“Ms. Marcil, will ye be after cooperatin’ now?”
“I am cooperating. I just don’t know anything. I was here last night. Cullen’s out of town and with Nick showing up the other day and Betty’s murder, Cullen didn’t want me to stay home alone. He asked Liam to bring me here where Nick wouldn’t be able to find me. Garda Connelly, I don’t know if he was the one that killed Betty, but he could get violent at times and I was afraid of him.”
A bang reverberated from the kitchen and I swung my head in that direction, wondering what Liam was doing in there.
“And so Mr. hot-head there, was he with ye all night?”
“Who, Liam? What are you implying, Garda?” I asked, setting the tea down with a little too much force. Liquid spilled over the side.
“Nothin’, just askin’ a simple question, lass,” the garda said mysteriously.
“What, do you think I snuck away while Liam watched a movie? Yes of course—he was here to babysit me every second. We grabbed groceries in town—you can check the receipt. We made dinner, I had a glass of wine, then I got a little upset talking about Nick, and so I took a nerve pill and went to bed. I was in bed like a good girl all night and I didn’t wake up til morning.”
I had woke to a nightmare, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
Just then Liam walked back into the room, pocketing his cell. “Ye realize we’re at least an hour outside of Dublin.”
“Forty-five minutes, actually,” the garda responded.
“Fine, forty-five; still, ye can’t be thinkin’ we drove all the way back, met her man at a bar, beat him up and then came back here.” He laughed. “I mean, me, a man of the cloth, and the hundred-pound lass over there? Oh, ye are somethin’ else, Connelly.”
“Should we contact a lawyer?” I cut in, shifting nervously.
“Nah, that will’na be necessary yet,” the garda said, heavily emphasizing the last part. “Although I’ll be speakin’ with yer man when he gets back. When’s he due?”
“Tomorrow, but why? He wasn’t even here.” My eyes locked with Liam’s.
“Never mind with me brother,” Liam said aggressively. “Ye should be after callin’ the station. I had a nice chat with yer man already.”
Feeling shaky, I stumbled into the kitchen. I needed a coffee. All I could see was Nick’s bloody corpse every time I closed my eyes. My hands shook as I poured the last spoonful of coffee into the basket, and some of the grains scattered on the counter. Shit! Frustrated, I hit the button and grabbed a dishcloth to sweep them into the sink. While I waited impatiently, Bailey’s in hand, for the pot to fill, I wandered out onto the veranda, thinking of all the things that had happened in the last year.
Cullen wouldn’t hurt a fly. A little voice inside whispered. Would he?
I rubbed my shoulders vigorously, pushing the chill away.
He had been really angry when Nick showed up. He’d threatened him. But no, he couldn’t have… Besides, this trip had been planned, or had it? It was hard to keep track of all his trips; the last few months had been crazy. He’d just come back from a trip. Why had he needed to leave again so suddenly? My stomach trampolined. There was no way he could have pulled it off. Not my Cullen. He wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer.
“Ye look bleak.”
Looking over my shoulder, I saw Liam standing in the doorway.
“I am.”
“Coffee’s ready.”
I crossed back into the kitchen, closing the door behind me.
“To hell with him,” He said. “Seriously, we’ll get to the bottom of this —on our own if we have to,” he said softly.
“Did you hear what he said about the message from Sophia?” I asked.
“It wasn’t ye, though, right?” Liam said.
“No,” I said. “But someone is obviously trying to frame me or Cullen.” Or Cullen really did it, although I didn’t want to say that out loud.
“Should we check?” Liam asked.
“Check how?” I asked. “I doubt there’s a website where people confess to framing you.”
“No,” He said.
“We could check Nick’s hotel room?”
Liam shook his head. “No one would be stupid enough to leave a clue if they’re setting someone else up to be framed.”
“Not intentionally.” I agreed. “If I could get inside then I could check.”
“It’s a huge long shot,” Liam said. “But I may know someone who works in housekeeping at the hotel. I bet she could get us in.”
