Page 76 of Death at Inishmore Castle

“It has to be here.” I tried pushing harder on the stones, and there was a slight give. “I think it’s stuck. Come help me.”

He moved beside me, his pine-scented cologne filling my senses. I wasn’t sure how he always smelled like a fresh forest, but he did.

This isn’t the time to think about that sort of thing. But his scent had a calming effect on my nerves.

“It feels like it hasn’t been opened in some time,” he said. “With all the dust, probably no one has been here in months or maybe even years.”

“Which makes me wonder why, if they were planning to steal something, our killer hadn’t been down here.”

“If they were in league with the accountant maybe they didn’t need to yet.”

“Or they were looking for another way in. We kept hearing someone inside the walls. Maybe they’ve been trying to find a secret entrance to the storage room all this time. Gordon said he never let the key out of his sight when he gave it to you.

“They could have been trying to find a way to take things out of this room without anyone seeing them.”

“That is true,” he said. “Let’s give it a hard shoulder. On three.”

He counted down, and we hit the wall hard. It shifted slightly. Not enough to get through, but at least we’d found what we’d been looking for. After four tries, it was open enough for us to slip through.

From the cobwebs covering the walls, it appeared no one had been down here in years. I would need a shower and good scrub from head to toe. I didn’t mind spiders when they were outside, but I had a completely different opinion when I had to walk through their webs.

I shivered.

“I’ll go first,” Kieran said as if he could read my mind. “There should be a stairway at the end of the passageway.”

I hoped he was right.

Even with the light from his phone, it was so dark. It took us a few minutes to find the stairs. And climbing them was slow, as we tried to figure out where we were.

“Let’s try that door,” I said when we’d gone up a flight of stairs. “Maybe we will be in the main part of the house and can figure out our next move.”

He nodded.

As he pushed open the door there was a chilling scream and then a crash.

I recognized that scream. I’d heard it before.

Lizzie was in trouble.

TWENTY

I took off at a run toward the scream with Kieran close on my heels. I had to find my sister.

“Who was that?” he asked. “Do you know?”

“It’s Lizzie.”

“Be careful,” he said. “Do you even know where we are?”

I shone my flashlight around. “Near the kitchen,” I said. “We have to find her.” I ran toward the kitchen, barely avoiding colliding with the huge built-in cabinet outside the door leading into it.

“Stop,” he said. “Let me get my walkie-talkie from the incident room so I can call the team for help. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

He left, but I kept moving forward.

“Lizzie? Where are you?”

I was met by an eerie silence. My stomach rumbled with nerves and adrenaline soared through my veins. Mr. Poe barked ferociously. She was in trouble.

---