Something Whiskered

One

"I've never met a baron before." I glanced sideways at my wife of two months to gauge her reaction. Helen Louise kept her eyes focused on the road ahead of us. She was driving the rental car because she had driven on the left side of the road before, and I had not.

"There's nothing grandiose about Uncle Finn because he's a baron," she said. "Not like he's a viscount or an earl. You won't be required to bow or kiss his ring." She shot me a mischievous look.

"That's good," I said. "I might put my back out trying to bow properly."

She laughed. "He's an old darling. I can't believe he's a hundred years old now and still as full of beans as ever, according to what Lorcan told me."

Lorcan O'Brady was the baron's grandson and Helen Louise's cousin. Finn and Helen Louise's grandfather were first cousins. She had grown up calling Finn uncle during her childhood visits to Ireland. Lorcan's parents had been killed in a car crash around forty years ago, when Lorcan was only ten. His grandfather had stood in loco parentis ever since.

"So Lorcan will become the Baron O'Brady at some point," I said. "I guess your uncle didn't have any other children."

"No," Helen Louise said. "Lorcan is an only child, too, like both of us."

"It's sad he lost his parents so young." I had lost mine when I was in my early thirties, and I still missed them. "It's good that he still has his grandfather." My paternal grandparents had died during my childhood. Helen Louise nodded. Her parents had been gone for nearly fifteen years. When her mother died, her dad grieved himself to death, according to my wife.

From the backseat came a loud warble that I interpreted as interrogative.

"How much longer before we get there?" I asked.

"Less than half an hour, I think," she replied.

I turned my head to address my Maine Coon cat, Diesel. "It won't be much longer, old man. Then you'll have a castle and its grounds to explore."

Diesel warbled again. I would have sworn he sounded excited. I could see my wife grinning as she focused on the road ahead. She had done the research and taken care of the preparations to bring Diesel with us. Ireland had changed its regulations and made it much easier to bring a pet into the country. Diesel had been microchipped several years before, and all he really needed after that was proof of the rabies vaccine thirty days prior to his arrival. There was a bit more paperwork to it, but I hadn't had to do anything special.

I was looking forward to the rest of this honeymoon trip. Our wedding had been beautiful, and I still could see, as clearly as if it had happened two hours ago, the moment when I slid the ring onto Helen Louise's finger. Diesel had served as ring bearer, and he had done it with style. He had been well behaved, and the guests were enchanted with him. He sat between us, looking up and occasionally chirping as we exchanged our vows. It was a perfect wedding.

Diesel had made a great hit with the flight crew in first class. He had handled his first transatlantic flight with few problems. The attentions of the crew had kept him happy and occupied. He had slept for several hours, as did both Helen Louise and I, and we had arrived in Dublin feeling rested.

We'd reached Limerick by train this morning shortly before noon. After a leisurely lunch, we took a taxi to the car rental office. We had left the rental car agency in Limerick nearly thirty minutes ago, around one-thirty, and were headed northwest into County Clare, where Castle O'Brady was situated.

I surveyed the passing countryside, lush and green. Much of it was farmland where various cereal grains were planted. There were also cattle raised for beef as well as dairy farms. I knew the O'Bradys possessed a considerable estate consisting chiefly of farmland, but the land was leased to others. Lorcan managed it all with the help of an estate foreman, but his chief job was operating a bed-and-breakfast at the castle.

"This will be my first time staying in a castle," I said. "You said it's not medieval, though, right?"

"No, it's Georgian. Although there was a castle on the grounds until the late sixteenth century. Nothing remains of it now, though. The present house really isn't a castle, but the name stuck."

I loved the symmetry of classical Georgian architecture. The balance of its proportions satisfied something in me. I loved medieval castles as well, at least the couple that I had visited on a trip to England some years ago.

Our trip to Ireland was scheduled to be three weeks. We had spent four days in Dublin, an enchanting city, before we took the train to Limerick this morning. I would have to have a go at driving here myself at some point and not leave all the work to Helen Louise. The thought of doing it unnerved me a bit, but I figured I could adapt to it.

My brain switched back to the family I was going to meet. "You said Lorcan's wife's name is pronounced Kweevuh. It doesn't sound at all like it's spelled, though. How is it spelled?"

Helen Louise laughed. "It's C-a-o-i-m-h-e. There are some who think the Irish wanted to make the English nuts over the spelling of Gaelic when the English wanted to put Gaelic into the English alphabet, so pronunciation rules are really complicated."

"I'll say." I repeated the spelling to myself several times so that from now on, when I saw the name printed, I could remember how to say it properly. "I'm glad the road signs have the English along with the Irish. Otherwise I'd be totally lost."

"I'm familiar with many of the Gaelic forms," Helen Louise said, "but some of them still make me scratch my head."

"You spent time at the castle in the summers when you were growing up, I remember."

Helen Louise nodded. "Starting when I was ten years old, until college."

"We used to think that was so cool," I said. "You were the only kid we knew that spent summers outside the US."

"It was wonderful," Helen Louise said, "especially when my parents came with me. Lorcan was just eight years old the first time I went, and there were other distant cousins my age to play with. Uncle Finn was like a big kid himself in some ways. So full of fun and the joy of life."

"A hundred years old now. It's hard to imagine living a whole century."

"Uncle Finn has lived through momentous times," Helen Louise said. "He was about five years old when the Irish War of Independence started, and he was reared on tales of the struggle against the oppressors."

"Does he hate the English? I'm sure there's still resentment against them, especially among the older folks."

"Uncle Finn doesn't hate anyone that I'm aware of," Helen Louise said. "He is the sweetest man I've ever known, except perhaps my husband."

I laughed. "Thanks for throwing that in."