“And why would she do something like that?” I asked.
“She’s always been a bit of a troublemaker,” Liam said. “She’d do it just because she’s not supposed to.”
“Sounds reasonable,” I said.
Liam clapped his hands. “We’ll get to the bottom of this one way or another.”
I nodded. I didn’t want to admit that I was a little afraid of what was at the bottom.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Guarding Sophia
We dropped Cullen off at the Garda station before lunch and headed to Nick’s hotel. The drive only took four minutes and Liam spotted Neve immediately at the front desk. She was in her early forties, five foot five and a hundred and twenty pounds of what Gigi would call ‘piss and vinegar.’ Arms crossed with a perpetual scowl.
Neve eyed Liam and me, and I wondered if she was having second thoughts. Liam pointed to me. “This is the one I was tellin’ ye about—the dead guy’s ex.”
Neve must have approved because she nodded and handed Liam a card. “This is a key. It will get you into his hotel room—him and the broad who flatlined had adjoinin’ rooms. Neither room has been cleaned yet but we’re expecting the okay today so be quick about it. Why do you want in anyway? You investigatin’ again?”
“Investigatin’, aye, something like that,” Liam explained. “But on the down low, real quiet like.”
“That son of a bitch was into something more than just cheatin’, wasn’t he?” asked Neve. “I got a bad vibe off him. Always in a bad mood. Was it drugs?”
“I can’t say,” Liam said.
Neve nodded. “Brilliant. Don’t give me details. Better if the tossers come round askin’ questions. Leave the key in the drawer when you’re done.”
At the end of the hall, we found the rooms and Liam pulled out some gloves and the key to unlock the door. We slipped inside and locked the door behind us before turning on the lights.
“What did she mean, investigating again?”
“Well, obviously, the cops have been crawlin’ all over here.”
“She thinks you’re part of the investigation?”
Liam smiled. “No, she thinks you are. An ex-girlfriend of the victim who also just happens to be a private eye.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
No Sympathy for The Devil
“How much longer will this take, do you think?” I asked Liam. I had no idea how long we’d been waiting, but it felt like two hours. Our search at the hotel had turned up nothing. The gardai had obviously done a thorough job.
Liam, leaning against the brick of the station, sipped his coffee absently. “Not much longer,” he said. “It’s just routine.”
There was nothing interesting to look at inside the Garda station, just shifty people, so after we’d returned from our snooping, we’d walked down the street to a coffee shop and back, and now we loitered outside.
“Hi, ye.” A familiar tall, lean figure walked out the front doors of the Garda Station. His mouth was set in a thin line but he feigned a smile as he saw me.
My heart started to pound. Well, they hadn’t arrested him, but he didn’t look overly happy either.
It was Liam who spoke. “How’d it go?” His voice was quiet. “They release ye as a suspect?”
Cullen folded his hand in mine and we walked in the direction of the car.
“Not yet,” he said. “Soon, I’m sure. They just need to check my alibi out, but considering I was on a plane—I’m su
re it’ll check out.”
I exhaled an audible breath and smiled. For just a moment, a feeling of relief broke through the layer of ice over all of my emotions. Somewhere deep inside I’d been expecting Garda Connelly to tell me Cullen had done it. Who knows how long I would have stood there, staring, if my phone hadn’t begun to ring, vibrating in my coat pocket.
I reached for it reflexively, noticing that the call was coming from Toronto. I switched hands and put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Sophia?” It was Nick’s little sister. She sounded like she’d been crying. “How are you?”
The boys began a conversation, so I turned my back.
“I’m okay,” I said, and paused. “Jana, I’m so sorry.” My voice sounded hollow and distant to my own ears. “How are you doing? Are you all right?”
“Not really,” she said. “I just keep going into his old room. There’s no one there.”
I sat down on the steps, suddenly feeling the weight of what had happened. “Jana, where’s your father? Where’s Bexx Senior?”
