Chapter 12
Present
*
Danial Val turned out to be every bit as lovely as his grandmother. He arrived bright and early the following morning and he proved to be the perfect distraction from her restless night.
‘I am so thankful to you for saying I can come and work here.’ He had the most perfect manners, but with that, there was no missing, a slightly mischievous glint in his eye.
Rae had a feeling, once he gained a little confidence, he could be marvellous fun to have around.
Of course, he probably wouldn’t be around for very long, young people willing to work tended to be snapped up quickly by businesses who were a lot busier than the hotel.
In Danial’s honour (Rae suspected), Ros Stokes organised an unofficial meeting of her walking group for coffee that day too – so it felt for once as if the hotel really was open for business and things had fallen back into something like a normal rhythm.
‘Come sit with us for a while, Rae,’ Ros invited her over.
‘We’re thinking of starting a swimming club…
’ Ros had worked as the island ranger for a while, but these days, she was the official Pin Hill goat herder, more than that though, she’d set up a walking group for locals and visitors.
Finbar Lavin reckoned she’d single-handedly increased foot traffic onto the island since she’d started by about two hundred percent.
Everyone adored Ros, she was one of those newcomers who had managed, somehow, to make the island their own.
‘I’m afraid I haven’t been in the water in more years than I care to admit,’ Rae said.
The truth was, as a kid, Billy Purcell had pushed her in off the pier and she had completely panicked.
Of course, they’d fished her out. No harm done, apart from to her pride and Billy Purcell’s backside, which Blythe had given a solid kick afterwards.
It had been enough to put Rae off the water.
She didn’t like heights. She didn’t like being out of her depth in water or otherwise, ever since.
If she was honest, she wasn’t all that keen on Billy Purcell either.
‘Well, it’s not really a Swimming Club meeting, I mean, it started out that way, but now, well, we’re just having a chat.’ Jay, who was once the local postman on the island, pulled out a chair next to him and patted it.
‘We’re just talking about this spate of break-ins over the last week on the island.’ One of the other ladies leant forward and whispered not too quietly.
‘Break-ins?’ And inwardly, Rae felt her heart race a little faster.
‘Yes, apparently, it’s everywhere, but here in the village, there’s been four in just the last few days alone,’ old Mrs Seager said carefully.
‘And of course, they seem to know exactly what they’re doing…’ Fiona Dixon sounded as if she was as disgusted as she was cross. ‘They are targeting older people, well, people living alone at any rate…’
‘Have they gotten anything of value…’ Rae began, because most people here on the island had little worth taking. This was the west of Ireland – not Martha’s Vineyard.
‘Of course, there are one or two new blow-ins.’ This from Mae English whose family prided itself on being island residents for over three hundred years. Marcus had cruelly called the Englishes ‘the batch family’ – his sneaky way of calling them inbred.
‘I’m sure it’s not just…’ Rae began and then a cup of perfect frothy coffee was placed before her, and she looked up to see Danial had made it and now he was clearing away the used cups and taking orders for fresh coffees and teas all round.
Rae smiled. At this rate of going, he’d have taken in enough money to pay himself a wage in tips alone.
‘Well,’ Mae said, making a show of watching Danial’s retreating back before adding, ‘it’s funny how there wasn’t a thing amiss until we started seeing all sorts walking the streets of Muffeen Mòr.’
‘I just can’t help but think of dear old Constance Macken…’ Jay Larkin looked across at Ros, because of course Constance had been her great friend also. ‘Back in the day, Constance would have been out there organising a welcome committee for newcomers and putting us all to shame.’ He smiled sadly.
‘Probably, she would.’ Rae giggled at the memory of Constance, who was, by any standards a total legend when it came to looking out for people – she collected waifs and strays better than any lint roller.
‘It doesn’t really help anyone, pointing fingers when we have no idea who’s to blame.
Surely, we want a united community. We need to hold onto the essence of what Pin Hill Island has always been, a place that looks after her own and welcomes people who come here for whatever reason.
I mean, look at us – half of us are blow-ins,’ Ros said.
‘Well, isn’t that the truth,’ Heather Banks said with conviction. ‘I mean, I never intended to stay here and if it wasn’t for Constance and Ros and the way they made me feel as if I belonged, I’d probably be living a very different life, heaven knows where.’
‘Maybe we should set up our own little community policing group, instead of a swimming group.’ Jay said then.
‘Isn’t that a little like vigilantism?’
‘I’m hardly talking about buying a batmobile!’ He laughed. ‘No, I mean, a WhatsApp group, you know, those of us taking a walk about in the evenings, we can log in that we’ve been along a certain route, keep an eye out for things that look suspicious.’
‘That doesn’t sound like a half bad idea at all.’ Ros said softly. ‘Although, to be fair, now most of my walking isn’t around the village, it’s across hills and coastline, but I can keep my eyes open for more than just roaming goats, too.’
‘It might help some of the older people sleep a little easier.’ Heather said and she looked at Rae.
They were in similar positions; both in big empty buildings, alone and probably, giving off a similar vibe.
A possible promise of thousands buried in a mattress somewhere, if only you could find the right one.
‘Okay, this is getting us nowhere, I say we run those foreigners out.’ May barked from behind her too-sweet tea. ‘They have no business here, I mean, who invited them anyway,’ she cocked her eye towards the bar where Danial was emptying the glasses and rinsing them in the sink.
