Deed of Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

legal affairs and their problems to her, but these people, the O’Hallorans, were not a Burren clan; they came from an isolated place beyond Kinvarra, a semi-island, accessible only at low tide, in the sea of Galway Bay. They spent the winter there and then every spring, in carts, on donkeys or on foot, they moved from that barren, salt-encrusted patch of land into this rich mountain valley on the Burren, grew the flax and turned it into linen.
    What was now going to happen to them and to the children that they bore in such numbers?
    ‘I’ve asked Cathal to give me a few minutes of your time,’ began Mara, eyeing the way the O’Halloran clan seemed to squeeze back against the tall flagstones, almost as though they feared the body of the young man lying so still there on the opposite side of the pathway.
    ‘I would just like to ask if any one of you, this morning,’ she continued, ‘saw this young man, Eamon the lawyer, this man who has been killed? Did anyone see him come into the flax garden or ride along the mountain pass?’ The easy question first, she thought.
    Heads were shaken as she looked from face from face, but no one spoke, not even Cathal.
    Mara’s face hardened. Surely someone must have noticed Eamon if he came along the road to the valley. He would have been conspicuous on his horse in this lonely place.
    ‘And no one heard anything?’
    Again the heads were shaken.
    ‘And what about the children?’ Now she spoke directly to the dozens of children grouped in front of their parents. They stared back at her. Was there a look of apprehension in those dark eyes? Or were they, perhaps, just shy?
    ‘None of us know anything, Brehon.’ Now Cathal spoke out, his tone loud and confident as always, but his eyes were watchful. ‘We’re all so busy, trying to get two months’ work into two weeks,’ he continued. ‘So if . . .’
    His meaning was obvious and Mara gave a resigned nod. Why should she have any suspicion of them? What good would it do any of them to be involved in the death of a young lawyer without any real connections to the Burren? There was only one person on the Burren – to her knowledge – who might have wished for Eamon to disappear.
    Where was Fachtnan? Surely he could not still be attending to the horse. One of the farm workers could have done that task. Surely he would realize that she would go straight to the scene of the death. Even if he had gone over to Ballinalacken Castle first, he would have found that she was missing and would have guessed where she had gone. Surely he would have arrived at the flax garden by now.
    She gave one last look around.
    ‘You can take the body back to the law school now,’ she said to Cumhal. ‘Send a messenger to Blár and ask him to make a coffin.’ She lowered her voice. ‘I think we will have to bury him here at Noughaval – it’s pointless sending the body back across the Shannon to the law school at Redwood. He has no living near relations; I know that.’
    ‘I’ll go back with Cumhal and have a proper look at him then before he is coffined,’ said Nuala unemotionally. ‘You’ll probably want to have a look around, Mara, so I won’t wait for you.’ She nodded a dark head towards the path. ‘And what about this satchel?’ She picked up the leather bag, opened it widely, looked into it and then closed it again. ‘Nothing in it,’ she said.
    ‘I’ll take that,’ said Mara. She, also, glanced inside, but there was no scroll of vellum, no deed of contract. So she closed it and placed it inside one of the bags that hung from beside her saddle.
    And then they waited while Cumhal and Danann lifted the body into the cart. When it was settled Cumhal and Nuala mounted on their horses and the sad procession made its slow way down the mountainside.
    ‘I’ll come back in a couple of days,’ said Mara to her scholars when the cart had lumbered beyond their sight. ‘By then some people may have recollected noticing something. Or