by Zara Keane
My stomach clenched. It was an idea I’d toyed with before but rejected. “I’d love to hire you, but I can’t afford to take on an assistant before I have a few paying clients. I was talking about a one-off job.”
Lenny’s cheerful mood deflated, and I felt bad for letting him down. “I just thought you could do with a tech guy on your team,” he said, “especially as you ask me to help you anyway.”
This was true. I’d insisted on paying Lenny for helping me get set up with computer equipment for my P.I. business, but I was pretty sure he’d undercharged me for his services.
“I don’t have a team yet. As soon as I’m in a position to hire help, you’ll be the first person I call.”
He looked at me hopefully. “I’ll work for free until you get more work. You can pay me back when you have the money.”
The pleading look in my friend’s eyes was hard to resist. “That’s very kind of you, but I can’t ask you to do that. It wouldn’t be fair.”
“You’re not asking. I’m offering.” Lenny’s expression grew grave. “Maggie, I’m going crazy at my parents’ shop. They don’t let me have any say in the products we sell. The computer repair business keeps me sane, but there’s not enough work on the island to make it a full-time gig.”
I’d never considered how he felt about working for his parents. Despite his easygoing persona, he was a smart guy. I could imagine that being a store assistant wasn’t exactly his dream job, even if it was at a place that sold electronic goods.
“You can’t quit your job on the basis of what work I might have in the future. Why don’t we compromise? You can help me for a few hours a week, and we’ll see how it goes. Even I can manage to pay you for three to five hours of work a week.” Barely, but I’d figure it out somehow.
Relief flooded over my friend’s face. “Thanks, Maggie. You won’t regret this.”
I knew I wouldn’t. One day, Lenny would make a fantastic full-time assistant—if I could ever afford to pay him a salary and fund his P.I. training. “As your first official job for Movie Reel Investigations, I’d like you to take a look at Jimmy Wright’s internet history.” I gave him the Reader’s Digest condensed version of my search of Jimmy’s house and outlined the sites I’d memorized from his laptop’s search history. “Is there any way for you to hack into the computer without the police finding out?”
“Yeah, but there’s a reason you hesitated before cloning Wright’s laptop. I hate to say it, but we’ve got to play fair with Sergeant Reynolds, especially while the ink is barely dry on your P.I. license.”
“I know. It’s just frustrating to know he has the laptop and we can’t look at it.” I checked my watch. “The forensics team is probably still on the island, but they’ll take the laptop with them when they leave.”
Lenny grinned. “Then you’ll just have to charm Reynolds into letting you take a look at the laptop before it heads to the mainland. Better still, persuade him to give you permission to copy its contents.”
“He’ll never agree to that. But…he might be persuaded to let you take a peek before the forensics team takes it away. Let’s face it—if there was someone on the force on the island who had the technical know-how to do a forensic search, Reynolds wouldn’t need to send it to the mainland.”
“You mentioned you’d snapped a few photos of the papers Jimmy kept under the floor with the laptop. Anything interesting?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. They were bank statements regarding the transfer of money to an American bank account, but it didn’t name the recipient. I’ll need to take another look at them.”
“So what’s the plan?” Lenny asked, glancing at his watch. “I need to get to my parents’ shop to open up, and I said I’d help you set up here.”
“Never mind about helping me. Noreen will arrive in a sec. It won’t take three of us. Could you get away from the shop at around ten-thirty and join me at the station? I’m due to give my formal statement. We could tackle Reynolds together and see if he’ll let us take a look at Wright’s computer.”
“If I can square it with Mum, I’ll be there.”
Lenny drained his coffee cup and was about to stand up when Noreen burst into the café. My aunt was pleasantly plump with huge green eyes and jet-black curls. She possessed an energy and zest for life that belied her fifty-six years. This morning, she was bouncing from foot to foot in the way she always did when she had news.
“I guess you heard about Wright,” I said dryly, wondering how many times I’d be expected to tell that story this morning.
“What? Oh, you mean about you falling over Jimmy Wright’s body?” My aunt waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. “Sure, you’re always finding corpses, love. That’s yesterday’s news.”
