by John Holt
“Another drink, Mr. Kendall,” came a voice to Kendall’s left. It was Mallory. “And you Miss Adams.”
“That’s very kind of you Mr. Mallory,” replied Kendall. “Same again, thank you.”
“Same again,” Mallory instructed. “And a gin and tonic for me.”
O’Rourke started to pour the drinks. “By the way, Mr. Kendall, Derren isn’t entirely correct you know, when he says there’s not much to do here.” He finished preparing the drinks and placed them on the counter. “There’s always the football club.” He paused for a moment. “This is the club’s badge.” He pointed to a small metal badge on his lapel. “I’m a member, and so is Derren.”
Derren nodded and pointed to the badge in his lapel. “Everyone’s a member,” he added. “We’ve got to have some pleasure haven’t we, to make up for coming here.”
O’Rourke smiled and looked at Lynch. “Right you are, but don’t forget that we do have our own weekly bit of excitement right here.”
“And what would that be?” asked Derren.
“Why you wouldn’t be forgetting the ceilidh tomorrow night now would you?” said O’Rourke. “It’s the high point of the week.”
“The what?” asked Kendall.
“The Ceilidh,” repeated O’Rourke. “You pronounce it Kay Lee.”
“It’s traditional Irish music,” explained Derren. “And how could I possibly forget about it? I’ve been trying for years without success.”
“If you can call it music,” said Mallory.
“They have a band here every Saturday, so you might want to go home on Friday,” Derren continued smiling. “It starts at about nine thirty. I normally leave by about nine thirty-five.”
Derren started to laugh, and looked at O’Rourke. “Only joking. It’s really not that bad,” he said, holding up his hands. He looked back at Kendall. “You never know you might actually enjoy it.”
“I have to say that Simon and Garfunkel are more to my taste.” Kendall looked at Mollie. “What do you think?” he asked.
She smiled and nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
Kendall looked back at Lynch. “Okay, we’ll be there,” he said. “Nine thirty, on the dot.”
“So what about tomorrow?” asked Mallory. “Have you any plans?”
“Oh, we thought we’d have a look at the village,” replied Mollie.
Mallory smiled. “Good idea,” he said. “Shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes or so, what about the rest of the day?”
“Perhaps we’ll take a stroll down to the beach,” suggested Kendall. “Take a look at that cove.”
“Carrick Cove, you mean?” said O’Rourke.
“The very same,” replied Kendall.
O’Rourke turned towards Mallory and shook his head. Kendall wondered what that was all about. Some kind of a signal perhaps, or was it intended as a warning.
“I should wrap up warm,” said Mallory. “The forecast for tomorrow isn’t good, and those Atlantic gales can be pretty fierce.”
“The cove is very open,” added Derren. “Back in the old days there was many a wreck flounder on that shore. A wrecker’s paradise.”
“It’s really not worth the bother,” said O’Rourke. “There’s not much to see, especially if the weather’s bad.”
Why didn’t they want him to see the Cove? What were they hiding? Kendall wondered. Was this a warning for him to keep away, or was he becoming ever so slightly paranoiac?
“By the way you really must come up to the house for lunch,” Mallory continued. “My wife would love to meet you both. How about the day after tomorrow, say two o’clock?”
Odd, Kendall thought. One minute he was being warned off visiting the cove, the next minute he’s being invited to lunch. It didn’t make sense. He wasn’t prepared to play along with their games. “That’s nice of you, but ….”
“That’s very nice of you,” Mollie interrupted. She looked at Kendall. “We’d be delighted to accept, wouldn’t we?”
Kendall nodded. “Delighted,” he repeated. “Thank you.”
* * *
Kendall was a very confused man when he returned to his room later that evening. So Charters was bit of a loner, Kendall murmured. You hardly ever saw him, said Lynch. And yet Keiron was definite, Charters was always down at the boatyard. That’s what he had said. Why would Keiron tell lies? To get attention, perhaps. To sound important. To be helpful, maybe. But who to? To the authorities, or to Charters himself, to show his innocence. It was definitely a possibility but not likely.
