Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
O ver the next few days, Danielle worked quite well alongside Maria and Sarah. She was glad they had started to loosen up and warm up to her. It helped that Danielle knew her skills and how to collect evidence. In her time, if a case didn't have all the evidence, it would be thrown out of court, so she knew how important it was in dealing with this situation.
Everything had to be just so, or it would not work. She knew the Laird was a hardass, just as any judge she had worked with in San Francisco, and he wanted the evidence of the thief to be solid if they were not caught red-handed.
But there was more to this case than any of her San Francisco cases. This was the most important case of her career because of Graeme. She was falling hard for the man.
Danielle could tell that Maria was throwing herself deep into the case. She saw just how good of a detective the woman must have been in New York City. She was even losing some of the softness she had exhibited with her Lady MacLeod persona and regaining a bit of her hardness from being a New York City cop, something Danielle thought was quite intriguing. Her New York accent was even coming through more.
Their initial investigations were turning up nothing. It seemed that nobody had seen anyone during the thefts. All the areas where the stealing had occurred could be easily accessed by anyone without much notice except for the case of Maria’s scarf. But she could have somehow dropped it while wearing it around the castle, and it was stolen then.
As they questioned each staff member, it reminded Danielle of being in an interrogation room with one lightbulb swinging overhead to intimidate, while others watched behind the glass mirror. It was hilarious to picture each time a staff member was questioned.
But there was no squirming other than the general nervousness of being questioned by the three ladies. Danielle, Sarah, and Maria even took turns in a kind of good cop, bad cop, observer scenario that didn't rile up anyone they questioned. All the staff members and Guards that they questioned seemed calm and normal, but Danielle didn't rule any of them out. It was easy for a criminal to pretend to be a victim.
“What do you think of all this?” Maria asked Danielle and Sarah as they walked down the Great Hall, ready to start a new day of investigating.
“I'm still thinking about it. What do you think? So far, every place seems to be cold, and not a lead,” Danielle said.
"True, but we can't give up. We’re missing something," Sarah said.
“I agree. But you're right, Danielle. It's been very cold so far, though I must say I have had more fun doing this the past couple of days with you two than I have had in a long time. I'm glad we're doing this.”
“Me, too. I'm not a total waste of space, and I hope one day, you can see that,” Danielle said.
Maria stopped and looked at Danielle. “I need to apologize, Danielle. It was unfair to blame you for shit like that. Especially since you had already gone through so much once you realized that you had indeed traveled through time. That's not an easy thing to deal with; I know. Sometimes, my old attitude gets the best of me. I know you're a good person. You haven't said a shady thing about anyone. And it's nice of you to defend Danny and give him a chance. He's so young; just a kid, especially here. He's not like the punkass gangbangers we had to deal with. I don't think he's the thief, but like I said, the bandits caused us trouble, so there are grudges.”
“I know,” Danielle said. She was happy that Maria didn't hate her because of her career in her previous life. “Thank you for giving me a chance.”
"Awww, you two are going to make me cry." Sarah grinned as she slung her arms around their shoulders. "Let's go find us some clues."
The three started to walk again.
“Can I ask about the magic of the castle? The legend of Scáthach… is there more to it other than she built the castle and the door we came through?” Danielle asked.
“Yes, there is a good deal of mystical stuff involving her. You know that Dunscaith is also called the Castle of Shadows, right?” Maria said.
“I was thinking just last night about that. I recall reading that in the brochure about this place. Do you think that could be the reason for the thefts? As a lawyer, I would never say that magic is an explanation for the crime, but we wouldn’t be standing here if magic wasn’t real here, you know?” Danielle said.
“True, and it seems that these thefts are being pulled off by someone who can be unseen and unheard. That’s hardly the description of a big man like Graeme or even Danny, who is quite tall for his age and pretty noticeable,” Maria said.
“A ghost, witch, or someone as small as a child would be the only way all these things could go unnoticed,” Danielle said.
"That's an interesting poi—" Sarah began.
"My Lady, I was just coming to fetch you! Heigl said I should," an out-of-breath Anna said as she hurried down the hall toward them.
"What's wrong, Anna?" Maria said.
