Her lips compressed. “My great-great-grandfather, Andrew Cavannaugh, was Talman Brannigan’s partner in the lumber business. According to what I’ve always been told, he was the one who discovered the massacre in progress and shot Talman in the back. Before Talman died, he accused my great-great-grandfather of betraying him and vowed to take vengeance on his family even if he had to rise from the grave to do it.”

Yeah, I could see where that would give you nightmares.

“Huh.” Cody rubbed his chin. “I’ve heard about Andrew Cavannaugh shooting the Tall Man. But I never heard about the curse.”

“No.” Amanda removed her stylish glasses and polished them with a cloth she removed from a desk drawer. “That’s been kept within the family.”

He gave her an apologetic look. “Which, when you think about it, does give the Cavannaughs a plausible motive for wanting to ensure that the Tall Man’s remains were destroyed.”

She put her glasses back on and regarded him coolly. “After a hundred and thirty years?”

Cody shrugged. “You did say the curse gave you nightmares. And ‘betrayed’ is an interesting choice of word for a man in the middle of slaughtering his own family.”

Amanda Brooks fiddled with a letter opener. “My great-great-grandfather saw the writing on the wall, Officer. When it was obvious to him that the lumber industry in Singapore was doomed in the long run, he sold his interest in the company to Talman Brannigan, who subsequently lost everything, including his mind. So, yes, in that sense, he betrayed him.”

“Interesting.”

She put down the letter opener. “I do believe that he felt a measure of guilt. It was my great-great-grandfather who arranged for Talman Brannigan’s remains to be interred in the Pemkowet cemetery.”

“If that’s true, he spent a lot of money on that mausoleum,” I murmured. “How come the Tall Man’s the only one in it?”

“Talman’s wife had family in Chicago,” Amanda said. “They didn’t want her and the children buried with him.”

“But there was a survivor, right?”

She nodded. “Clancy Brannigan’s grandfather, I believe. He was the youngest, only seven years old. If I remember correctly, he was raised by his aunt, Talman’s sister. You can’t blame them for not wanting to share his final resting place, either.”

“True,” I said.

“Just to rule out the possibility, can you tell us where you were between the hours of eleven o’clock last night and six a.m. this morning?” Cody asked her.

“Home in bed,” Amanda replied flatly.

“Alone?”

Her lips thinned again. At this rate, she was going to smudge her lipstick. “Yes. But I assure you, I had nothing to do with this. No one in the Cavannaugh family did. You’re welcome to talk to anyone you like.”

“Oh, we will.” Cody glanced at me. “On a related note, there’s another matter that you should be aware of, Mrs. Brooks.”