Kendall shook his head, it just didn’t make sense. You had to be very clever to tell lies, and keep it up the pretence. Sooner or later you would slip up. Sooner or later you would give yourself away. Keiron was a bright lad, but he wasn’t clever enough to pull it off. There was no reason for Keiron to lie, he had nothing to gain, and he had nothing to hide. But someone did. Someone there in the bar a few minutes ago.
But who?
* * *
Chapter Nine
Carrick Cove
“Good morning,” said a voice as Kendall and Mollie entered the dining room. “’tis a beautiful day, it is and no mistake.”
It was indeed a beautiful day. Yesterday’s rain had stopped at last, leaving a clear blue sky. And the weather forecast of the night before had clearly been wrong. There was no hint of bad weather. There wasn’t a cloud to be seen, and the sun was shining brightly. Nothing more had been said about Kendall’s planned visit to the Cove, so he decided that he had been worrying for nothing. Perhaps it had been nothing sinister after all. Was it merely that it wasn’t worth going to see anyway? Whatever the reason Kendall had made up his mind that he would visit the cove, no matter what.
“It’s certainly is a beautiful day,” said Kendall. “Let’s hope that this is how it’s going to be from now on.”
“Well, I think that might be just a little too much to hope for, but we’ll just have to see,” replied O’Rourke. “Now how about some breakfast?”
That sounded good to Kendall. Breakfast was the most important part of the day as far as he was concerned. A good hearty meal set you up for the day, well until lunch time at least. That was his philosophy anyway. “Good idea,” he replied.
“So what will it be?” asked O’Rourke.
Kendall thought for a few moments. “Ham and a couple of eggs sounds good.”
“And some fried tomatoes and mushrooms,” suggested O’Rourke.
Kendall smiled and simply nodded. Some hash browns would have been welcome, but it was doubtful that they knew about such things here.
Mollie shook her head. “Just toast and coffee would be fine,” she replied. “And some jello, please.”
O’Rourke looked puzzled for a moment. “You mean jam I think,” he replied. No problem. Just make yourselves comfortable,” he said as he headed towards the kitchen. “It won’t be too long.”
He suddenly stopped and turned around. “The newspaper, if you’d like it, is over on the side table.” He then continued on his way. “It’s all bad news I’m afraid.”
* * *
With breakfast over Kendall and Mollie made their sightseeing tour of the village. Mallory wasn’t entirely correct in his estimation of how long it would take. From one end of the village to the other had taken Kendall and Mollie just over forty minutes. Although it would be fair to say that Kendall hadn’t been in too much of a hurry. And they had been stopped a few times along the way by inquisitive locals.
Killmacud was very much like any other small village on the west coast. Even with its small population it had two churches, St. Peter and Paul, the Catholic Church located at one end of the main street, presided over by Father Patrick McCarthy; and St. Dunstans, the Protestant Church, with Reverend Trevor Smith in charge, at the other. There were two other public houses, apart from O’Rourke’s. Kelly’s Bar was more of a wine bar, trying to be a sophisticated night club, and was the favoured haunt for the younger crowd. Then there was Flaherty’s, which
was more suited for the family, boasting a family garden, and some swings.
There was a short promenade of shops, including Quinn’s Stores; Gallagher the Butchers; Paddy White the baker; Dress Up, a clothes shop; Murphy’s betting shop; and the Post office. And that was the sum total of the village.
“So much for shopping, then,” said Mollie. “It’s hardly Fifth Avenue is it?”
“There’s more to life than shopping,” Kendall suggested.
“Like what?” Mollie asked. “There’s more bars here than there are shops.”
Kendall looked at her and shook his head. “Not true, there are three bars, and six shops.”
Mollie shook her head, and made a face at him. “Manhattan needs to watch out, then,” she replied. “Come on, let’s get this over with. Where’s this wonderful cove anyway?”
