Page 65 of Death at Inishmore Castle

He gently pulled my arm back. “Don’t touch. There may be prints.” He put on his gloves and opened the book. He was kind enough to show it to me as he turned the pages.

Before the police had arrived the other night, my sister and I had scoped out the study. This whole row of journals hadcontained nothing but lists of household items dated by year. This one was for 1875.

“It’s another log of belongings,” I said.

“Why would someone be interested in these old lists?” Kieran asked.

“For the treasure hunt. I know it might sound silly, but I think there is more to all of this than anyone could have imagined. Someone must have learned that there are items worth a great deal here. We talked about that before. But I don’t think that’s the whole story.”

“So, you think that there is buried treasure in the walls or something?”

“Well, we know about the secret passageways.”

“Yes, and the walls are all stone. It would be impossible to hide something inside them.”

That answered one of my bigger questions about the trail that went behind the study walls. “So do we think that the passageways are just to get secretly from one place to another?”

He nodded.

I went down the row of books to see if anything else was missing. “There aren’t any missing, but this is the second time we’ve seen that these books are of interest. Maybe someone’s slowly trying to go through them without drawing attention.”

“Except they have committed two murders.”

“There is that. And you and the team haven’t found any sort of connection between the staff or guests?”

“No. And we’ve done a thorough search. Though, without the internet, Sheila has been doing the majority of it on her own back at the station. Now, we don’t even have that since she can’t get across the river until the storm is done.”

“What’s going on with Sally?”

He checked his phone. “We’re still waiting for the search warrant.”

“Is it really not enough that people here saw her?” Rob and Scott were absolutely trustworthy. The pair of them had become solid friends to me and my sister. We considered them, and Brenna, family. They were one of the main reasons living in Shamrock Cove was so much fun for us.

“Yes. But I’ll need evidence. And since the rain has returned, no one is going anywhere.”

I shivered. “It’s weird that we’re stuck with a killer.”

“It isn’t one of your novels, though. I need you to remember that. We are dealing with real deaths, and it isn’t safe.”

“I know. I promise to be careful. But I need to do that thing where I talk everything out because my brain is trying to tell me something, and I can’t quite grasp it.”

He nodded. “I feel like we have done nothing but discuss it.”

I smiled.

“Okay,” I said. “What do we know so far? The murderer had some kind of beef with Carl and Sarah. Carl was a thief, and Sarah had been his getaway driver. We assume they were interested in relieving the poor O’Sullivans of some of their art or antiquities, or finding the treasure, since Carl was hunting through historical documents. And whatever it is, it’s enough money that the killer was willing to murder his partners for it.

“To bring them in, the killer had knowledge of what they were looking for. Which means—it’s someone here on the estate. I’m sure of it.”

That idea I couldn’t quite reach came to the forefront of my brain.

“It would have to be someone knowledgeable like the accountant or the gardener. Both of them seem to know about the history of the place. My bet would be Maximillian since we know he has a criminal past. And I hate to say it, but I’m adding the O’Sullivans back in because of the access. Though I don’t understand the motive.”

“That makes sense,” Kieran said. “But you know what I’m going to say next.”

“You need evidence not supposition. Maybe, he has one of the journals in his room or something. Can’t you do a search?”

“Not without probable cause and a search warrant, which?—”

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