He put his hand up to his mouth and tried to swallow back the sob.
“Pull yourself together, boy,” Joseph said. “You’re almost a man. Men don’t cry.”
“Hush up, Jo. The boy’s had a horrible shock. You know how fond he was of Brian,” Father Patrick said gently. “It’s all right, boy. It’s good to grieve for those we loved.” I looked at him—a softer, kinder face than Joseph’s but also one that had known suffering, I decided.
“We’ve all had a shock,” Joseph said. “A terrible shock.”
“And we’ve all lost someone we loved,” Irene said. “But then some of us more than others. He was my father, you know.”
“We’re not debating who has the greatest claim to love him,” Joseph said shortly.
“Please, please.” Chief Prescott held up his hand. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re just trying to get at the facts here. Go on, boy. What did you do after you saw it was Brian Hannan and he was dead?”
“I came running straight back to the house and I woke my grandma.”
“And I got dressed and went to see for myself, because the boy has been known to pull a prank or two before now,” Mary Flannery said, patting the boy on his knee for reassurance. “And there he was, the poor man, lying in the surf, just like the boy said. I came straight back to the house and went to wake my brothers.”
“Has a coroner or a physician been summoned?” Daniel asked.
“He has,” Prescott replied. “Not that there’s anything we can do for the poor fellow.”
“So we don’t yet know how long he’d been lying there,” Daniel said.
“I presume he must have gone for an early morning walk and miscalculated the cliff edge,” Prescott said, dismissing Daniel by turning away from him.
“But he never arrived last night,” Archie pointed out. “We waited dinner for him and he never showed up. So we all thought he’d been detained on a business or political matter and that he’d come this morning. We did think it odd that he didn’t telephone. He had a telephone put in the house, you know. He liked to stay abreast of matters.”
“So it’s possible,” Chief Prescott said, this time turning to look back at Daniel, “that he did arrive last night, and fell off the cliffs then, before he could make his presence known.”
“That hardly seems likely, does it?” Joseph interrupted before Daniel could comment. “My brother arrives at his own house, doesn’t come in to meet anyone or to let his servants know he is here. Instead slinks off to the cliff edge and falls over.”
“He wouldn’t have done that,” Irene’s voice was full of emotion. “You know how careful he was. You know what he thought about that cliff, after what we’d all gone through.”
“You mean the little girl?” Prescott said.
“Of course that’s what I mean. My daughter. My precious little daughter.” Irene’s voice cracked.
“Now don’t distress yourself, my dear,” Archie said. He frowned a warning at the police chief. “We don’t mention her anymore.”
“But I still think about her,” Irene said. “I still think about her every day, you know. She is still a raw wound that will never heal.”
“Uh, quite.” Chief Prescott looked embarrassed. “So you believe your father would not walk near the cliff edge because he had already experienced one tragedy?”
“Of course,” Irene said. “Especially not in the dark.”
“We do know it was dark when he arrived, do we?” Daniel asked. “If he had fallen and been killed earlier yesterday evening, for example, would anyone have seen him?”
“I might have,” I spoke up, making them all stare at me. “I was down on the seashore in the late afternoon. And Mr. Terrence Hannan had to assist me because the tide had come in and I was caught unawares. We could tell you there was no sign of anyone else near the beach then.”
“But that was some time before sunset,” Terrence said. “The servants and the luggage arrived just after I got back to the house, so I suspect we were all inside sorting out who was sleeping where and then dressing for dinner when it actually became dark.”
“Has anyone spoken to the servants yet?” Daniel asked. “Has Mr. Hannan’s valet not come to attend to him?”
“Brian still had the egalitarian outlook of our forebears,” Joseph Hannan said. “He saw no reason to have someone else hanging around to dress him. He employed servants only for things he couldn’t do himself. He kept a butler and housemaids and a cook at home. But no gentleman’s gentleman.”