Page 50 of Fatal Thrill
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While Jaya slept,Jon regrouped, changing his clothes before he rounded up Colton. Kieran was nowhere to be found. Shelby was back at her makeshift workstation, trying to keep the Garda off their backs, and get in good with an Interpol agent on his way who was tasked with closing out his Mathew Fitzpatrickfile.
“Finally, I get to have a pint of beer in Ireland,” Colton mused as they headed back totown.
Jon checked his texts, saw the one he was waiting for. “Miles and Charlotte are meeting us outside the pub. They landed an hour ago and drove from the municipalairport.”
“Charlotte too, huh?” Colton shifted. “Maybe she can translate the heavy brogue everybody has around her. I feel like I need subtitles half thetime.”
“She’s British, dude, notIrish.”
“She’s still more familiar with what they’re saying in this part of the world than a poor boy fromOklahoma.”
Jon couldn’t argue. He liked the sound of the Irish intonations, and the landscape was growing on him. Maybe he and Jaya could pick an Irish name for thebaby.
The ride to town was interrupted by a bunch of sheep in the roadway, blocking both sides. A farmer and his son emerged from a peat field, rounding them up and getting them off the road after a ten-minutedelay.
“How far is it to the O’Sullivan castle?” Colton asked as they finally entered town. “After we check out the pub, we should swing by that place too. Maybe Sean’s holed upthere.”
“Beatrice sent me the coordinates. It’s a good forty miles fromhere.”
“At least it actuallyexists.”
“What do youmean?”
Colton shifted and pulled into a parking spot. “Sean makes up a lot of shit. I didn’t want to say anything in front of Jaya, but I wondered if there was a legitimate castle belonging to his family ornot.”
Jon spotted Miles and Charlotte exiting from a VW Gulf a block down from the pub. “Apparently, there is, so that much is true. Not sure it will help us find Finn, but you’re right. It’s on my list to check out if we havetime.”
Colton and Jon met up with Miles and Charlotte halfway between the B&B and the pub. Charlotte hugged and did that funky European air kiss thing to both of them, while Miles traded handshakes and backslaps.
“Glad you two could make it,” Jon said. Night had fallen and a few streetlights were the only illumination on the sidewalks. The curtains at the Red Hen were drawn, the pubs windows were either frosted or so dirty they barely let the interior lights shinethrough.
“You’re in my part of the world now,” Charlotte said, her British accent clear and crisp. Her breath created white puffs in theair.
Miles studied the front of the pub and the latest customers entering through the front door. “Who are we looking forhere?”
Jon filled them in on Ferris/Fitzpatrick, and how he’d been spotted hanging out at this pub and speaking to Sean O’Sullivan. “The B&B’s owners are Paddy and Lorna Doyle. We spoke to Lorna, but Paddy was inside this bar before 11 am this morning. He went out the back door and into the B&B, also through the back, like he didn’t want to be seen. He might have shared a round or two with Sean or Fitzpatrick in the past week, and there may be others who remember either or bothmen.”
Charlotte nodded, the yellow knit cap on her head bobbing. “The regulars will remember ’em, even if they get quite a few strangers through here thanks to the bed and breakfast. But they won’t be much for sharing anything with outsiders, so maybe you ought to let me do thetalking.”
Colton screwed up his nose. “I thought you were British. Aren’t you an outsidertoo?”
Her accent changed with the blink of an eye. “Today, I be an Irish lass, and a foine one at that,laddie.”
The menlaughed.
“Do you have pictures of Sean and Finn?” Jonasked.
She dug out her phone and used her teeth to remove one glove before flipping through a couple of screens. “Yes, but I could use one o’ Fitzgerald if you have it. The Doyles too, especially Paddy, if he’s a patron of thepub.”
Jon sent her the photo Shelby had found through the FBI of Fitzgerald. Less blood and Fitz was still breathing in this one. Then he sent Charlotte the photo he’d snapped of Paddy Doyle earlier in the day. “I don’t have a picture of Lorna, but she should be in the house. Anythingelse?”
Charlotte shook her head. “You two stay out here. Miles, come withme.”
She marched toward the pub’s front entrance and Miles shrugged at Jon and Colton’s arguments. The two disappeared inside, leaving Jon and Colton on thesidewalk.
“I call bullshit,” Colton said. “I need a beer in the worstway.”