I exchanged a look with Lenny. He shrugged and made a “beats me” expression. I turned back to my aunt. “Come on, Noreen. Spill. You know you want to.”
Noreen plunked herself onto a chair at our table and dropped her voice to a stage whisper. “Do you remember that mysterious silent investor in the Whisper Island Hotel?”
“The one Paul and Melanie are terrified to upset? Yeah. What about him?”
“His entourage arrived on Whisper Island on the first ferry. And you’ll never guess who he is.”
“Nope, but I’m sure you’ll tell us.”
She beamed as though she were the bearer of fantastic tidings. “Huff Huffington.”
“Huff Huffington?” I screwed up my forehead. “Not the Huff’s Puffs guy?”
My aunt nodded excitedly. “That’s the one. He’s your grandmother’s best friend’s son. Remember the school friend who exchanged movie magazines with Mammy? Helen is his mother.”
“Wait…Helen Huffington is from Whisper Island?” I didn’t pay much attention to the Forbes 500 list, but even I’d heard of Helen Huffington and Huffington Enterprises.
Lenny wore a baffled expression. “Who’s Helen Huffington? And what are Huff’s Puffs?”
“Helen Huffington is one of the wealthiest women in America,” I explained. “Her late husband founded a fast food chain, and it became a colossal success. Think gross fried balls of chicken. This was in the fifties, so her husband was the public face of the business, but it was an open secret that Helen Huffington was the brain behind their success. I had no idea she was Irish.”
“That’s right,” Noreen continued. “Now Helen’s son runs the company, and it seems he invested in the Whisper Island Hotel.”
I whistled. “No wonder Paul and Melanie are scared. Huff Huffington has a reputation for being a tyrant. Apparently, he was short-listed to host the reality show Future Tycoons, but he behaved so outrageously on a test episode that they couldn’t air it on TV.”
“I remember now.” Lenny straightened in his seat, and his expression grew animated. “Snippets ended up on YouTube, complete with all the bleeped-out swearing. The guy was totally out of control.”
“I’m rather hoping he’s in control this evening,” Noreen said. “Maggie and I have been invited to join his family for dinner at the hotel restaurant.”
I blinked. “We have? But I’m supposed to cater to the Detectorists Club meeting tonight.”
“I know, but I called Kelly and asked if she’d be willing to take your shift.”
“In other words, you’re strong-arming me into attending this dinner,” I said wryly. “Let me guess—Huff Huffington has a single son.”
Noreen’s grin was sly. “He does. And he’s a handsome lad from what I could see through my binoculars.”
“Binoculars? You spied on them?” I laughed. “Why am I even asking? Of course you did.”
“Well, just for a minute,” Noreen replied, not in the least abashed. “I saw the ferry arriving at Carraig Harbour on my way to the café, and I knew the Huffingtons would be on it. Helen phoned me last night to arrange the dinner, and she mentioned when they’d be arriving.”
I could picture the scene perfectly. My aunt leaning over the cliff at a p
erilous angle, just to get a look at a potential husband for me or my cousin Julie.
“You’ll come, won’t you?” She smiled at me as though my answer were a foregone conclusion. “It’ll be worth your while.”
Dinner sounded good, just not in the company of a bunch of strangers, one of whom had the reputation for shouting at people. “I’m sorry, but I need to work on Paddy’s case and give him an update.”
“Ah, but by attending the dinner, you will be working on the case.”
I frowned. “How?”
“Now surely Lenny remembers why?” Noreen turned to my friend, who exchanged a perplexed look with me. “Don’t you remember Helen Huffington’s history?”
“I’m afraid not, Noreen. I’m not much interested in the island’s old fogies. Besides, Helen must have left long before I was born.”
She clucked her tongue in disapproval. “Honestly, the youth of today has no respect for our island’s history. Helen Huffington was Helen Wright before she married.”
A light bulb of comprehension flashed in my mind. “She was related to Jimmy. How?”
