Deadly Gift (27 page)

“There were birds, but I knew they weren’t for me.” Bridey frowned suddenly; looking downward, she saw her body—so frail and thin—on the bed far, far below, and she was even more afraid, but not for herself. She looked at Caer, who was dressed in long black silk, her beautiful dark hair blowing in the breeze where they stood on a great green hill above the world. She was so lovely, her features filled with such gentle compassion and tenderness. “I can’t go. Not now. There are birds. It
is
my time, I know, but Sean…it isn’t his time. And my precious Kat…”

“I will be there to guide and protect them.” Caer looked at Bridey. “And Zach is there, too. He loves your family. You and Sean were there for him and his brothers, and now he’ll be there for them. He will not fail them.”

As she looked down again, Bridey heard Kat let out a sob, saw Sean move to hold on to his daughter.

She wanted to touch Kat so badly, to comfort her.

“Lean down,” Caer said. “It’s not as far as you think, and you may touch her cheek, help her understand that you’re all right.”

Bridey reached down and stroked her great-niece’s cheek.

Kat looked up, wonderingly, and touched her face where Bridey’s hand had been.

“She felt me,” Bridey said, awed.

“Aye, she’ll know,” Caer assured her. “And look at you! Already, I see the youth and strength returning to you.”

Bridey heard the horses then. Heard the coach approaching. There were eight black horses, beautifully plumed. They pawed the air in a strange majesty. Then they set down upon the emerald hill, and the coach door opened.

Caer led her over. The step might have been high to her once. No more. And there was a warmth and light within the coach that beckoned.

Bridey turned, and hugged and kissed Caer. She was ready. She stepped into the coach, then turned, looking into Caer’s eyes. “If you ever need me…You love him, I know. It must be so hard, knowing you’ll have to leave him. Protect him. Protect them all, and especially protect Sean.”

“I will,” Caer vowed.

“I will be watching over you. Somehow, I know I will be watching over you,” Bridey said. She did. She
knew
it. Already she felt so strong. Like running again, skipping, laughing…

The carriage would take her to the emerald hills, and there she would see so many people she had missed so badly for so many years, and she
would
run and skip and laugh.

Caer smiled. “Aye, I know you will be looking out for us.”

Bridey took her seat in the coach, no longer afraid.

As the coach took to the skies again, she looked back, and she felt a little pang. Caer was still standing on the hill, the breeze catching her beautiful dark hair and lifting it around the porcelain sculpture of her face. The air caressed the black silk mourning gown she wore, outlining her form. Caer lifted a hand, smiled and waved.

And Bridey rode on.

“It looks as if he was killed right here,” Zach told Morrissey.

Morrissey was apparently not a cold-weather fan. He was trying not to, but he was visibly shivering.

Four crime scene techs had accompanied Morrissey in the police patrol boat that had brought him out.

“I’d say he’s right,” one of the techs said. “No bird bleeds that much. And the sand…right there. You’ve got drag marks. Stay back, or you’ll compromise the evidence.”

There were drag marks. They had been smoothed over with some kind of makeshift broom, probably nothing more than a branch, but if you looked for them, they were there.

And they led to the water.

Two of the techs went out to Gary Swipes’s boat. Zach didn’t expect them to find anything there, since it was unlikely he had returned to it once he had reached the island, but they had to be thorough.

The police combed the island again, using waders to search the shallows, but there was no sign of Gary Swipes.

All he had left behind was a pool of blood on a dead bird.

Zach found himself searching through the small copse, examining the ground under the skeletal trees. Scrub grasses and a few hardy shrubs were clinging to existence there.

The area directly under the trees afforded no clues, but digging around in the shrubs, Zach discovered an object that didn’t belong.

A thermos.

A thermos covered in blood spatter.

He called the photographer over to get a picture of it in situ, then put on a latex glove and picked it up gingerly, and took it over to one of the crime scene techs to be bagged.

Phil Stowe looked at it forlornly.

“He was a tough guy,” he said thickly. “He could be a jerk, but he was a…decent guy at heart. He sure as hell didn’t deserve this.”

“What the fuck is going on out here?” Morrissey asked. “Shit!” It was the most anger—the most emotion of any sort—Zach had seen the guy display. “I thought I was giving him a break, giving him a chance to pocket some money—that ex-wife of his took everything. Some damned favor.” He shook his head.

“Someone will have to be out here all the time now. On the clock.”

The three of them were standing there, just staring at one another, when Morrissey’s phone rang.

He took the call, frowned, then looked at Zach as he flipped his phone closed. His expression was leaden.

“Zach, you’ve got to get back right away.”

Zach tensed. “What’s happened?” What the hell could it be? If there had been a problem, why hadn’t someone called him?

“That was Clara. She couldn’t reach you. They need you back at the house. Bridey passed away. I’m sorry.”

Amanda had taken to her bed in a fit of dramatics. Caer was with Kat, who was inconsolable. Sean and Tom had headed out, following Father O’Malley, to make arrangements with the church and the funeral home.

Clara was in no shape to deal with the situation, Marni thought. The old woman was family, too emotionally involved to be the hostess, so she decided to stay and help out.

Cal kept standing about awkwardly, or following her around, until he finally got on her nerves. She sent him off to the grocery and liquor stores with a list of things to buy. The O’Rileys were well-known in town. Everyone would be coming by to pay their condolences, and someone needed to be ready to welcome them.