“I have just been in the larder and noticed a great deal missing. I remembered what you said when we spoke, so I went to Heigl, and she said to come tell you straight away. Heigl had me lock it up first and told me to give you the key.”
Danielle, Sarah, and Maria exchanged a look of excitement because, unlike the other acts of thievery, this one seemed was still a hot lead. They all smiled.
“Then let us go straight away, Anna,” Maria said.
Moments later, they were in a section of the castle that Danielle recognized only because it was in one of the hallways where she'd been when she first arrived. She hadn't realized it was connected to the kitchens as well.
“Heigl had me put two bags of grain over here just yesterday. They were small, but I remember because it was for the bread. Then over here, we had a chunk of lard wrapped in cloth. And over here, some goat cheese. It is all gone. I asked some of the kitchen maids if they had taken it for the meal, and no one had. I do not know where it could have gone, my Lady,” the scullery maid said.
“You did very well in coming to me, Anna, thank you. We'll have a look around if you will step aside,” Maria said.
Danielle grabbed a candle from the shelf, lit it with a nearby torch, and walked around to examine the areas where the items had been. Maria used a magnifying glass to look for stray hair or fingerprints.
“Is the door always locked from the outside?” Sarah asked Anna.
“No, my Lady, at least not usually. We've only started lockin' it because of the thefts. Heigl has us unlock it to enter and lock it to close after we leave now. We have all been vigilant about it after learning of the thefts. The key is quite accessible in the kitchen, though, and it could easily be taken if none of us were aware.”
“What is back here?” Danielle said as she moved to the back of the room with the candle, noticing a very narrow corridor.
“More of the same, my Lady. It goes back deeper and farther down. We store items that need to be colder back there,” Anna said.
Danielle held the candle higher and walked through the corridor. It turned left and then right, went down a few steps, and then left again, with storage shelves along the way. The items were much sparser, and she wondered if the maid had noticed anything missing from the area. Anna had only noticed the most recent items were missing because she had put them in the day before.
“Anna? What is this?” Danielle asked.
Within a moment Anna, Sarah, and Maria were at Danielle’s side.
“That is a wellhead, my Lady. Very old indeed and not used anymore. It was done long ago, dug very deep to bring fresh water into the castle, but it ran into a natural tunnel in the rock where seawater ran, so it was no use. Some time ago, a bucket was lowered to bring in salt water for brining, but there's not much else it can be used for anymore, so we don't pay it no mind,” Anna said. “It's not very deep, and it’s covered with the wooden cover, as you see. Sometimes, I hear the water rushing, but we never open it.”
"We had some flooding a while back. Did this area flood, Anna?"
"Aye, it did, my Lady, but not much. Just a little bit of water. Nothing was ruined because we do not keep a lot back here, and there are the steps, you see."
Maria nodded. "When you hear the water rushing, is it with the tides?"
“Yes, my Lady, I believe so it seems to match up with them."
“Excellent; thank you for that. I'm going to write down everything that went missing. Come with me,” Maria said, leading her back to the main room, where there was enough light to write.
"What are you thinking?" Sarah asked, looking at Danielle.
"I'm not sure yet," Danielle answered as they stayed a moment to look at the wellhead. "I need to think it over some more."
Sarah nodded. "We should head back."
They rejoined Maria as she looked around the larder, but whoever had come and gone did so as though they were a ghost. The stone floor made it hard to see footprints, and there were no traces of fingerprints. They must be dealing with a master criminal.
Danielle just believed that Graeme and Danny were too large to not be seen going into such a place and walking around with bags of grain and lard wrapped in cloth.
Once they were done looking around, Maria, Sarah, and Danielle retired to Maria’s quarters and added this information to a log they kept. They discussed it over a glass of wine before calling it a day, but all three were quite excited.
Danielle’s thoughts on this case continued as she lay in her bed that night. She couldn't stop thinking about the wellhead and the tide coming in and out. She got out of bed and looked out the window. She had not explored the cliffs or the shoreline of the castle except for during the tour back in her time. Even then, it was brought to ruin and difficult to navigate. Perhaps she should check the area at some point and see if she could find any answers.
She moved back to her bed and fell asleep to the light noise of the ocean crashing against rocks and her mind busy with thoughts of the wellhead.