The Ghosts of Cragera Bay (17 page)

Conway held up his hand. “Later. For now, tell us what happened to Andy.”

Carly explained all that had gone on the day before. When she finished, Reece was frowning.

“Are you certain he didn’t just go home? Maybe he was frustrated by the investigation.”

Carly shook her head. “He wouldn’t have taken my car.”

“When the men who worked for Stonecliff vanished, so did their personal items,” Brynn said. “As if they’d just moved on.”

“He couldn’t be connected to those men. There were arrests,” Carly insisted. “All three people involved are dead.”

“Do we know for sure there were only three people involved? I realize there’s a witness who claims he saw three, but couldn’t he have made a mistake?” Declan asked. Andy disappearing the same way so many men had before was too big a coincidence for him to believe they weren’t related in some way.

“It’s possible. Kyle had been drugged, and given the trauma from the attack, he may not have been completely aware of his surroundings. I think it’s unlikely, though. He managed to escape by pushing the man who had ahold of him into the bog. I doubt he would have managed to get away, especially injured, if there’d been many more people there.”

“Maybe this is a copycat of some kind,” Brynn said, carefully. “Dr. Howard told Kyle they’d been sacrificing men at The Devil’s Eye for the good of the village. Cragera Bay is dwindling. Half the businesses have closed. Maybe someone out there believes if another man is sacrificed things will get better.”

“I feel sick,” Carly muttered, skin pale. “I dragged him into this.”

Declan sat next to her, took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “We’ll find him.”

“Kyle was convinced that the date the men were killed was as important as the murders themselves. He emailed you that pattern he found, didn’t he?” Reece asked.

She nodded. “Initially, the dates, while seasonal, still appear random. Most of the men disappeared around the end of January, April, July or October, but rarely on the same day. Of course, knowing now that the men may have been held captive before they were killed, the dates are not random at all. They line up with the four main Gaelic holidays.”

“What’s the closest holiday?” Declan asked.

“November first, Samhain. It celebrates the harvest, and is also when the barrier between the living and dead is lowered.”

“Something to look forward to,” Declan muttered. He had enough ghosts roaming the halls of this house, he really didn’t need more.

“It’s how Halloween came to be,” Carly added.

“It’s also two days away,” Brynn said. “If he’s being held somewhere, is the round room too obvious?”

“What’s the round room?” Declan asked.

“It’s a dovecote on the doctor’s land. That’s where they kept the men they took,” Reece said, frowning.

“And the women,” Brynn added.

Declan had heard women had been killed by the man who ran the pub, but no female bodies were discovered in The Devil’s Eye. “What happened to the women? They weren’t part of the sacrifice?”

Brynn shook her head. “No, the women seemed to be exclusively Stephen Paskin’s thing. He would find the men—he called them harvest—and as a reward Dr. Howard would let him bring a woman to the round room to do God knows what with until he killed her.”

Carly shuddered. “Lovely.”

“Did they find any of the bodies?” Declan asked.

Brynn shook her head. “Not so far. Police searched all over Cragera Bay, but there was no trace.”

“We’re on the coast,” Conway said. “Paskin could have weighted down the bodies and dumped them into the sea.”

A likely possibility, Declan thought. “So if Paskin’s job was to find the men for Dr. Howard to sacrifice, then he’s given a woman to torture as reward, could that be the extent of his involvement with the men he took? Maybe he wasn’t at The Devil’s Eye at all when the men were killed. His part was finished.”

Brynn leaned forward, her eyes wide. “His wife was arrested also. She knew what was happening, covered up for him, but there’s no way to be sure she’d been present at The Devil’s Eye when the men were killed.”

“So if we go forward with your theory that the Paskins weren’t actually present when the men were killed,” Carly said, releasing his hand and tilting her head to meet his gaze with bright silvery eyes. “There are still two people out there who murdered countless men.”

“Maybe there’re even more people than we realize involved here,” Reece said. “Three people actually killing the men, but if it was Paskin’s job to find the
harvest,
maybe other people in Cragera Bay had jobs, too. Someone to dispose of bodies. Someone to throw off police.”

Brynn turned to Reece. “That would be a huge conspiracy.”

