Free Shamrock Shenanigans (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 19) by Kathi Daley Page B

Isle. Blue skies, a calm sea, and plenty of sunshine: What more could you ask for?
    “I wonder if we’ll get cell service now that the storm has passed.”
    “You need to make a call?” Zak asked me.
    “I just wanted to check on the kids. And Ellie. And the new math teacher we hired. I know it’s only been a few days since we checked in, but now that I’m outdoors in the fresh air and not stuck in the castle, I find that I’m starting to wonder how everyone is doing back in Ashton Falls.”
    “Yeah,” Zak agreed. “I’ve had the same thoughts. I left my phone back in the room, though.”
    “Me too. Maybe we can try making the calls when we get back. I guess we should turn around. It looks like we’re about to run out of beach.” I frowned. “I assumed the beach continued on around the bend, but it just ends where the cliffs begin.”
    “Looks like.”
    “So where are Luke and Susan? When we saw them they were about where we’re standing now, but I don’t see them anymore and they didn’t come back down the beach, so where did they go?”
    Zak looked around. “Good question. Maybe they headed up the trail that leads directly to the castle.”
    I looked up at the trail. It was steep and muddy. There was no way anyone was getting up or down that trail until it dried out a bit. The beach ended beneath the spot where the castle was located up on the bluff. If you continued on around the corner the sea came all the way up to the cliff face. There was no way Luke and Susan had continued on in that direction. That only left one option.”
    “There must be another way into the castle. Maybe a cave or a passage that leads down to the beach.”
    “If that were true why wouldn’t the cook have told me about it?” Zak asked.
    “Maybe she didn’t know about it. Perhaps there’s a hidden staircase. I bet there’s an opening behind those shrubs.”
    I walked toward the dense shrubbery that grew at the base of the bluff. It took quite a bit of searching, but eventually I found a small opening that looked like the entrance to a cave. There was an iron gate across the entrance, although it was open, but it was dark and we didn’t have a flashlight. Still, I could see enough from the entrance to realize that I’d found the dungeons. I assumed the cells hadn’t been used in recent times, but it did make sense that a castle as large as this one would have been built to include a place to hold those who fell out of favor with the current lord.
    “I bet if you continue on you come to a doorway leading into the old part of the castle,” I postulated. The castle as it existed today was divided into the section that had been modernized and the one that had been closed off. From the outside it looked like the building could have housed over a hundred people at one time, but the majority of the structure wasn’t used, left to weather the elements over the years. I would estimate that only about a quarter of the available space was utilized in modern times. “It’d be fun to look around some more. Maybe we can come back with a flashlight.”
    “I have one in my suitcase. Let’s head back now. It looks like the next wave of bad weather is about to make its way onshore and I don’t want to get caught in it.”
    Zak, Charlie, and I turned around and headed back down the beach. I hoped we’d find cell service had been restored when we got to our room. As interesting as this trip had been so far, thoughts of home were never far from my mind.
    Maybe we could bring the kids to Ireland one day. Alex might only be eleven, but she seemed to be fascinated by anything having to do with history, and Scooter would think the suit of armor standing in the hallway near our room was awesome. The kids had been living with us for less than a year, but already I thought of them as family. Pi, the eldest of the three minors in our care, had recently turned seventeen and was looking ahead to college. Technically he was only a high school