“His aunt.” Her mouth stretched into a triumphant smile. “I told you you’d want to go to that dinner.”
4
AT TEN-THIRTY ON THE DOT, I strode into Whisper Island Garda Station and gave Sergeant Reynolds my formal statement in the station’s one and only interrogation room. After we’d crossed I’s and dotted T’s, I tackled him about the laptop.
“Could I have a quick look at Jimmy Wright’s laptop? Or would you let Lenny take a peek?” I treated him to my most charming smile. “I helped you find it, after all.”
He slid me a half amused, half exasperated side-eye. “You shouldn’t have broken into the house, Maggie. I could write you up for that.”
I adopted an expression of supreme innocence. “I didn’t break in. The door was open.”
“As in, wide open with a ‘Welcome Maggie’ sign dangling over it?”
“Well, not exactly,” I conceded. “More like unlocked.”
Reynolds chuckled, and his deep, rumbly laugh warmed me from the inside out. “What am I going to do with you, Ms. Doyle? You were a menace before you got your private investigator’s license, and now…” He let the unspoken words hang in the air between us.
“You agreed to write me a letter of recommendation when I applied for the license.”
“A moment of madness.” His teasing grin took the sting out of his words. “Seriously, you know I wish you well in your new business, but I can’t let you break the law.”
“You told me not to trample all over the crime scene. I promised to leave the barn alone, and I fulfilled that promise. Besides, I gave you a heads-up about the loose floorboard,” I said sweetly. “That saved you time.”
“Yeah, and thanks, but you shouldn’t have been fiddling with it in the first place.”
“But I did fiddle with it, and I saw the laptop and papers hidden underneath. Would you please let Lenny take a look at Wright’s internet searches and files? He’s a whiz at all things computer-related.”
Reynolds spread his palms wide. “No can do. You should know better than to ask.”
“Come on. You owe me a favor.”
His mouth stretched into the slow-burn smile that never failed to make me weak at the knees. “If I owe you anything, I’ve repaid it by not charging you with ransacking Jimmy Wright’s house after you’d found him dead.”
I gave him the evil eye. “If you’re referring to Wright’s home office looking like it had been attacked by a frenzied orangutan, that wasn’t me.”
“No?” He crossed his arms over his broad chest and grinned at me. “As far as I’m aware, you were the only person in Jimmy Wright’s house after his death. Please tell me you had the sense to wear gloves.”
My smile was smug. “Please. I went the whole hog. I even sprang for a hair cover.”
Reynolds shook his head. “Some would say that was indicative of you wanting to cover your tracks from the police.”
“And yet I informed you about my search, and I did you a favor by dealing with the cat.” I needed to steer the conversation away from my impromptu house search and back to the laptop, and I figured the hairball dominatrix would do the trick.
“How’s Mavis?” Reynolds asked, taking the bait.
“A terror. She marched into my house, took one look at Bran and the kittens, and proceeded to mark her territory by peeing all over the house.”
The policeman winced. “Does this mean Mavis’s stay with you will be of short duration?”
“I hope so. It’s not fair on Bran and the kittens for Mavis to muscle them out of their home.” I grimaced. “Unfortunately, I made the mistake of telling Noreen about Mavis’s outrageous behavior before I asked her if she wanted the cat.”
Reynolds laughed. “Mavis might calm down once she settles in.”
“She’s probably missing Jimmy.” I treated him to my most sultry smile. “I’m assuming you’ve looked through his computer files.”
“You have a lovely smile, Maggie, but I’m still not giving you any info.”
“Could you at least provide Lenny a list of the sites Wright looked up? I only had a chance to memorize a few.”
“Even if the contents of Wright’s laptop weren’t connected to a murder investigation, I couldn’t let you or Lenny look at my official notes.”
“Lenny’s waiting outside.” I gave him my most appealing wide-eyed look. “Why don’t you let him have a quick look?”
His shoulders heaved with laughter. “You’re incorrigible. You never give up, do you?”
“Nope.” I crossed my arms over my chest and stared him down. My efforts had little effect.