“He’s there, in Ireland. He’s on his way back now,” she said, and I could hear the anger in her voice. “He’s always gone…and so was Nick and so are you. I’m alone. I’m always alone.”
I placed my hand against my forehead, unsure how to comfort her. “You shouldn’t be alone right now—”
“So come here! Say you’ll come with me to the funeral. I have something for you and I can’t face the funeral alone,” she said, her voice finally breaking. “There’s no one left in the world who loves me. Only you and Nick and now he’s gone…”
I wanted to tell her that her father loved her and that she wasn’t alone, but I knew the truth and I wasn’t going to rob her of her feelings. People were always doing that to her.
“Jana, honey, I’ll call you back,” I said and hung up the phone.
“Who was that?” Cullen asked.
“That was Nick’s sister. She wants me to come to Toronto for the funeral.”
Cullen gave me a funny look.
“Well, I’ve got to get back to Móraí. I think we’re off on one of her adventures shortly, so call the mobile if anything comes up,” Liam said and gave us both a hug.
Cullen wrapped his arms around me and guided me down the street. “Let’s go get some lunch.”
“I’m not really hungry, but okay.”
He stopped walking and stared at me.
“Babe, are ye okay?”
I clung to him tighter. “It’s just been a nightmare,” I whispered.
“I know. It’s all over now. The Garda have moved on from us. No one’s going to be arrested, and that bastard is dead.”
I pulled back and looked at him steadily. His expression was as serious as an undertaker’s. “What kind of thing is that to say?”
“I know ye’re upset, Sophia,” he said, his voice sharp, “but he was a bad person—”
My face grew hot. “Cullen, I’m not happy that someone violently murdered Nick.”
His eyes widened, the orange flecks in his green irises growing larger and somehow appearing inflamed.
“I know…but ye can’t deny that he sort of had it comin’. He murders small animals and stalked ye and he could have killed my brother.”
“We don’t know for sure that the animal thing was him, but yes, I agree Nick was bad news,” I said. “But I just don’t want to feel like we’re happy about it, okay–”
“Ye’d rather I be fake?” Cullen interrupted. “Pretend like I didn’t watch him throw ye off a cliff? Are ye kiddin’ me right now?”
I stared. “Maybe we should drop this.”
“Whatever ye say—But there’s something wrong with ye if ye are seriously considerin’ goin’ to that funeral.”
“Cullen,” I said sharply.
Cullen took a breath and put his hands up to cover his face. He had long fingers. “Sophia, I’ve been worryin’ myself sick over ye the last week. It drives me mad to be away from ye all the time and to know that some lunatic who almost killed ye a year ago was now stalking ye... well, let’s just say I could barely concentrate on anything else. I almost blew this last deal just to get back to ye. So the fact that this dangerous person is now gone and never going to hurt you…well I’m sorry if it makes me a bad person, but I feel better. I feel like celebratin’. Hell, I feel like I can finally sleep again.”
I reached up, standing on my tippy toes, and kissed him. “I love you, Cullen. You are the most genuine person and you’re right to feel the way you do. I guess, truthfully, I feel guilty because I feel a little relieved, too.”
“Babe, ye can always be honest with me.”
“Good, because I’m honestly still going to the funeral.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Fairly Odd Funeral
The trees were full and green as I opened the limo door, letting in the warm summer sunshine. I wondered once again if I would ever get that battered image out of my head. No matter what the bastard had done, I never would have wished that on him. The bloggers were now mostly hinting that it was his involvement with drugs that did him in and that Betty’s death had been the warning, but of course there were the few that still believed it had something to do with me—despite the fact that I was cleared in the investigation. I privately wondered if someone was trying to set me up. Why would someone have left a message from me to meet? Or was it just a mix-up? Perhaps he was cheating with someone named Sophia. That wasn’t completely reaching; Nick was a cheater.
“Sophia?”
From my left side, Leslie, who we’d just stopped to pick up, broke my train of thought.
