Page 61 of Death at Inishmore Castle

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.

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