already had earlier in the day, but I only had access to what he wanted me to see.

In his mind, he had to treat us all, including his gran, as suspects. He very much liked going by the book. He was a great detective and didn’t need my help, but that had never stopped me from doing a bit of snooping.

“You stay by the door. If you hear anyone coming, let me know.”

She rolled her eyes. “I hate being lookout. It’s nerve-racking.”

“Well, you can go to bed if you want. There’s no sense in both of us getting in trouble if he catches us.”

“No. I’ll do it.” She glanced at her fitness watch. “First of all, I’m not leaving you alone for the killer to find you. Don’t you think they might have the same idea since the police are busy elsewhere?”

I actually had not thought about that.

“And second, I’m curious as well. But you have exactly ten minutes, no more. Okay?”

I nodded. She’d had a rough year, and I didn’t like causing her stress. But something about this case kept nagging at me. I felt like I’d seen something important but hadn’t quite put the pieces of the puzzle together yet. My brain was obsessive that way. I had to keep trying until I had a clear picture in my head.

My first stop was Kieran’s computer. But it was password protected, and though I had ways of breaking into it that I’d learned from real-life hackers for a book, I didn’t have that kind of time. It wasn’t like the movies where that sort of thing happened in seconds.

Well, that, and I really wasn’t that great at it.

He must have had his black notebook, which he kept everything in, with him because it wasn’t anywhere on the long table. It was a shame I couldn’t look through it. Sometimes, his detective brain saw things mine didn’t.

I searched for more information about the two victims among the papers on the desk, but couldn’t find anything. Maybe all of that was at the station, or he had it on his computer.

Bummer. I really wanted to know who the nun was. There had been some kind of bad blood between her and the priest. Hence the arguments. I thought they might have been rivals for whatever it was they’d been trying to find.

But since she’d been murdered as well, and Gordon had been attacked, there was a third party. That person had no qualms about violence, which I had to admit was scary.

There was a box marked Guests. Each of the guests, including Lizzie and me, had a file in there. I was curious about what he had in there about us, but I thought it best to take a look at the others. I was certain my sister and I had not committed murder.

I might think about it for many hours a day when I was writing, but there was no way I could ever cross that threshold to commit the actual act. Well, unless someone hurt Lizzie or Mr.Poe. Then all bets were off. If someone attacked my sister, or our dog, they would be in a world of hurt.

The first file I glanced at was for the accountant Maximillian Herbert. According to the reports he’d been involved in some illegal property schemes in the past, when he was younger.

After learning bookkeeping skills while he was in prison, he’d gone on to become an accountant. How did that even happen? It seemed like there should have been some kind of licensing problem for an ex-felon. Not that I didn’t believe in second chances. It just seemed like there would have been someone along the way that said, no, money handling isn’t for you.

I wondered if the O’Sullivans were aware their accountant had a record. I certainly would not have trusted my money to the man. One had to be careful in this world when it came to life savings. The last thing the O’Sullivans needed was to fall victim to some scheme to steal their money. They were struggling as it was.

I wasn’t certain how to broach the subject with them, but I would. They were good people and deserved to know.

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