“We’re gonna be late for the funeral.”
“Oh, yes,” I whispered, climbing back in. I’d been daydreaming—replaying my argument with Cullen over in my head. He’d begged me not to come, to leave the past where it belonged, but there had been moments when Nick almost seemed like a good person. I owed it to him—and his family, didn’t I? Jana was like a little sister to me and Bexx Senior, despite his coldness to his own children, had always been good to me. Besides, what would people say if I didn’t come? They’d say I did it, that’s what they’d say, and I was tired of the twittersphere bearing down on me. Besides, the danger was over, Nick was dead, and the cycle was broken… So why did I still feel uneasy?
“Thanks for coming with me today. I just don’t think I could do this on my own.”
“Don’t mention it. Besides, I’m looking forward to having you all to myself for a few days.”
“Me too. I can’t wait til you’re back in Dublin for the wedding. I wish you could come sooner. You should come live there.”
“Right.”
“I’m serious. You lived there for almost two years. Why not move back?”
“That was a phase. I lived in hostels and crashed with friends.”
“Well, you can still crash with a friend.”
“You’re getting married, and three’s a crowd.”
My phone pinged and lit up with a message. I covered my mouth and leaned my head forward onto my knees.
“What’s the matter?”
“I’m trending as the Bexx jealous girlfriend,” I said sharply.
“But you left him; you even moved away. How can people buy into that shit?”
“Doesn’t matter to them, I guess—it’s juicy and it’s not about them.”
Leslie frowned.
“You’re looking a little gaunt. Did you eat?”
I glanced at my reflection in the window. I was wearing a black dress that was in stark contrast to the paleness of my skin. She was right; I looked worn out.
“I think I ate a protein bar last night before I packed.” I rummaged through my purse. “Oh no, wait, it’s still here.”
“Well, right after the service we’ll grab some thai.”
“Let’s just order in. I don’t think I could handle a restaurant and people right now. Oh, shoot, I promised my old landlord that I’d meet her for coffee.
You remember Rissa, don’t you?”
Leslie nodded.
The limo came to a sudden stop and I leaned down to get my purse.
“Umm, Sophia. If you don’t want to see people, we may be in trouble.”
I sat back up and glanced outside. There was a crowd.
“They probably want to see the woman accused of murdering Nicholas Riley Bexx Jr.”
“Sophia!” Jana cried, shoving her way through the crowd. Nick’s younger sister was a beautiful young woman. Her eyes were red rimmed and puffy but she wore a thin-lipped smile.
As I turned toward her, a man stepped forward and snapped my picture with an explosion of light
“Great,” I murmured, leaning into Jana’s shoulder. “Everyone with a cell is a photographer these days. I don’t actually need a reporter hounding me, too.”
“Don’t worry, it’s just the local paper. Some of Nick’s friends from L.A are here. You know how it is when the celebs come around. Anyway, you know we don’t believe any of that shit they’re saying. Father and I are just so happy you came.”
“Me too,” I said, thinking about how I’d really declined at first, not wanting to come at all. She clung tighter and a sob burst from her throat.
Remorse washed over me for the small creature in my arms and I was glad I’d conceded to coming. “Oh, Jana. It’s going to be all right.” I wanted to say your brother is in Heaven now, but the words caught in my throat. Could he be? I peeled her back from me and wiped at my own tears.
“Jana, you remember my friend Leslie?”
“Yes, of course,” she said, clinging to Leslie next, before grabbing my arm and leading us up the stairs of the church. Rows of eyes instantly turned to stare but Jana held fast, toting me along.
“Jana,” a voice called just as we made it up the aisle to the casket.
“Aunt Sarah,” she said, letting go. “I’ll be back.”
I looked around and then turned to Leslie. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”
“I can’t believe it either,” Leslie whispered back. “I didn’t know evil incarnate could die.”
Temple of Indra's Curse (Time-Traveling Bibliophile Book 2) Page 17