Reece shrugged. “Maybe it had to be. How long does Kyle’s list go back?”

“I don’t remember off the top of my head,” Carly said. “But about twenty-five maybe thirty years.”

“One man per year, that’s twenty-five to thirty men—and women, too, depending on how long Paskin was involved. Are you telling me three people could have pulled that off without anyone in the village becoming suspicious?”

“You’re right,” Brynn said, nodding. “The man who found Kyle after he’d been attacked knew that there was more than just one person involved. He lied about where he found Kyle, even moved Kyle’s car to discredit his story to police. And God knows, Harding would jump at anything that made Eleri look guilty.”

“I believe that. We just met the man,” Declan said.

Brynn’s gaze narrowed. “I thought he had been fired.”

“He was,” Declan said quickly, the sudden chill in Brynn’s voice catching him by surprise. “We went to see him because he’d been the lead detective in the murders.”

“You shouldn’t have wasted your time.”

“I wanted to know why the man was convinced Eleri was guilty, when everything I heard indicated she wouldn’t have had the physical strength to overpower these men,” Declan explained. “Harding said witnesses came forward claiming they saw Eleri with the victims just before they disappeared.”

“They’re lying,” Brynn said, jaw tight, eyes hot and fixed on him.

Declan held up both hands. “I believe you. But why did they lie to the police? We thought,” he nodded to Carly, “they did it for attention. Fifteen minutes of fame saying they saw this dangerous woman with her next victim, but maybe that wasn’t it at all.”

“They lied to hide what was really happening at The Devil’s Eye,” Reece said.

Declan nodded.

“Did he say who the witnesses were?” Brynn asked.

“He did.” Declan shrugged. “But the names meant nothing to me.”

“One was Sean Leonard, he and his mother run the inn where I’m staying. There was another, a woman, Dott or Dodd,” Carly said, frowning.

Brynn’s eyebrows shot up. “Olivia Dodd?”

Carly pointed at Brynn. “That’s it.”

“Olivia Dodd was one of the people Ruth Bigsby murdered back in March,” Brynn said. “She used to come with some other ladies a few times a week to do the cleaning.”

“That’s a weird coincidence. What about the man who helped Kyle?” Declan asked.

“Murdered,” Brynn said. “Presumably by Howard or Paskin.”

“People really have a habit of turning up dead around here,” Declan muttered, almost to himself. He stood and started to pace. “How many people do we think are a part of this? And why would they kill their own people?”

“They didn’t,” Brynn said. “Olivia was killed by Ruth. They killed the man who helped Kyle when he escaped, but he wasn’t one of them.”

“He knew about them, though,” Carly said. “Maybe not who they were, but that they existed. That they were killing people. How many other people who live here know, or suspect something and keep silent?”

“Not as many as we probably think, otherwise there wouldn’t have been so many people afraid of Eleri.” Declan stopped pacing and rubbed his chin with the back of his hand, his mind turning over every detail. He felt like he was sitting in front of a huge jigsaw puzzle with all the pieces, he just had to fit them together and he would have the whole picture. “There may have been a reason this man suspected what was going on, but wasn’t sure whether Eleri was one of the players. Maybe he’d been involved at one time, or knew someone who had been.”

“Small villages like these, the longer people live in them, the more they know about each other. If this has been going on for nearly thirty years already—” Carly shrugged “—maybe it’s been going on longer than we even know.”

Could she be right? The possibility left Declan a little lightheaded. A conspiracy like that going on here for
more
than thirty years, someone living at Stonecliff would have noticed something in all that time. Hell, even if Carly wasn’t right, and people had only been killed based on Kyle’s dates,
someone
should have seen or heard
something.

“Do you think our father knew?” he asked Brynn.

Her eyes widened. “I don’t know. I never thought about it. I only spoke to him twice while I was here. And neither conversation went well.”

Because she’d been after this house, what money their father had left? Now that he’d met his sister, all of Warlow’s stories just didn’t hold water.

“What did he say to you?” Declan asked.

