The man made a dismissive noise like ‘psht’. ‘Not him. The walker in the woods. Although you shouldn’t be crossing that fella either.’ No love lost there, Alex thought, not from that tone. ‘Not after his wife and your brother both. The guards still haven’t answered what happened there, and Nick Walker was their prime suspect, wasn’t he?’
Alex turned around, staring at them now.
‘Hewhat?’
‘All alone up there in that big house they were, the three of them. And now two of them are dead.’
He had a wife? A dead wife? And did the police think Nick was involved in Theo’s death?
‘That’s enough of that talk,’ the landlady snapped. Alex jumped at the sound. ‘Nick wasn’t even there when young Theo died. He found the body when he got back from the village. Think about what you’re saying.’
‘What happened?’ Alex couldn’t let this drop now.
‘Oh nothing, just malicious gossip. Sally fell down the stairs, a missed step or something. A tragic accident. Poor Nick found her. And your Theo – God rest him – well, you probably know all about that better than anyone here.’ She glared at the drinkers. ‘He’s a good man, is our Nick. Now, do you want a receipt?’
‘A good man,’ the other elderly drinker snorted out a laugh. ‘All the women around here are mad for him. And look at him. More beast than man.’
‘Do you want me to bar the pair of you?’ the landlady asked, icily.
‘No, Fionnuala,’ they both muttered, like chastened schoolboys.
She huffed in satisfaction and handed Alex a receipt. ‘There you go, love. You watch yourself, mind. It’s an old house. Andthe woods around it are dangerous. Don’t go straying, will you? Listen to Nick. He knows the place better than anyone.’
Straying? On her own land? Was she getting warned of danger or simply warned off? She wasn’t sure.
‘What is the walker in the woods?’ she asked.
Fionnuala rolled her eyes. ‘Just an old story. Like the good people, you know? Nothing to worry yourself about. A boogey man. They used to say that the forest needed a guardian.’
‘To keep it safe?’
The two old men laughed, a sound cut off by another glare from Fionnuala, who tried to smile and pass it all off again.
‘Pay it no mind, love. Old nonsense, that’s all. The story went that the walker kept the woods in check. Or guarded the boundaries of de Wilde land, keeping the curse contained.’
‘The curse?’ A lot of old families had curses associated with them, didn’t they? And they were all a lot of bull.
‘The de Wilde curse?’ Fionnuala tried that indulgent smile again. ‘Surely your granda told you about that. Comes from when they built the Big House. Crossed the fairies, or so they say, building it there. Just a story like the walker. They give Nick such a hard time about it. Because that’s his job, and his surname and all that. Superstition and spite. Small communities can be like that. Nothing else to occupy themselves, some people. That’s all. Pay it no mind.’ Then she found something terribly important to do at the far end of the bar.
Alex waited until she was in the car before she got out her phone and started googling. She’d never read the news reports regarding Theo’s death. She hadn’t wanted to. But there it was.
Local man detained for questioning…known to gardaí…
And he’d had a wife, who had also died under suspicious circumstances. She googled Nick as well, but there was precious little apart from the reporting on Theo’s death. Still, she could ask Arnold. He could find out anything when he set his mind toit. Quickly, before she changed her mind, she fired off an email. That would do. She ought to have found out more about Nick Walker from the beginning. So should her lawyers.
Alex let out a long breath and tried to loosen her tense shoulders.
When she tried to start the car, the engine was dead.
CHAPTER 12
ALEX
The call to the car hire people had been awful. They kept asking what Alex had done to the car. She’d done nothing but drive the wretched thing in an entirely normal way. But it was completely dead. The engine wouldn’t even turn over.
She had to go back into the pub and explain to Fionnuala why her car would be staying in the car park until someone came from the company to tow it and God knew when that would be because the guy in the call centre didn’t appear to have the first clue where Kilfayne even was.
‘Can I get a taxi or something?’ she’d asked and Fionnuala had looked at her like she had asked for a helicopter.
