Page 83 of Road Trip
“Wow, here’s Lord Rossington welcoming Lord Mountbatten to a party,” Maeve said, squinting to read the tiny print of the photo caption.
“Why does the name Mountbatten ring a bell?” Therese asked, glancing down at the photo.
“Mountbatten was Prince Philip’s uncle—you know? The Prince Philip who was married to Queen Elizabeth?”
“Oh, right,” Therese said.
“He was killed in the late ’70s, when the IRA blew up his sailing yacht.”
“The IRA strikes again,” Therese murmured.
The door leading into the conference room opened, and the Goth girl stood in the doorway looking flustered. “Ladies, my gran just called and when I told her I’d let you in here, she blessed me out proper. I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave.”
“Five more minutes?” Therese wheedled. “We’re so close to finishing our research. Please?”
“Five and then out you go.” The girl stood, her hand on thedoorknob. “And I’m to make sure you don’t take anything when you leave.”
“Harsh,” Maeve said, under her breath. She started turning the pages of the book faster, looking for anything related to the murder of Lady Delia.
“Wait, go back a page,” Therese said. “I think I saw something.”
It was a photograph of a newspaper clipping, with a headline that readBELOVED LOCAL PHILANTHROPIST FOUND SLAIN.
Maeve whipped out her phone and quickly snapped a photo of the clipping. She turned a page and saw that there was another clipping, and then another, and photographed those too.
“All right,” Goth girl announced. “Time’s up. Out you go.”
CHAPTER 37
Dublin Gazetteer, May 1926
LORD’S SISTER FOUND SLAIN
The honorable Delia, Lady Rossington, sister of the late Lord Rossington, was found deceased in the family’s country home in Tarrymore, County Wicklow, last week.
Constable Gareth Kehoe told the correspondent for theGazetteerthat it appeared Lady Delia had been stabbed to death.
Family members discovered the body, lying in a pool of blood, in the home’s portrait gallery when they returned from a weekend shooting party in Donegal. The Constable said a valuable painting, several pieces of jewelry and cash had also been taken.
He said authorities believe that a local girl, Kathleen Connor, 18, who was Lady Delia’s ward, and who had enjoyed every privilege under her protection and tutelage, was believed to be the perpetrator of the crime, and that she might have been abetted by a family retainer, Clive Donovan, who was a trusted employee on the Rossington estate, which comprises 15,000 acres in County Wicklow.
Donovan denied any knowledge of the crime, and is no longer employed by the family.
Constable speculated that Lady Delia might have surprised the village girl in the act of thievery, and thus was stabbed as a consequence.
The honorable Fiona, Lady Rossington, who is the Lord’s widow, said she and her family are deeply grieving the loss of her late husband’s elder sister. She has posted a reward of 100 pounds for information leading to the apprehension of Kathleen Connor.
Therese had tosquint to read the fine print of the newspaper article on her sister’s cell phone.
“Wonder who Clive Donovan was?” Therese mused. “Maybe you could ask your new boyfriend. Didn’t he tell you his family has lived here forever?”
The rain had stopped and the weather had finally turned sunny, so the sisters were sitting on the inn’s mossy verandah, under the shade of a massive oak tree, enjoying a Pimm’s Cup from the lounge. Therese tilted her glass and sniffed. “Cucumbers in a cocktail. I think I could get used to this.”
“If only they weren’t so stingy with ice cubes,” Maeve said.
“I know, right? In the meantime, you should text Liam and ask him about Donovan.”
Maeve shook her head vigorously. “I don’t want him to think that I’m just pumping him for solutions to our problems.”