Kendall reached into his inside pocket and withdrew a sheet of paper. On it was a sketch plan that O’Rourke had provided, showing the main parts of the village, and the directions to the cove. Kendall looked at the plan for a few moments, and then looked up at his surroundings.
“That way,” he announced confidentially, indicating the direction that they should take.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, Kendall and Mollie arrived at the track which lead down to the cove. The narrow pathway sloped gently down on to a shingled beach, with rocky outcrops at either end. The sea was rough, the sound of large breakers rushing in and hitting the shore, mingled with the cries of the sea gulls flying overhead.
Apart from two young boys down at the water’s edge, the cove was deserted. Kendall, and Mollie, slowly made their way down to the shore line. “Hi guys,” Kendall called out as he and Mollie reached where the boys were standing.
The boys turned to face Kendall. “You’re that Australian aren’t you?” said the elder of the two boys. “We heard all about you.”
Kendall looked surprised. “You’ve heard about me,” he repeated. “How come?”
“You’re the talk of the village,” said the boy.
“We ain’t never met an Australian before,” added the other boy, not wishing to be left out of the conversation.
Mollie shook her head and smiled. “We’re not Australian,” she said. “We are from America. From Florida. You know, Disney World, Cape Kennedy.”
“Have you ever been there?” asked Kendall. The boys sadly shook their heads.
“Perhaps one day you might get there,” suggested Mollie. “You’ll love it.”
The elder boy looked down and shook his head. With his dad out of work, and his mum sick, a trip to Florida didn’t seem likely any time real soon. “’Tain’t likely,” he said quite simply.
“You’re a detective aren’t you?” said the other boy.
Kendall nodded. “That’s right,” he replied. “I’m a private detective. Do you know what that means?”
“You’re here about that murder aren’t you?” said the older boy. “The man they found on the beach.”
“He was lying right over there,” added the younger boy, pointing to a spot a few yards behind him.
Kendall turned to look, and nodded once again. “Did you know anything about what happened?” he asked.
“No sir, only what he said,” the boy replied pointing to his friend.
“Were you here that day?” Mollie asked.
The younger boy shook his head. “No, we were over at the river.”
“What river is that?” asked Kendall.
“The Carrick,” replied the boy. “We usually go down there, just by Lynch’s boatyard.”
Kendall nodded. “So you never saw anything,” he continued. “I mean anything strange. Any strangers walking around, anything like that.”
“We never seen nothing like that,” said the young boy. “All we saw was The Lady Jane coming in.”
“The Lady Jane?” repeated Kendall. “What’s that?”
“Oh that’s Mr. Lynch’s boat,” explained the older boy. “I guess he’d been out looking at the whales.”
“Looking at the whales?” Mollie said.
“Yes, Miss, he takes people out to see them,” explained the younger boy. “They usually go out as far as the Point, and that’s where the whales can be found.”
“And you saw Mr. Lynch coming back,” said Kendall. The boy nodded. “And did he have many people with him?”
The elder boy shook his head. “No, he didn’t,” he replied. “There wasn’t anyone else on the boat, ‘cept Mr. Lynch.”
“What time was that?” asked Kendall. “Do you remember?”
The boys shook their heads. “Don’t know,” replied the older boy. “I don’t have a watch, but the church bell had just rung the quarter to.”
“The quarter to what?” said Mollie.
The boys shook their heads once again. “Don’t know,” said the older boy. “Six maybe.” He looked at his friend. “Do you know?” he asked.
“Could be six,” replied the younger boy. “Might have been seven.”
Kendall decided that he wasn’t going to get any more along those lines. He looked out at the sea, watching the waves rolling in. “I bet you come here all the time don’t you?”
“After school finishes,” said the older boy. “Most days, depends whether it’s raining or not. There’s not much else to do around here.”
“It’s not nice here when it’s raining though,” the other boy added. “It can be very cold.”
“And very windy,” continued the older boy.
“I’m sure you’re right,” Kendall replied, turning around to face the boys. “I’m Tom, by the way, and this is Mollie. What’s your names?”