“I’d grown up believing he was dead, that both my parents died in an accident when I was three and I was sent to live with my grandparents. When Eleri contacted me at the end of February, I learned that none of that was true. My mother had died, but not until I was around eleven, and my father was still alive so I came here to meet him. He was less than thrilled by the prospect. He didn’t want me here any more now than when I was a kid. I also learned that my mother was crazy and tried to drown me, and that’s why I was sent away. The last time I spoke to Arthur, I confronted him and he confirmed it. I tried to see him before we left for Holyhead, but he refused.”

Whatever flicker of guilt he felt at not meeting his father before the man died vanished. His first instinct about Arthur James had been right all along.

“But do you believe he’s capable of being involved in what had been going on at The Devil’s Eye, or at least helping to cover it up?” Carly asked.

“Absolutely,” Brynn said without the slightest hesitation. “He’s covered things up before. He knew Meris tried to drown me, but let Eleri take the blame—she was six years old at the time—because he didn’t want the stigma of another crazy wife.”

“
Another
crazy wife?” Declan asked. “Did he lump my mother in there, too?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. Honestly, I didn’t know he’d been married three times. Neither did Eleri. I’m pretty sure he meant Eleri’s mother. She either fell from the cliffs or jumped from them, depending on which version of the story you believe. Of course, having learned what I have about Meris, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d given her a push. Meris had already set her sights on Arthur, was pregnant with me and living here
before
Eleri’s mother died. Actually, your mother seems to be the only one who left this place alive and with her sanity intact.”

Even if Warlow had tried to imply otherwise. His mother had run from Arthur while pregnant with Declan, then lived in hiding for nine years. Parental abduction would be the legal term for what she’d done, and Arthur could have involved the police, would have probably won custody once he and his mother had been found. But in all the years he and his mother had been running, she hadn’t been afraid of the police—just Arthur. Why wouldn’t he have contacted the authorities?

“What Arthur knew or didn’t know is a moot point right now. The man is dead,” Reece interjected, leaning forward to peer out the door and into the hall. He sat back, but lowered his voice. “Maybe we should be asking how much Hugh Warlow knows?”

Chapter Fourteen

Intellectually, Declan knew Reece was right. Hugh Warlow had lived at Stonecliff for years. He’d served his father, and his great uncle before. If anyone had his thumb on the estate’s pulse, it was Hugh Warlow. But something inside him rose up to reject the notion.

Warlow had been his saving grace these past weeks. The man had guided him, taught him with patience and a sense of humor. He’d answered his questions, showed him all of Stonecliff with a genuine love of the place.

And he’d lied—over and over again.

Brynn had never come here to manipulate her dying father for his fortunes, and she and Eleri hadn’t abandoned a sick, dying man who’d needed them—neither had he, for that matter.

Memories of Warlow waiting for him outside his building back in August, the certainty that he had something hidden in his coat, that he’d been about to do something, played out in his head. He’d written the experience off to exhaustion, nerves, but what if he’d been right all along?

“Eleri’s been convinced Warlow was involved somehow with Paskin and Howard,” Brynn said. “She’s certain he saw Paskin the night the man tried to strangle her in her room, then he lied about it to the police.”

Brynn’s words so incongruent to her casual tone caught him like a slap. “I’m sorry, what?”

Did he look as stunned as he felt? What all had gone on here before he’d arrived?

“Before the arrests, while Eleri and Kyle were trying to track down the killer—or killers, actually—she woke up with a man in her room who then tried to strangle her. It was too dark for her to see who. Warlow heard her scream and he found her in her room, but her attacker managed to slip out without being seen. Paskin admitted to Eleri that it was him, and she’s convinced Warlow saw him and kept quiet.”

“If Eleri didn’t see Paskin leave, isn’t it possible that Warlow missed him, too?” Carly asked.

“I guess.” Brynn shrugged, clearly unconvinced.

“I think we need to talk to Eleri and Kyle,” Declan said. “They had direct interaction with the killers—they’ll have the most insight. Maybe Paskin or his wife or the doctor said something that might tie all this together or give us something to follow up on.”

“No,” Brynn said, sharply. “I don’t want her to know.”

“You’re going to have to tell her at some point, Brynn,” Reece said, gently. “She’ll be angry if you keep this from her.”