Read Online Death of an Irish Diva by Mollie Cox Bryan - Free Book Online Page B

don’t think I’ve ever seen it,” he said.
    â€œHave you ever seen Riverdance? ” she asked.
    â€œWhat?” he said, with a look of bewilderment.
    â€œOh, never mind,” she said. “It’s a form of dance that has its roots in Ireland. Sometimes the dancers wear those soft shoes, gillies, and other times they wear hard shoes that are sort of a cross between a clog and a tap shoe. Either way, it’s pretty amazing to watch. Especially the group dances, all of them together, making fancy, complicated formations while performing difficult dance moves.”
    â€œI think I’ll check into renting Riverdance, ” he said after a moment.
    â€œYou should, but in the meantime, I recorded a bit of Emily dancing the other day on my phone. Check this out,” she said and pulled out her phone. “Sam was very interested in hard shoes. The shoes are thick and have taps on the bottom. I’m sure he just likes the noise. I prefer the soft-shoe dances, the ones where they wear—”
    â€œThe gillies with all the crisscrossed laces,” he said, finishing her sentence.
    Annie pressed a button on her iPhone screen. They heard the clack-clackety-tap-tap of Emily’s shoes as she danced in sync with fiddle and drum rhythms, jumping and spinning without missing a beat. A huge smile spread across her face, her ponytail bobbing up and town. Her skirt and legs were moving so quickly that they blurred on the iPhone screen.
    â€œWhew,” he said after it was over.
    â€œI know. Amazing, right?” Annie said. Then, a few moments later, she added, “Any other leads?”
    â€œJust Vera, unfortunately. And for the record, I can’t see her as a killer. But people surprise you.”
    The look on his face startled Annie. Could he really think that Vera was capable of murder? Well, he still harbored suspicions about Cookie, even though they now knew she wasn’t guilty of killing those two young women. They had simply known too much about an illegal operation and were killed because of it. Bryant looked serious.
    â€œBetween you and me, the killer probably had to have a lot more upper body strength than what I think Vera has. I mean, Emily was held down, along with being strangled. I’m not sure Vera could manage that physically,” he told her. “But if she murdered Emily when she was sleepwalking . . .”
    â€œWhat? That’s a stretch.”
    â€œThere have been cases like this. It’s rare. I mean, where someone kills a person and doesn’t remember it, because they were sleepwalking, for lack of a better term. No, wait. There is a term. Homicidal somnambulism. Look, I don’t understand it. But there you have it,” he said. “Something is troubling Vera. I hope she gets to the bottom of it soon.”
    â€œWhat will happen if you don’t? Will you put her in jail, like you did Cookie?” Annie asked, with a note of bitterness in her voice.
    Just then a uniformed officer walked in and handed Bryant a file and mumbled something to him.
    â€œExcuse me,” Bryant said, getting up from his desk. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
    She glanced at her watch. “Well, I need to go, anyway. It’s almost time for the boys’ bus to come.”
    â€œCall me,” he said, standing in the doorway.
    Her eyes met his, and one of her brows lifted. She felt a flush of heat move across her, along with jolt of energy. Good God, what was happening to her?
    â€œI mean,” he stammered, “I mean if you find something more about the NMO or Emily. And, um, once you’ve talked to her parents.”
    He left the room, leaving Annie to gather up her things and rush out of the police station. As she was leaving, she saw Leo Shirley walking through the hallway in handcuffs. That man was always in trouble. Didn’t he just get a DUI?
    He’d also attacked Robert Dasher when the two of them were