She frowned. “Cal, we can’t afford to screw the business, especially now, with Eddie missing, and Sean being sick and all.”
He nodded. “Okay, we screw each other and not the business.”
She laughed. “I doubt if we’ll have any charters tomorrow. But we do need to go in.”
“Of course.”
“Maybe we can go out by ourselves,” she suggested.
“Sure, if you’d like,” he told her.
She pulled away from him. “You check the doors, and I’ll make the toddies. And after that, well, we’ll need each other.” She wiggled her eyebrows playfully. He laughed and went to follow orders.
10
When Zach entered the breakfast room the next morning, Clara bade him a cheerful good morning as she set a plate of fresh-baked scones on the table.
“Good morning, Clara. You are incredible,” he told her, reaching for one of the scones and eating it where he stood. He was ready to run out to the police station. He didn’t want to call; he wanted to be out of the house from now on when he spoke with Detective Morrissey.
Last night, after Bridey’s eerie announcement, he had soothed her and urged her up to bed. Then, with Sean firmly ordered back to bed by all of them, he had gone over the house top to bottom.
He had wanted to do so alone.
Instead, he had done so with Amanda, Kat and even Caer following him around.
He’d found absolutely nothing out of place.
And no one in the house.
It was a big house, but he had gone through all of it, looked into every closet, every little storage space, and every nook and cranny.
He had even looked under all the beds.
Sean had probably been right, and the back door had just been left open. But he wanted Morrissey to know about the incident anyway. He also needed to give Morrissey the substance he had found on the island. He didn’t know what it was going to prove, even if it was talc. But it would at least be circumstantial, and with the detective showing him so much courtesy, he wanted to make sure that he returned it.
“Let me get you some coffee,” Clara said.
“Thank you, Clara. How you do it, I’ll never know. You cook and clean. As huge as this place is, it’s clean as a whistle and runs like silk.”
“Except for the fact that you left the back door open last night,” Amanda announced, breezing into the room. “That can’t happen again,” she said firmly, taking the cup of coffee Clara had just poured for Zach right out of Clara’s hand.
Clara frowned, wiping her hands nervously on the apron she was wearing. “I didn’t leave the door open, Mrs. O’Riley. I certainly did not.”
“Yes, you did. Or Tom did.”
“Tom went to the cottage before me. He had the tree glowing when I came in last night.” Her frown deepened.
“You go out the back, right?” Amanda demanded.
Clara nodded. “But I turned the key and threw the bolt,” she insisted.
“Are you calling me a liar?” Amanda demanded.
“No, of course not.”
“Well, then, there is no other explanation.”
Clara stared at Zach, as if asking for help.
“Tell her, Zach,” Amanda insisted.
“The door was open, Clara,” he admitted unwillingly.
Amanda spun around suddenly to face him. “You were out,” she said. “I was so unnerved last night that I only just realized that. You went out.”
“I went to the charter office.”
“In the middle of the night?” Amanda said, shocked and suspicious.
“I couldn’t sleep. And I’m here to find Eddie,” he said.
Amanda sniffed. “Yeah? I think you’re here because that little bitch upstairs thinks I tried to kill her father.”
Clara wore a look of white-faced horror. Zach tipped his head discreetly in her direction, and she fled.
He turned to Amanda. “Mrs. O’Riley,” he said pointedly, “I’m trying hard myself to believe that you’re really in love with Sean. But if I were you, I wouldn’t go calling his daughter a bitch around here.”
She smiled and tossed back the wealth of her hair. “Look, I’m married to the man, which means I’m stuck dealing with the bratty kid—”
“Who’s almost your age,” he reminded her.
She ignored him. “Not to mention having to deal with that other bitch married to Cal, with his dying old crazy aunt and that senile woman in the kitchen. I really don’t know how long my good graces will last. And I wouldn’t want you to bet on the fact that Sean would now or will always choose this harem of nutty sluts over me. So maybe you ought to tell the little bitch to behave herself.”
She didn’t wait for an answer, because she didn’t want one.
She simply grabbed a scone and glided off.
Why the hell had Sean ever married that woman? he wondered.
But he was actually pretty sure he knew. In front of Sean, butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. In front of Sean, when Kat was…catty, Amanda replied with calm and patient courtesy. She pretended to be gentle and loving when it came to Bridey.
She didn’t keep the act up quite as well for Clara or Tom, because in her mind, they were just servants.