We went up again to bedrooms. At the back of the house was a nursery with an old-fashioned rocking horse and a big dollhouse. I pictured Darcy riding that horse, a happy adventurous little boy until tragedy struck his family. Up a narrow stair this time and we were in a plain corridor of simple rooms. This dated back to the time when there were plenty of servants to make this vast place run smoothly. But none of the rooms showed any sign that it had been occupied recently. We all came to the same conclusion. Mickey Riley had fled.

As the Garda vehicles drove away Darcy and I looked at each other, each thinking the same thing: the castle was unoccupied.

“Now might be a good time to search for anything Mickey might have left behind, oh and the missing bonds and jewels.”

“I thought you’d searched the place with Chief Inspector Callahan,” I said.

“Another look can’t hurt,” Darcy said. “Are you game?”

We went back inside and I followed him as he checked every known hiding place in the lower level, then the ground floor. We found nothing and ascended the staircase to the first floor.

“I wonder if there was a reason he was killed in the library,” Darcy said, going into that room and switching on the electric light.

“The club was lying on the table in there,” I said. “Remember your father picked it up that afternoon.”

“I wonder why he was planning to sell it.” Darcy stared at the table as if willing the club to appear.

“Maybe he was short of cash,” I suggested, making Darcy laugh. “With two million dollars in his pocket?” he asked me.

“Maybe the majority of that heist wasn’t in the form of cash. Maybe he used the cash to buy the castle and racing stable. But we know he gambled on horse racing. Perhaps he had actually used up his money but couldn’t do anything with the bonds or jewelry for fear of giving himself away.”

Darcy nodded. “That’s possible.” He looked around at the library walls. “Do you think we should check all the books to see if any of them have been hollowed out? They’d make good hiding places, wouldn’t they?”

I stared around the book-lined walls in dismay. “That would take forever.”

“I’m going to start on it anyway,” he said. “Some of these big tomes here.” He lifted down a large leather-bound book.

“I don’t think he’d go to all that trouble in his own house,” I said. “There must be easier places.”