Page 38 of Death at Inishmore Castle

Why had they been out here? Had they been searching for something? I’d heard the word treasure earlier. Was that rumor true? I shook it off. It was as likely as the fairy stories we’d heard about Ireland.

“There are hundreds of years of history of the castle and the land around it,” I said. “But I’m curious if there is somethinghere that people would be willing to kill for. Or if you keep any sort of records out here that they could have been searching for?”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe something related to the history of the place or even old bottles of whiskey that might be worth a lot?”

He glanced over at the bottle that was a few inches from his head. “That’s one of our newest batch,” he said as his eyes tried to focus on it.

“We’ve lots of old stories. Like most places in Ireland, we have a bloody past going back hundreds of years. But I don’t understand why someone is trying to sabotage us now. We live a peaceful life here. And have for as long as I can remember. We may not make much money, but we run a solid business. Someone is against us, though. I’d bet money on it.”

“Is that how you see the murders—as sabotage?” Everything I’d been thinking was conjecture. I had no more proof than Gordon did when it came to the why of the crimes.

“What else could it be? Someone wants to give us a bad name. They are killing off our guests. I mean, a priest and a nun. It doesn’t get much worse, does it?”

But who would want them to fail?

“I know you’ve been asked before, but did you know either of them before they came here?” I wasn’t willing to share that there was no way the man who was murdered had been a priest. His ID said otherwise. And I had a feeling when I could finally access the internet, I’d have more answers about Sister Sarah as well. Not many nuns had dyed blonde hair. Something that had just hit me while I sat here with Gordon.

And it followed that if the pretend priest knew the fake nun, that they’d both been here for nefarious purposes. Maybe they’d been working together or they were rivals. But it was the third party, the killer, who had me more confused than ever.

“No, we’d never met either of them before,” Gordon said, answering my question.

“Did they come together?”

“No. We had a van pick Sister Sarah up at the train station but the priest came in earlier. It’s odd, though.”

“What is?”

“They acted like they didn’t know one another. My wife had a small tea set up for when all the guests arrived. She says one never knows who might be hungry. At the tea, she had the guests introduce themselves to one another. You and your sister weren’t here yet.”

That had been my fault. I’d forgotten to set my alarm and overslept. Lizzie hadn’t been happy with me. She likes being punctual. But to me, time is usually relative since I spend a great deal of it writing stories in my head.

“And what happened?”

“Nothing. They seemed surprised that the other one was here. I can’t believe they are dead. Who would do such a thing?”

Someone truly awful. Even if they weren’t who they said they were, Gordon was right. No one deserved to die like they had.

Kieran rushed into the distillery with two of his men.

“He’s lost quite a bit of blood, but he’s conscious,” I said, as I moved away.

“I’m fine.” Gordon waved them away. “Just need some help up.”

“From the pool of blood on the floor, I doubt you’re fine,” Kieran said. “My men are trained for medical emergencies. Let them check you out.”

Gordon sighed but didn’t say anything else as the men looked him over.

“What happened?” Kieran asked me, as he helped me up off the floor.

“We were walking Mr. Poe and heard a strange sound coming from the distillery. Lizzie wanted to come get you, but I thought we should check it out first. You know, just to make certain we weren’t calling you out for nothing but the wind blowing a door open.”

He smirked. “Right.” That one word implied he didn’t believe I’d even considered asking him for help before I found out what was going on. He’d grown to know me quite well over the last few months.

“Anyway, when I opened the door, I found Gordon on the floor. I was just grateful he was still alive. And I sent Lizzie back to get you. That’s it.”

“Do you remember seeing anyone else while you were walking Mr. Poe?”

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