Part 17 (1/2)
”Maybe he's better now,” I said. ”What we really need is a name, which might lead us to a phone number.”
”I know where you could kill two birds with one stone,” Gil suggested. ”The library. I bet someone there can tell you who Bouvet's friend was, and they might also give you all the names of Dunnyvale's descendants.”
I got up from the bed and gave him a peck on the cheek. ”Thanks, Gil. We'll check it out first thing in the morning, but in the meantime, could you please keep working on that tape?”
”Only if you go out and bring me back some food. I'm in the mood for a nice burger and fries.”
”You've been pretty hungry lately,” I said. Gilley had been carbo-loading like he was preparing for a marathon.
”You know I eat when I'm stressed!”
”Fine,” I agreed. ”We'll bring you some dinner. But I'm having them put extra lettuce on your burger.”
”Go right ahead,” Gilley said sweetly. ”I can pick it off later when you're not looking.”
Chapter 9.
The next morning, Heath and I headed to the village library, which was larger than I expected. There we met with the librarian, a lovely elderly woman named Mary, who was something of an expert on Dunlow Castle, and she graciously agreed to sit with us and answer our questions.
”We know that Dunlow was built by Ra.n.a.ld Dunnyvale in the late sixteenth century,” I said after we'd found a nice quiet corner. ”But what I'm more interested in is anything you can tell me about his descendants, and this rumor of the Spanish gold hidden somewhere in the castle.”
Mary tilted back in her chair and lifted both hands. ”Oh, is that all all you'll be needing to know, then?” she said with a laugh. you'll be needing to know, then?” she said with a laugh.
I grinned. ”I realize it might be a lot to tackle.”
”Oh, aye,” she said. ”Seven generations of Dunnyvales lived in that old keep after Ra.n.a.ld. In fact, there were Dunnyvales living there right up until the turn of the twentieth century, when no more male heirs survived to pa.s.s it on.”
”What happened to it then?”
”It went to the oldest daughter, Cleona Dunnyvale Mulholland, and then in the late 1930s to her son, Carney Mulholland, who lost it about ten years after the war.”
The name Mulholland was swirling around in my head. I knew I'd heard it before, but where? ”How did he lose it?” Heath asked.
”Carney Mulholland was as nice an Irish gentleman as you'd ever want to meet,” Mary said. ”But the poor man had a terrible gambling problem, and lost the entire family fortune. He then sold off his properties one by one to pay his creditors, but he tried to hold on to Dunlow, you know, because he believed the legend of the hidden gold, and just needed time to do a proper search for it-or so he tried to tell the tax man when he came round to collect. The collector gave him a month, but Carney died in a terrible motorcar accident just a few days shy of the deadline. He never did find the treasure-and truthfully I don't believe it ever really existed. The castle fell to the government after that. It was made into a historic landmark shortly thereafter, but a few years ago when the whole world began struggling financially, it came up for sale and has been on the market since two thousand eight. There've been no offers made, though, as no one wants a haunted castle so far away from sh.o.r.e.”
”You said there were seven generations of Dunnyvales that lived at the castle,” I said. ”Do any of them stand out in your mind-either for good or bad?”
Mary tapped a finger to her lower lip as she considered my question. ”A few,” she said. ”There were Ra.n.a.ld's twin sons, born to his second wife not long after his first wife pa.s.sed. His first son, Malachi, died some years before too. It's said that Ra.n.a.ld was truly a broken man after his first wife died. He'd adored their son, and when Malachi died at the tender age of twelve, and then his beloved wife just a few years later, Ra.n.a.ld had no heart left to share with the next two boys born to him, nor was he much of a husband to his second wife, Josephine, even though by all accounts she loved him dearly. He all but ignored his family, and with no guidance or interest from their father, the twin lads grew up to be quite dreadful. They were said to be simply wretched young men, always drinking and fighting and carrying on.
”In later years, as Ra.n.a.ld's health began to decline, he grew so tired of their behavior that he bequeathed his castle to the winner of a joust between the pair to be held the day of his funeral, which took place in fifteen ninety-nine.”
”Who won the joust?”
Mary chuckled. ”Neither really. The brothers killed each other on the battlefield, and both had sons, but Carrack died before Keevan, so, technically, Keevan was declared the winner and heir, and the castle fell to his son Aidan.”
I remembered then the angry male ghost I'd met in the kitchen on our first day in the castle and how his name had sounded like Caron to my intuitive ear. I'd have bet dollars to doughnuts that Caron had actually been Carrack.