The elder boy stepped forward. “I’m Michael, and that’s Alan.”
“Pleased to meet you Michael,” Kendall replied holding out his hand. The boy took hold and shook it. Kendall then turned to the other boy. “Hi Alan.” The boy smiled and nodded.
“I guess you must know Keiron,” said Mollie.
“Keiron Moore,” said Michael. “Sure we know him, but he’s older than us, so we don’t go around with him.”
“’Sides he’s always too busy working in O’Rourke’s, or in Lynch’s boatyard,” explained Alan.
“So what do you get up to then?” Kendall asked. “Fishing?”
“Does it look like they are doing fishing?” Mollie said.
The boys shook their heads, and looked at Kendall. “No we don’t go fishing, not round here anyway,” said Michael. “The sea’s too rough.”
“We usually go fishing down by Lynch’s boat yard,” added Michael. “On the river, you know, the one we mentioned.”
Kendall nodded. “The Carrick, right.”
“So what do you do here at the cove?” asked Mollie. “Do you go swimming?”
“No,” said Michael. “You wouldn’t want to go swimming out there, Miss.” He paused and looked out at the waves. “Too much sea weed, it gets around your legs and everything. Horrible stuff.”
“And it smells rotten,” said Alan.
“So what do you do?” asked Kendall.
“We explore,” Michael continued. “There’s caves, and rock pools, and all kinds of things. You never know what you’ll find.”
“Or what might be washed ashore,” said Alan.
“You mean treasure, things like that,” suggested Mollie.
The boys started to laugh. “Oh no, Miss, we ain’t found nothing like that,” said Alan.
“Would be good if we did,” added Michael. He looked at Alan and started to laugh.
“So what have you found?” asked Kendall.
“Shells,” replied Alan, enthusiastically, as though he had discovered the Crown jewels.
“We’ve hundreds of shells, all shapes, and sizes,” explained Michael. “And different colours too. But we’ve also found money. You know people sit on the beach, and the money falls out of their pocket, and they never notice.”
“They forget all kinds of things,” Alan continued. �
�We found a camera the other day.”
“And pens, and a watch,” said Michael.
Kendall was fast losing interest, and tried to stifle a yawn, and failed. He started to walk along the shore. “What about these caves you mentioned. Where are they?” he asked.
The boy turned slightly and pointed. “Over there,” he replied.
“Well if you are going exploring just be careful,” said Mollie. “It looks dark and damp, and you don’t know what’s in there.”
Kendall shook his head. “Oh come on, nothing going to hurt them. They’ll be alright.”
The boy slowly made their way towards one of the rocky outcrops.
“Guys,” Kendall called out to the boys, who were now some distance away. “If you find anything let me know will you? You know where to find me.”
The boys stopped. They turned and waved. “Be seeing you,” Michael called out. They then entered the cave.
Kendall watched until they were out of sight. “Well that’s that,” he said.
Mollie heaved a sigh. “Not sure that served any real purpose,” she said.
Kendall said nothing, but silently admitted that she was probably right. He looked at his watch. “I think we’ll get back to the hotel,” he said.
“Good idea,” replied Mollie. “I could do with a nice cup of coffee.”
That sounded good to Kendall. “Wonder if they’ll have some of those nice chocolate cookies to go with it?”
* * *
Thirty minutes later Kendall and Mollie were seated in the dining room, a large coffee pot, and a plate of chocolate biscuits on the table in front of them.
* * *
Chapter Ten
The Ceilidh
It was a little after nine o’clock when Kendall and Mollie entered the bar that evening. It was already fairly crowded, although there was still fifteen minutes to go before the evening’s entertainment was due to commence. It seemed that everyone from the village was there, together with several others from the neighbouring villages. It was noisy, with the sound of people laughing, or talking loudly, trying to make themselves heard over the din. Over in the corner a young couple seemed to be arguing about something. Just to their left was a group of tourists anxious to soak up the sights, and sample the local culture.
