Read Online Endangered Species: PART 1 by John Wayne Falbey - Free Book Online Page B

motioned her father and brother to follow her. She led them
through the large foyer and headed toward the kitchen area on the
other side of the dining area. The two men couldn’t help but notice
the corpse stiffening at the bottom of the stairs that led up from
the foyer.
    “ That would be some of
Brendan’s doin’, I suspect,” Tom, the older of the two men,
said.
    “ It is,” Caitlin said.
There was unmistakable pride in her voice.
    “ Your phone call said
there’d been an attack of some kind. I suppose there will be more
bodies scattered about.”
    “ A few. Bren stacked them
out back except for the one you saw in the foyer,” she said as they
entered the kitchen. “Then there’s that one,” she pointed to the
gravely wounded intruder her husband had interrogated.
    The two policemen swiftly surveyed the room.
It was like a scene out of a slasher movie. Blood and gore were
splattered over a large area. Clearly the dying man wasn’t the only
one who had bled out here. Their eyes came to rest on Brendan
Whelan.
    “ So, Mr. Whelan, what have
you got to say for yourself, going about killin’ folk in my police
district?” Tom said with mock sternness.
    “ Your daughter loves me
deeply.” Whelan smiled easily as he said it.
    Tom broke into a broad grin. “I see. Well,
in that case I suppose Paddy and me will have to do everything in
our power to help you clean this mess up and see that no one else
learns of it.”
    “ With the exception of a
couple of family members, commercial fishermen. It’d be best to
dispose of the perps at sea,” Paddy said.
    “ You’ll be pleased to know,
Da, that one of your own grandsons, Sean, killed one of the
murdering scum himself’” Caitlin said.
    “ Did he now? For sure the
apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. In this case, both trees,”
Tom said. “But, if these men didn’t get the chance to kill anyone,
we can’t really say they’re murderers, can we? Although I’m sure
they earned that reputation before they broke into the wrong house
tonight.”
    Whelan said, “Unfortunately, they did kill
someone tonight.”
    Both men’s eyes locked on Whelan.
    “ Poor Miss Tankersley also
was in the wrong place tonight.”
    Both of the cops were silent for a moment or
two. Then Tom said, “The poor old thing. She was a real sweetheart.
Wouldn’t have hurt a soul. What a pity.”
    “’ Tis a pity,” Paddy said.
“She’s been comin’ here on holiday for as far back as I can
remember, since I was a kid at least.”
    “ The bastards that done her
in will be easy enough to dispose of,” Tom said. “But I don’t want
to include Miss Tankersley’s remains with scum like that. Any
ideas?” He looked at each of the others in the room, ignoring the
wounded man on the floor.
    “ We can’t send her remains
back to her hometown without generatin’ an official police report,”
Paddy said.
    “ That would be
problematic,” Whelan said.
    “ There’d be no way to avoid
an investigation,” Tom said.
    Paddy nodded. “And there likely would be an
autopsy somewhere along the line.”
    “ How did those bastards
kill her?” Tom said.
    “ Smothered her with her own
pillow,” Whelan said.
    No one spoke for a few moments. Finally Tom
said “An autopsy would determine that as the cause of death. People
don’t smother themselves, so foul play would be obvious.”
    “ After all these years of
comin’ here on holiday,” Paddy said, “everyone knows she stayed
here at the Fianna. Her personal habits are well known, too. Always
eats at the same places, often retires early, isn’t very
adventurous.”
    “ She did occasionally drive
over to Tralee,” Caitlin said, referring to County Kerry’s largest
town. “She liked to attend shows at Siamsa
Tíre .”
    Her brother, Paddy, gave
her a puzzled look. “ Siamsa Tíre is the home of the National Folk Theatre of
Ireland. You mean to say she enjoyed Irish history and culture? And
a Brit at that.”
    Caitlin shook her