Page 58 of Death at Inishmore Castle

I stared down at the floor. There were dusty boot prints. The shoe size was fairly large.

“Male?” I asked.

“Or a woman with very large feet. I need to get forensics in here to make copies of the prints.”

Part of me was relieved, but mainly I was disappointed. I’d been excited about going into the walls of the castle.

He pulled out his walkie-talkie and ordered his team to the study.

“Okay, I’ll be taking it from here, Mercy. Please, do not go searching the estate by yourself.”

“I won’t,” I said. At least, I wouldn’t do it alone.

I walked away, needing some air and space. Was there any chance Kieran thought of me the way I did him? We buttedheads so often, I doubted it. As far as he was concerned, ours was a professional relationship.

Did I really want it to be more?

I wasn’t ready to answer that question.

I went in search of my sister, who was in our room.

“I was wondering where you’ve been,” she said.

“Helping Kieran with some things. You know how we kept hearing footsteps but couldn’t figure out where they were coming from?”

Her brow furrowed. “Yes.”

“We were right about there being passageways inside the walls of the castle.”

She shivered. “That doesn’t make me feel great. Do you mean anyone could come in our room without warning?”

“I doubt there are points of entry in every room. That would have made it too easy for enemies to discover the family’s hiding places.”

“Well, at least there is that.”

I told her what I’d been thinking about in the study.

“It figures your brain would go straight for the books. Have you been in the library yet? It’s like something out ofBeauty and the Beast, though on a slightly smaller scale. Floor-to-ceiling books on every wall, except for a few windows that are also surrounded by shelves. It’s gorgeous.”

“Did you notice the quality of the books?”

“They look well taken care of. I didn’t take any off the shelves, though I was tempted. My guess is they probably keep their first editions behind the closed doors of the study. I would. Like our grandfather did too.”

In addition to the lovely bookshop our grandfather had left us, there was an amazing hidden library in the cottage. He, too, had many first editions and quite the collection of his favorite authors. It was one of the ways we’d been able to get to knowand understand him. And it was obvious our love of books had been genetically passed down. He’d called the room a treasure. It had taken us a while to figure out that was what he meant by the word, and he was right.

“I’m at a point with all of this that I need you to tell me everything,” she said. “My imagination is much worse than anything you could say.”

I blew out a breath. “It’s just a bunch of supposition for now, but here’s what we know so far…”

I explained everything Kieran and I had discussed.

“So do you think it is someone who is trying to hurt the O’Sullivans’ business, or something else entirely?”

I shrugged and explained what I’d talked to Kieran about more than once. “It’s hard to say. But I think it may be some greedy criminals who do not care who they hurt to get what they want.”

“That makes sense.”

I told her about the diaries I’d read in the incident room.

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