Thank God the doctor had been there when Bridey died. That meant the O’Rileys wouldn’t be subjected to the official questions that were obligatory when someone died at home without a physician present. It was just the law, of course, but she knew it was difficult on those in the household. Her father had died at home, and the police had been forced to ask how and why. Without a doctor’s assurance of illness, a body would be subject to autopsy. Family members could wind up accused of murder. It was horrible, and Marni couldn’t even imagine Kat having to deal with such a situation.

She was just arranging glasses on a silver serving tray by the bar when she heard the door open. She rushed out to see who it was.

Zach.

He was grave but calm. “Where are Sean and Kat?”

“Tom took Sean to talk to Father O’Malley about funeral arrangements. I’m not sure when they’ll be back. Amanda is in bed ‘recovering,’” she said sarcastically. “Kat and Caer are up in Kat’s room, Clara is out back, and I just sent Cal to pick up some things we’ll need once word spreads and people start coming by.”

“Thank you, Marni,” he said. “I’m going to go up and see Kat.”

“Is there anything I can do for you, anyone you need me to call or anything?”

He shook his head. “But thanks. I know your help will mean a lot to everyone, especially to Sean.”

He’d been gone a few minutes when she thought she heard someone at the front door. It was beginning already, she thought, as she went to let them in. The next few days would be hard, but she intended to be there for the O’Rileys all the way.

She looked through the peephole in the front door and saw no one. She frowned. She was certain she had heard something.

She opened the door and looked to both sides.

Still no one.

Then she looked down, and a scream rose to her throat.

It was another one.

Another dead bird.

Horrible, contorted, lying there on its back, looking up at her.

Its eyes were open. Both of them. And they seemed to be staring at her.

Fear shot into her heart, and she gasped for air, only then realizing that she had been holding her breath.

Dead birds. Everywhere.

First at the office.

Now here.

She closed her eyes. She couldn’t deal with it; she just couldn’t deal with it. Bridey, yes. Bridey’s death had been natural and smooth and easy, and she knew that things needed to be done, so she would do them.

But another dead bird…

She closed the door and locked it, then realized how ridiculous that was. As if a dead bird could get in!

Shivering, she walked away.

“Zach!” Kat exclaimed when she saw him.

She had been lying down, her eyes huge and puffy from crying. Caer, sitting next to her, wore a deeply sorrowful look. She met his gaze and smiled weakly, but she stayed where she was as Kat rose and threw herself into his arms.

“Oh, Zach,” she sobbed.

“She was a wonderful person, and she lived a long, full life, Kat,” he said, holding her, soothing her.

“I loved her so much,” Kat said.

“And she loved you, Kat. She always said you were the light of her life. And she was so proud of your success.”

“Oh, Zach, I know she was old. I know she lived a full life. But I’m going to miss her so much. I can’t picture life without all her stories about leprechauns and banshees. Oh, Zach…”

“Kat, it’s all right.”

“I can’t stop crying.”

“It’s all right to cry.”

Kat pulled back slightly. “She loved you, too, you know.”

“I know. And I loved her back. We all did.”

“Have you called Jeremy and Aidan?”

“Not yet, but I will. I wanted to see you first.”

Kat started to cry again. “She was old, but people can live to be older. And if she’s old, then my father isn’t that far behind her. Zach, I’m so scared. If I lost my father now…”

“You’re not going to lose your father.”

She wiped her tears away, tipped her head back and studied his eyes. “You believe me that someone is trying to kill him, right? So this…This…won’t stop them,” she said in a whisper.

“I’m going to protect your father.”

“Oh, God, Zach, the birds. The birds came, and that’s why she died.”

Zach smoothed back her hair. “The birds are birds. Kat, Bridey was old. She caught a cold, and it turned into pneumonia.”

“She knew the banshee was coming for her. She told me that. I tried to tease her out of it, but she was right. She
knew,
” Kat said earnestly.

“Kat, people often know when they’re going to die. At least, that’s what they say.”

“Where were you?” Kat demanded suddenly.

“Out on Cow Cay,” he admitted.

“Cow Cay? Why? What happened out there?”

He realized that Caer was studying him, too, frowning in concern.

He didn’t want to say. He didn’t want to tell Kat that another man had disappeared, only this time, he’d left behind a trace of his existence and pretty irrefutable proof of his death.

His blood.

“Something is going on out there—I’m not sure what yet. A guy was out there and now…they can’t find him,” Zach said.

“He’s disappeared? Like Eddie?” Kat demanded.

“Yeah, I’m afraid so.”

“Oh, my God! Eddie, Bridey…my father getting sick, and now this man? What the hell is happening, Zach?”

“Kat, Bridey was sick. And old. It was just her time,” Zach said.

“Well, it was wrong. She should have lived to be a hundred. Time…The time wasn’t right, not for us, not at all.” Kat started sobbing, and he held her tightly again. There was little else he could say or do. He looked at Caer, feeling helpless.

She rose. “Kat, you may want to rest for a bit. It’s all right to cry, though. We cry because we miss people. But we have to believe that there is a plan, and a time and a place where we’ll meet one another again, where we’ll see them again and all will be well.”

Kat drew away from him and looked at Caer. “Do you really believe that? You sound so sure….” She actually managed a smile. “So…Aunt Bridey died in peace, and the banshee came for her just like she expected?”

“Aye,” Caer agreed gravely, and flashed a glance at Zach. “She was Irish, so the banshee came for her and showed her the way, so she wouldn’t be afraid. And as she left, she left behind all pain, and she left behind age, and her soul was as young and beautiful as ever she was.”

Kat released Zach and walked over to hug Caer, who hugged her in return. “It’s all right to mourn—in fact, we need to. But we need to celebrate, as well. She’s gone home.”