She shot me a mischievous glance. I had a feeling I was in for a fair amount of impishness with the O'Brady clan. I had a healthy sense of humor, so I was prepared to have a good time with my Irish in-laws.

We passed through a couple of small towns but were quickly in the countryside again. Before long, Helen Louise turned off the road we had been traveling.

"Not long now," she said.

The terrain was hilly, and I surveyed the valley now below us to my right. So beautiful. I was thankful the day was sunny, but I knew that rain was never far away here. The frequent rain had helped the country earn the name the Emerald Isle, after all.

The road continued to climb at a low grade and then leveled off after a few miles. Occasional cottages and a couple of large houses dotted the landscape. After a quarter of an hour, Helen Louise slowed the car and prepared to turn into a lane that ran through gates and stone walls that stretched well beyond on both sides. I saw a plaque on the left-hand wall stating that this was Castle O'Bradaigh. That was the Gaelic form of the name.

I could feel my anticipation building along with my anxiety. Meeting new people, especially several at once, always made me a bit nervous. Helen Louise had assured me repeatedly that her family were nice, kind people, so it was really foolish on my part. I took a few deep breaths to settle my discomfort.

We followed the lane for a few minutes, passing through old-growth woods on either side. Soon we drove out of the trees, and I could see the house down a short hill ahead of us. I drew a sharp breath. It was so beautiful. I didn't have the vocabulary to describe all the architectural features. I simply enjoyed taking them all in. I did recognize the classical symmetry of Georgian architecture, though. The stone had weathered to a beautiful dark gray over the centuries. I thought I spotted a figure on the roof of the four-story structure, but it was gone quickly.

Helen Louise drove down the lane into the circular driveway. Suddenly, ahead of us, something fell from the sky and landed only a few feet in front of the car. Helen Louise slammed hard on the brakes and cut the engine. Before I could recover my wits, she had unbuckled her seat belt, thrust open her door, and scrambled out of the car.

She screamed while I was struggling to unbuckle myself, and by the time I reached her she was sobbing. I glanced down at the ground. There before us lay a body, broken and bloody on the drive. I pulled Helen Louise into my arms and turned her head away from the sight. One glance at the body had been enough to tell me that a very old man had died a brutal death moments ago.

Two

I couldn't think of anything to say to my wife. The old man on the ground had to be Finn O'Brady. What a horrible way to mark our arrival to visit her family. I held her tight and rubbed her back as she cried.

How on earth had this happened? I thought he might have been the person I spotted on the roof earlier as we approached the house. Had he slipped and fallen off the roof?

I glanced upward and saw that the roof had a short wall around it. I couldn't tell how high the wall was, but it seemed tall enough to prevent anyone from simply toppling over it to the ground.

Surely he hadn't jumped?

Or was he pushed?

I banished those thoughts and concentrated on Helen Louise. I murmured words of comfort to her and began to lead her away from the body. We skirted the corpse, and I steered us toward the steps that led up to the front door of the house.

Before we had gone more than a few feet, the door opened, and a tall man, his dark hair streaked with gray, and a beard of similar color, ran down the steps toward us.

"Helen Louise." He pulled up to a stop in front of us. "Was that you I heard screaming?"

I realized that we were blocking his sight line and that he hadn't yet spotted what must be his grandfather's body.

Helen Louise pulled away from me and threw her arms around Lorcan O'Brady. "It's horrible," she said. "I can't believe it."

"What's so horrible?" Lorcan said as he glanced at me. "You must be Charlie. What the devil is going on?"

I registered the lilting rhythm of his voice before I said, "I'm afraid this is going to be a shock. There has been a terrible accident with your grandfather." I waited a moment to let the words register before I moved aside so that he could see the body.

His eyes widened in horror. He gently loosed Helen Louise's grip on him and took a couple of faltering steps toward the corpse. "Grandad. God have mercy on us all." He started to move forward again, then dropped to his knees by the body.

Suddenly great sobs racked his body. He reached out to touch his grandfather's broken head. I saw him make the sign of the cross before he bowed his own.

Helen Louise, crying quietly now, slipped her hand in mine, her head also bowed. I closed my eyes and uttered a brief prayer for the old man's soul. When I opened my eyes again, I caught a glimpse of Diesel in the front seat of the car, his paws braced on the dashboard, staring at me. I decided it was best to leave him in the car. The weather was cool, so he should be fine for a few minutes.

Lorcan was on his feet again. "Excuse me." His expression twisted in grief, he brushed past us. "I must call the Garda and the priest." He ran back into the house.

"Why don't you go on in with him?" I said to my wife. "I'll stay with Uncle Finn." I didn't want her to be exposed to this tragic sight any longer.

Helen Louise nodded and kissed my cheek before she turned to follow Lorcan inside. I watched her until she disappeared through the door, then turned back to gaze briefly down at the remains of Finn O'Brady.

I glanced away. The sight seemed almost surreal. How had this happened?

Why had this happened?

Having been involved with so many suspicious deaths in recent years, I had a hard time not considering this one suspicious as well. I hoped the local guards would arrive soon and take charge of the scene. I didn't relish staying out here any longer than I had to, but Uncle Finn deserved to have someone to keep vigil over him.

I went to the car and opened the door. Diesel wore his halter, and I found the leash and attached it before I allowed him out. We walked back to resume a position before the elderly man's body. Diesel sniffed at the air but made no move to approach the corpse.

I heard an indrawn breath behind me, and I whirled to see a woman approaching. Her blonde hair was confined in a tight bun at the back of her neck, and she wore a dress of unrelieved black that looked like a uniform. Tall and angular, she had blue eyes. I judged her to be in her mid-forties, perhaps even fifty. Her face looked bloodless as she regarded the body on the driveway. She moved more slowly as she neared it. After she came to a halt, I heard her whisper what sounded like German.