In Like Flynn (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #4)

“Perhaps. I thought my sickness had upset my taste buds.”


“I think it could be arsenic,” he said. “We've got to get you out of here. I think you're being poisoned.”

“Poisoned? But who would want to poison me?”

“Good question,” he said. “Who brings the drink to you?”

The maid. I have no idea who prepares it.”

“Somebody who doesn't want you snooping around any longer, by the sound of it,” he said. “Ill take a sample of the stuff and have it tested. Do you have something I could carry it in? A pill box? A little medicine bottle?”

I shook my head. “I don't take medicines. I've never been sick, until now.”

“Don't women travel with an array of little boxes and toiletries?”

“Not me,” I said. “I'm a poor Irish peasant, remember.”

'You're hopeless,” he said, but he was smiling. “I suppose for want of anything better—” He took out a clean handkerchief and dipped it into the cup. “I'll wring it out into a container when I get back.”

“Ingenious,” I said. “I must remember that.”

He turned to glare at me. “I'm so angry with myself, putting you in harm’s way like this, when I wanted just the opposite …”

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

“I meant that I thought this would be a perfectly safe assignment for you, and now if I hadn't arrived in time, you might be lying here dead. It was stupid of me…” He got up and started pacing the room.

“But I've been very careful, Daniel,” I said. “They all think I'm harmless Cousin Molly. Nobody would know I've been snooping, apart from the spiritualist ladies, and they've done a bunk.”

He stopped pacing and spun around.

The Sorensen Sisters? They've gone, have they?”

They have. Right after I confronted them and told them I'd found out some of their little tricks.”

He shook his head in exasperation. You weren't supposed to confront them, just report back to me.”

“I didn't intend to. They found me snooping in their attic and I decided that attack was the best form of defense.”

The head shaking continued. “So they fled, which is incriminating enough in itself. Do you think you've got enough to nail them this time?”

To be honest, I don't think well ever nail them. They have too many believers who won't hear a word against them.” I tried to prop myself up. “Do you think you could pass me that barley water. My mouth is like sandpaper.”

Daniel poured from the jug, then tried the water first before giving it to me. “No, that seems to be all right,” he said and perched on the bed again beside me.

“I still can't believe that someone here would want to poison me,” I whispered. “They couldn't have been nicer to me.”

The Misses Sorensen obviously have a good reason to get rid of you. How long ago did they leave?”

“Oh, days ago. I'm a little fuzzy on time but the worst of the sickness came on after they went, so it can't have been them.”

“Well, somebody obviously thinks you've been asking too many questions. Listen, Molly,” he said, leaning closer so that his lips were almost touching my ear, “you had good instincts when you thought there was something not quite right about this place. I checked into your Miss McAlister. She bought herself a nice little house in the Washington area soon after she left service here, claiming it was a legacy from her rich aunt. By all accounts she lived quite well. The thing is that her only aunt is still living and not at all rich. Nobody in her family has died in the last five years and there have been no public records of any legacies.”

“So it was some kind of payoff then?” I whispered. “She was black-mailing somebody and she came back here to get more and—”

“And somebody pushed her over a cliff,” Daniel finished for me. “I went to see the spot for myself today and I think you were right. It wasn't a point on the path where she would have lost her footing easily or unintentionally.”

“So somebody in the house has something to hide,” I said.

“Any idea who?” he asked.

“I suppose it could have something to do with Barney’s shady deals,” I said. “He’s known for them, isn't he? But I don't want to think that, because it would mean it was Bamey himself who got rid of her.”

Daniel shook his head. “Men like Bamey Frynn tlon't do their own dirty work. He'd have had somebody else push her off the cliff.”

“I findthat hard to believe,” I said. “I was with him when the body was discovered. He seemed genuinely shocked when he found out who it was. And genuinely surprised that she had come back, too. He said she'd only been with the family for a short while.”

“Long enough to have found out something she shouldn't,” Daniel said.

“I suppose it could have been something to do with the kidnapping of the Flynns' baby, but I don't see how. Miss McAlister didn't come to the house until the kidnapping was over.”