‘If it’s Danial that you’re referring to, I simply couldn’t do without him here.
’ It was the truth. Rae had been hard pushed to find things to keep him busy, but now, he was unearthing all sorts of jobs himself.
The place hadn’t looked so spruce in ages, and she was enjoying his company.
‘He’s been invaluable, and I really can’t sit by while you direct comments like that about a member of staff in my hotel. ’
‘Hmph, well pardon me for breathing my own fresh air. I’m sure, if that’s what a lifetime of business means to you,’ May grumbled. ‘It’s not how your grandfather would have done things, mark my words, if right was right, it’s not how your sister would do things either.’
‘Anyway, back to the matter at hand,’ Jay said. ‘What about this WhatsApp group?’
‘It’s a good idea – I’m definitely in,’ Ros said and then she crossed over the bar to Danial and tried to slip a five-euro note into his hand as a tip. Later, Rae spotted the five euro slotted into a small glass with a neatly written note taped to the side – staff tips to be shared equally.
A loud crash at four o’clock in the morning woke Rae with a start.
It was strange, because for so long now, it felt as if she’d had the place to herself.
Winter had been exceedingly quiet, which she was thankful for, she had too much to process, too much to deal with.
She could never have faced up to a hotel full of guests asking after Marcus and worse, feeling their looks of pity when they didn’t think she noticed.
Again.
Another crash.
What on earth? It was definitely in the hotel.
For a moment, Rae was frozen – unsure whether she should check the bolt lock on the outside door of the flat or grab her dressing gown and the first makeshift weapon she could lay her hands on and go investigate.
But no. She wasn’t Blythe. Her sister would be out of her bed in short time and marching towards whatever trouble dared turn up on her doorstep.
Blythe had always stood up for her, she’d protected her like a mother wolf before Marcus had come along.
Silence.
She wanted to believe she had just imagined those crashes, but she knew she hadn’t. Someone was in the hotel. Not close by and unless they knew the place, it was a warren of rooms and corridors and steps up and down in unexpected places.
There wasn’t a sound. The whole place felt as if it was just resting on an inhale, waiting for what would come next.
For the first time since he’d died, she almost wished Marcus was still here.
She spotted her phone, still charging on the nightstand.
She picked it up with shaking hands. Dialled the local garda station.
By some miracle her call was answered. She whispered into the darkness.
The Hope Square Hotel. Intruder. She was here alone.
No. There was no burglar alarm. No. There was nothing worth stealing.
They promised to have someone outside the front door in ten minutes.
For her part, she promised not to move, apart from checking that the front door of the flat was locked.
She waited there, for what felt like hours, but when she checked the time on her phone again, she knew the guard on the phone had been true to his word.
Outside, she heard the loud knock on the front door.
It echoed right through the hotel. She must have slid into the mules she’d been wearing earlier – not that she remembered putting them on, or the dressing gown, or where she had picked up the trophy Marcus had won in a table quiz a few years into their marriage.
She crept quietly towards the front door. Afraid to make a sound, just in case she’d bump into someone on the stairs. The hotel, so familiar, felt completely alien to her now, bathed in the blue flashing light of the garda car parked outside.
‘Thank goodness you’re here.’ She almost collapsed with relief against the two guards standing on her doorstep.
‘You’re alright now, Rae,’ Hugh Gilmore said. She was glad he had come because he was as gentle as a labrador, but he looked ferocious thanks to a lifelong dedication to the gym. ‘We’ll take a look, but we need you to come with us, if that’s alright.’
‘Of course.’ They’d be walking about in circles for the night if she didn’t lead the way.
Honestly, it wasn’t so much that the hotel was huge, it certainly wasn’t all that big.
Rather it was maze-like, thanks to the fact that her grandfather had joined three buildings into one without ever consulting an architect or a planner.
They walked the length of the hotel. Four floors, every corridor, every room and ensuite.
On the way, they double-checked every window and every door.
Rae had even pulled open wardrobes and looked under beds, just in case.
It was when they wound around a little-used back stairway that she spotted the open window.
On the floor beside it, an ancient vase had been pushed off to the floor.
‘Oh!’ Rae breathed and she bent down to touch the vase.
‘It was just this,’ she said then, but really it was so much more.
She remembered the day Marcus had placed it here.
How often had she dusted beneath it, careful to leave it back exactly in that original spot.
And it struck her again, nothing had changed here, she had not even had the courage to move this ugly vase.
‘Unlikely anyone came through here…’ Serena McGourty, a young Ban garda who occasionally dropped in for a cup of coffee on her rounds, peered out the open window. They were three floors up.
‘It was so loud, I really thought,’ Rae’s voice wobbled with far more emotion than she could ever explain.
‘It’s okay. I mean, you know, staying here alone, well, it’s a lot less…
’ Hugh stopped. ‘I’m sure when summer comes and you have a full house; it’s a completely different place.
’ He had known Marcus well. For a few years, they’d played winter five-a-side at the local community centre.
And then, they didn’t, and Rae had known whatever falling out there was between them, it had annoyed Marcus.
‘Let’s just go through the rest of the hotel and if you’d fancy it, we can sit down and have a cup of tea. Not long until it gets light now,’ Serena said, picking up pieces of the vase as if it was something that Rae would ever want to put back together again.