Laughing, Reynolds stood and held the door of the interrogation room open for me. “You’re out of luck, Maggie. The laptop left for the mainland half an hour ago.”
I put my hands on my hips and gawked at him. “No fair. You’ve been stringing me along all this time.”
“Yeah.” He grinned down at me, reminding me just how tall he was. “It was fun.”
“Meanie. The laptop was my only potential way of discovering a connection between Jimmy Wright and Paddy Driscoll’s sheep.”
“What a load of nonsense. Even if Jimmy took Paddy’s sheep twenty-two years ago, why would any mention of the event be on his three-year-old laptop? You just want in on the murder investigation.”
“Of course I do.” I pressed my lips into a prim line. “I found Jimmy’s body, after all.”
“I’ll keep you informed—up to a point.”
His dazzling smile failed to appease me, sexy though it was. I didn’t miss the paperwork and politics of being a cop, but, man, I itched to get my teeth into an interesting investigation.
I turned the situation over in my mind while Reynolds led me down the hall and into the waiting room. “I hope the tech crowd can turn up some clues. If Jimmy was kinky, I bet he met his partners online. I doubt there are many people on Whisper Island with a penchant for wearing lime-green sex suits.”
Lenny, sleepy-eyed and slumped over a computer magazine, underwent a visible one-eighty. “Did you mention a lime-green sex suit? Like with weird straps that don’t cover much?”
Reynolds and I looked at each other, and then back at my friend. “Did you see Jimmy Wright yesterday?” Reynolds demanded. “If so, when?”
“Huh? I didn’t see Jimmy.” The implication dawned on Lenny, and his thin face grew animated. “Wait…Wright was murdered while wearing one? Dude, that’s awesome.”
“Not exactly awesome for Mr. Wright,” Reynolds said dryly. “Am I to understand that you saw someone else wearing an outfit like Jimmy’s?”
“Yeah,” Lenny said. “When I was driving over to visit Granddad yesterday, I saw a person running alongside the wall wearing a weird outfit. Sort of a crotchless leotard.”
I shuddered. “Please don’t tell me fluorescent crotchless outfits are becoming a trend on Whisper Island. If so
, I might need to rethink my decision to move here permanently.”
Lenny grinned. “No chance. Folks around here are more into wellies and tweed caps. I’d never seen one of those outfits before yesterday, and I consider myself a connoisseur of online porn.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I did not need to know that.”
Reynolds cleared his throat. “Let’s focus on the person you saw, Lenny. Are you sure it wasn’t Jimmy?”
“Unless he developed boobs before he died, nope.”
“Hang on a sec.” Liam leaned in. “You saw a woman?”
“Yeah. She was creeping along behind the wall, kind of furtive, but the seat in my van is pretty high. I could see all of her. In every sense of the word.”
“You didn’t think to tell me this earlier?” I asked, outraged by my friend’s failure to share a scintillating piece of island gossip with me.
Lenny shrugged. “I don’t care what other people do for kicks, as long as they’re not hurting anyone. I was more interested in hearing about Jimmy’s murder.”
“Where, exactly, is the field where you saw this woman?” Reynolds pointed to the map of Whisper Island that decorated the wall behind the station’s reception desk.
Lenny stepped forward and examined the map. After a moment, he indicated an area that wasn’t far from Jimmy’s farm. “Must have been around here. It was just before I passed the old windmill.”
“What time did you see her?” Reynolds whipped out his notebook and pen.
Lenny considered the question for a moment. “I guess it must have been around four-thirty. Definitely before five.”
Reynolds looked at me. “That ties in with Dr. Reilly’s estimation of the time of death.”
“Whoever the woman was, she must have been meeting Jimmy,” I said. “There has to be a connection. I can’t imagine many people on the island run around wearing those outfits.”
Reynolds’s mouth quivered. “You’d be surprised. But yeah. It’s unlikely that she wasn’t connected to Jimmy. The pertinent question is whether or not she had anything to do with his death.”
“Or saw something that could point to the killer,” I added. “You say she was running, Lenny?”