She gave up on leaving Bill’s embrace. The whump of helicopter blades approached. But it was too late. There wasn’t anyone left to save.

Danny dug into the pile of scrambled eggs Conor dished onto his plate. The smell of bacon overwhelmed the sooty stench stuck in his nostrils even after a shower and fresh clothes.

While his brother worked the stove, Detective Rossi sat at the inn’s kitchen island. A notebook was open next to a full plate of steaming food. At the other end of the counter, the museum curator, Louisa May Hancock, PhD, sipped coffee and watched Conor with the focus of an archeologist studying a new species. When he slid a plate of bacon and eggs in front of her, her brows crunched together in confusion. Honey stretched out on the floor at Danny’s feet.

Rossi added cream and sugar to his coffee and stirred. “Evan Hall said his father was keeping him locked up and partially sedated.” The cop forked eggs into his mouth with the zeal of a man who’d been up all night.

“He was tied to a post when we got there.” Danny drank his coffee black and scalding, but the hot liquid did little to dispel the aching cold lodged in his gut. He glanced at the door to the apartment. Mandy was at the hospital with her brother and mother, who was in ICU after a second heart attack. Even after being Tased and drugged, Bill had appeared to be in better shape than Mandy. The inn had an empty feel without Mandy and her family in it. Even with the guests sleeping upstairs and the four people crowded into the kitchen, loneliness burrowed inside Danny and nested.

Too much death and despair had that effect on him.

It wasn’t because Mandy wasn’t here.

The cop set down his fork. “So, Dr. Hancock, what was Nathan trying to do tonight?”

“The Celts believed human sacrifices would gains the gods’ favor. Offerings were made to ensure good crops and change the weather. To ensure victory in battle. The Celts drowned victims, slit throats, bashed them over the head, and burned them alive. Nathan built a wicker man.” Louisa’s face smoothed out. “During the Roman invasion of Britain, Julius Caesar wrote accounts of the Druids burning wicker man statues full of prisoners to keep Britain from being conquered.”

“Did it?”

Louisa picked at her eggs. “The Romans quit at Scotland. They didn’t think the highlands were worth the effort. The weather and the terrain were factors, but perhaps the ferocity of the Celtic warriors was also considered.”

Danny gave up on eating and put the dish on the floor for Honey.

“The thing I can’t figure out is how Carolyn Fitzgerald played in all this. She was helping Nathan?”