Page 68 of Death at Inishmore Castle

“I don’t know, we live in a world that is obsessed with murder and true crime.”

Sally shivered. “Every time someone says murder I want to hide under the covers,” she said.

“What I mean is, there are so many people who love ghost stories that the possibility of being in danger will probably have a big appeal. I mean, it would for me. I love taking haunted ghost tours and such. Or like how the O’Sullivans say their family is cursed. That sort of thing appeals to a lot of visitors. Some people are into history and some like a good scare.”

“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Maximillian said. “You may be on to something there. There may be a way to spin this weekend that could help them out. Not that they listen to me.” He said that last bit under his breath.

It hit me that maybe what I’d been seeing in him was more a lack of confidence. He was trying too hard, and he didn’t have his clients’ respect.

From all of my research, I understood money was often a motive for murder.

But was his tie to the victims enough for him to kill out of revenge?

SEVENTEEN

That night I begged off dinner. I’d planned to do some snooping and I didn’t want my sister or Kieran to worry. Though, if I got lost behind the walls of the castle, I was going to be super mad at myself. I’d thought I might take Mr. Poe with me for safety, but that would have made Lizzie suspicious. Besides, Mr. Poe didn’t like to miss opportunities for treats from the meals.

I wondered what that necklace in the incident room could have told us. Or, perhaps, the necklace was part of the payday. We hadn’t asked Nora if she was missing any jewelry. Well, maybe Kieran had. I would have to ask him later.

Or it could have belonged to Sarah. It had been hidden in that box with her passport. Maybe she’d planned to hock it and get out of Dodge.

Again, while I could make up scenarios as much as I wanted, Kieran would insist on proof.

One thing we knew was Sarah hadn’t been the only one who knew about the diamond necklace. Someone had gone straight for the puzzle box and taken it.

After sneaking downstairs while everyone was at dinner, I looked through the guest book at the front desk and made quicknotes of the room numbers. Then, using the map, I tried to figure out how to get to each room from behind the walls.

With my map in hand, I skipped the rooms where our neighbors on the court were staying. It turned out finding the secret entrances was easier behind the walls as there were easy to see levers.

The first room I checked was Maximillian’s. Of course, it was by accident. I thought I was heading into Sally and Alex’s room. My map was the opposite way round from what I’d thought.

He had several stacks of papers on his desk. After putting on my gloves, I carefully went through them.

The spreadsheets showed investments for the O’Sullivans. It appeared they were doing well, and I didn’t understand why he was so worried about them.

His laptop was sitting on the desk. I opened it and was surprised to find it wasn’t password protected. Some people weren’t very bright when it came to protecting themselves from identity theft.

It didn’t take me long to find the accounting program and to pull up the spreadsheets for the O’Sullivans. Numbers were my sister’s thing, but the program was simple enough that I could figure it out.

I stared at them for a few minutes, before I realized that the numbers on the computer weren’t as positive as the ones on the printouts. It looked like the O’Sullivans had taken some big hits financially. I compared the printouts to the computer. I was no forensic accountant, but things didn’t match up. The question was, which set of records was the right one?

Was he stealing from them? If so, why would that lead him to kill the priest and the nun?

I took pictures with my phone of both sets of records. I was careful to put everything back the way I’d found it. Then I quietly went through his clothes and baggage searching for the necklace.

I didn’t find anything.

I’d closed the secret passage door, and it took me a panicked minute to figure out that I had to push against the wall to open it again. Then it took two wrong turns and another twenty minutes to find the room that belonged to the Airendales.

Except for a few toiletries, nothing was left out in the room. Everything was so tidy it made me wonder if one of them might be OCD.

There were no electronics or papers. But when I pulled open one of the suitcases from the closet, I found several items that looked as though they’d been pilfered from around the castle. Nothing looked too expensive. Most of it was just trinkets.

After carefully putting everything back, I searched through some of the drawers in the wardrobe. I’m not sure what I hoped to find.

I was just about to slip out the secret passageway when a key jostled in the door. I dove under the bed because it was the closest place to hide.

Thank goodness the housekeepers here at the castle were great, as there wasn’t a single dust bunny to be found.

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