“Oh, come on, what could Amanda have done so quickly?” he asked.
Bridey looked around for a moment, as if she thought the walls might have ears. “She thinks that love of the old country is rot,” she said, nodding knowingly. “She cares nothing for the past.”
“But Sean loves her,” Caer reminded her.
Bridey shook her head. “My nephew was so wise for most his life. I don’t know what ever compelled him to consort with someone so…so empty-headed.”
“Now Bridey,” Zach said, “Sean’s no one’s fool, and you know it.”
“Every man is a fool when it comes to love,” Bridey said sagely, as she took the plate of scones from the microwave, set it on the table and finally took a chair herself. The aroma of the heated scones was delicious and somehow soothing.
Bridey didn’t look soothed, though. She looked restless. “And then there’s the fact that Eddie is dead,” she said quietly.
“Right now he’s just missing, Bridey,” Zach told her. There had been a curious finality in her voice, though, he thought. As if she knew something.
She shook her head and looked at Caer as she told him, “I know he’s dead. I’ve been seeing him in my dreams.” She looked at Zach. “You know he’s dead, too. The thing is, you have to find out why. And who did it,” she said flatly. “They have to pay.”
He reached across the table and closed his hand over hers. “I will find out what happened, Bridey,” he promised her gently.
“The same person is after Sean,” Bridey said.
“Maybe, maybe not,” he said carefully. “And no matter what you think of her, you can’t go around accusing Amanda unless you have some kind of evidence.”
“Well, then, you’d best start finding some, eh?” Bridey said. “And eat your scone before it cools.”
Caer was already taking a bite of hers. “This is delicious, Bridey,” she said.
Bridey looked at Caer, and it looked to Zach as if she shivered just slightly. But then she smiled, and it seemed to be sincere.
“You can take the baker out of Ireland, but never Ireland out of the baker. You can be gone forever, but you never forget the old ways, or the truths you learned as a child.”
“And glad I am of that,” Caer told her. “You keep me from being homesick.”
Bridey nodded gravely.
Something had definitely gone on between the two women, Zach thought, wondering if he would ever break through and discover what had been said before he arrived. For some reason, it seemed important.
Divide and conquer, he reminded himself.
He finished the last of the scone and his tea, and rose. “Bridey, thank you. I believe I’ll sleep like a log now.”
She flushed, pleased.
Caer had risen, as well, and was picking up the cups and plates. He couldn’t help but think that even if she wore a burlap bag, she would still be seductive. She certainly hadn’t set out to entice in her flannel pajamas and robe, but somehow…
Bad thought to linger on.
“Good night,” he said to them both.
“Good night,” Caer echoed.
“Sleep well,” Bridey told him.
His eyes seemed drawn to Caer’s. It was the color, he told himself, framed by that long raven-dark hair.
He gave himself a mental shake. In a moment, he would be imagining the physical assets beneath the flannel, and that wouldn’t be a good thing. He needed to know more about her, not find himself falling victim to her strange Irish spell.
He didn’t believe in leprechauns, pixies or banshees. And wasn’t it strange that he’d thought of himself as falling victim to her spell?
Bridey was most likely right, and Eddie was dead. There was a terrible logic in that conclusion. And as he’d told Kat, there seemed to be more than coincidence at work here, which meant Sean just might be next on the killer’s list. A killer who had to be found and stopped.
That was real.
He turned without another word and went back to bed, where he slept at last, and yet, even in his sleep, he was listening.
Listening for what?
Even in dreams, he wasn’t sure.