As Pitt sat down, he scooped up a large chunk of lamb with his napkin and brought it to his lap. When the conversation resumed, he folded the meat in the cloth and slipped it into his sport coat pocket.
A dessert of berries and cream was served, and the guests grew increasingly quiet. Pitt noticed a listless look from both Loren and Abigail Brown.
“I think we’ve all had a tiring day,” McKee said. “Get a good night’s sleep, ladies, and we’ll resume in the morning with your official welcome into the sisterhood.”
Everyone said their good nights, and Pitt escorted Loren to their room.
“How about you skip the Celtic warrior ceremony in the morning,” he said, “and we leave first thing?”
“I can’t do that after all her hospitality,” Loren murmured as she suppressed a yawn. “She wants me to run for president.” Her words came out slurred.
She slipped under the covers of the bed without another word and was asleep in seconds.
Pitt tucked Loren in and gazed at her with rising anger. The odds were high that she was drugged by McKee, to aid some sort of manipulation. He could only guess at the purpose.
Stroking her hair, Pitt stepped to the nightstand, opened her purse, and removed a box of Dramamine she carried for airsickness. Turning off the lights, he took a seat by the window and calmly waited for the time to pass.
46
Riki crouched low in the backseat of the Audi as a fire truck raced by with its siren wailing. She watched with horror as it stopped in front of the Franciscan Friary. Above a line of brick row houses across the street, a curl of black smoke rose into the sky.
She took another look at an electronic tablet in her lap. The signal from the GPS transmitter placed on Dirk’s rental car indicated it was still parked in front of the friary. She pulled out her phone, then convinced herself to wait another two minutes. At last, she spotted a man and woman in dark clothes walking down the street. One carried an empty duffel bag as they approached and climbed into the front of the Audi.
“What on earth did you two just do?” she asked.
The man, a balding, overweight tough named Gavin, gave a devious smile. “We tracked them into a small building behind the church. It had only one door, and someone left the key in the lock. Ainsley had seen a petrol station up the block, and we found a glass jug at a garden shop, so we made an extra-large Molotov cocktail.” He grinned. “Those people should be charred to the bone by now.”
Riki felt a momentary pang that ignited into anger. “I told you to follow them and see where they went. I didn’t tell you to kill them. What were you thinking?”
Gavin’s satisfaction turned to spite. “Mrs. McKee told us to take them out at the first reasonable opportunity.”
“Mrs. McKee?” Riki said. She forced herself to take a deep breath. “I wanted to find out what they knew.” She stared at Gavin and shook her head. “Carrying a jug of petrol down the street and starting a blaze at a historic church doesn’t sound reasonable to me.”
“It was a self-service petrol station,” Ainsley replied. The woman’s high-pitched voice didn’t match her plain face and large frame. “We carried it in a duffel. Nobody saw anything suspicious.”
“Let’s not bank on that,” Riki said. “Get us out of here. Now!”
Ainsley drove them out of Killarney. Outside of town, Riki yelled to the driver, “Pull over! Pull over!”
Ainsley braked hard and pulled to the shoulder. She turned to the backseat and saw Riki with her nose to her tablet. The young woman studied the screen a moment, then looked up at the two thugs. “Their car is moving.”
Gavin shrugged. “Maybe the police are moving it.”
Riki shook her head. “No, it’s leaving town.” She pointed to a barn a short distance down the road. “Go park on the other side of that.”
Ainsley did as she was directed, backing the car along its far side so they wouldn’t be seen by traffic from Killarney. Riki watched on the tablet as the car approached a few minutes later, then she gazed out the windshield.
The little rental car zipped by with Dirk at the wheel, Summer alongside him, and Brophy in the back. None of them seemed to notice the Audi parked by the barn as they rounded the next curve and headed north. And