”When did rumors of the treasure start circulating?” I asked next.
”Oh, those rumors were quietly whispered about well before Ra.n.a.ld died, but no one had the nerve to voice them while the great lord of Dunlow lived. At the joust, however, Carrack publicly announced that he'd learned his father had whispered the location of the gold to Josephine while on his deathbed, and that right after Carrack won the joust, he would make haste to force his mother to reveal it. As you can see from that story,” Mary chuckled, ”Keevan was obviously his mother's favorite.
”That declaration is what likely led to Carrack's death, as the overt disrespect to their mother inflamed his brother's anger, sending him into a mad rage. Carrack was cut down by his twin, but not before he managed to inflict a mortal wound to Keevan. After both her sons lay dead, and all because of that cursed gold, their mother, Josephine, was so distraught that she returned to France, her birthplace, joined a nunnery, and took a vow of silence. She never again uttered another word to her dying day.”
”But she wrote,” I said, remembering the letter that Bouvet claimed to find.
”Wrote?” asked Mary.
”She wrote letters, right?”
”Oh,” said Mary. ”Are you perhaps thinking of the letter said to have been written to Josephine's dear friend? The one that Monsieur Bouvet discovered?”
I nodded.
”Well, I'm sure that she did, Miss Holliday. But that letter is long since lost, I'm afraid.”
”What happened to it?” Heath asked.
”No one knows. When Monsieur Bouvet was killed, no one thought to look for it until much later, and by then, it was far too late. He'd been long buried and his personal items sent back to his family in France.”
I wondered if anyone realized that Bouvet had been in the tunnel leading to the family crypts when he'd first encountered the phantom, and that was likely where Ra.n.a.ld's treasure was buried. But now that we were talking about Bouvet, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to ask her about his companion. ”Do you remember the name of the man that Monsieur Bouvet brought with him from France?”
Mary's forehead creased with wrinkles as she thought back. ”I believe his first name was Jeffrey. I remember sitting in a cafe one day for lunch and watching Monsieur and his friend come in and order at the counter. Bouvet was always the gentleman, and insisted that his friend Jeffrey order first.”
”Do you recall a last name?” I asked.
Mary sighed. ”I'm afraid I don't,” she said, and then something across the library caught her attention. ”Oh! Those naughty young lads are at it again!” Getting up quickly, she excused herself and we watched her shuffle across the floor with a determined look on her face as she approached three boys who appeared no older than twelve or thirteen. They each wore the same innocent look on their faces, which was a sure sign that they were up to no good, and Mary stepped right up to them and held out her hand as if she expected them to hand something over. One of the boys shuffled his feet before pulling out a paperback from under his s.h.i.+rt and handing it to her. Mary glared hard at them, and shook her finger at each of them before pointing sternly to the door. All three boys hung their heads and moved quickly out the exit.
When our librarian came back, she set the paperback on the table and I noticed it had a rather steamy-looking cover with a half-naked woman and a s.h.i.+rtless man curled around each other. ”Those three are always scuttling in here trying to nick a book out of the adult section,” she said angrily. ”One more time and I'll turn them over to their mother, and won't they be sorry for it then!”
I pressed my lips together to hold in a laugh, and I noticed that Heath ducked his chin. After he'd had a moment to compose himself, Heath asked, ”Did any of the other Dunnyvale heirs ever try and find the location of the gold?”
”Oh, aye,” Mary said. ”They all did, I believe. Even our very own Mr. Mulholland tried before the accident.”
I nodded. She'd mentioned that Carney had searched for the treasure right up to his death. ”Do any of the old legends contain stories of the phantom?”
Mary made the sign of the cross and s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably. ”No,” she whispered. ”There was no mention of that wretched creature until Monsieur Bouvet arrived in our village. We'd never even heard that such a thing could exist-except perhaps in our nightmares.”
”Have you lived in this village all your life?” I asked, looking at the old woman's creased face and wispy white hair.
”Aye,” she said.
”And there was no mention of any kind about a curse being placed on Dunnyvale's gold?”
Mary shook her head. ”A curse? Why, no,” she insisted. ”There's been no such talk of curses, why?”
I scratched my head, and the look on Heath's face made me realize neither of them understood what I was getting at. ”If our theory is correct, and the phantom was something Ra.n.a.ld or one of his heirs hid in the castle to watch over the family gold, then the phantom only serves as truly adequate protection if the world knows about its existence. It's a bit like having an alarm on your house without a sign posted outside saying that you have an alarm. It can only act as a deterrent if people know about it beforehand.”