Benjamin nodded. “I mean, that is weird, right? Doesn’t he have other clients? Why would they need to meet that often?”
“No… They wouldn’t.” Avery mulled this over. “You never let curiosity get the better of you? Never stayed just to see what it might be all about?”
He twiddled his thumbs for a minute. “About that… I wasn’t entirely truthful with you at the funeral,” he confided. “I didn’t want you to look at me like the others did—like I was just some meaningless fling who wasn’tprivy to the real matters of her life.” He cleared his throat and tried to sit up a little straighter. “Itistrue that I didn’t really want to be there for meetings about the estate and plans before her death—but she didn’t give me a choice either. She’d send me out of the house.”
“She’d send you out of the entire house when her lawyer stopped by?”
“Not just me,” he added. “Her nurse, or any other house staff too.”
That wasveryodd. “Do you think they were having an affair?”
“God no. Nothing like that—plus there was zero chemistry between them. If anything, I was starting to wonder if something illegal might be going on. Offshore bank accounts or… I don’t know. Maybe he was blackmailing the family about something?”
Avery’s mind was reeling. “Was there ever a time when someonedidstay with her when he came? A friend, or family member?”
“Sometimes if Elis was there, he’d stay. And sometimes Saoirse would come over specifically for those appointments.”
“Saoirse would come over?”
“Honestly, it was the waySaoirseacted that made me dismiss any suspicions, because she was always happy to see him. Like they were old friends or something—she even had a special name for him.”
Avery’s brow furrowed. Saoirse…knewhim? This didn’t align with what Bowen had told Saga at the funeral. “What do you mean she had a special name for him?”
“Well, you know, she had one for Eira too—anamchara, I think it was. Eira told me it meant soul friend.”
A sinking feeling began to creep into Avery’s stomach. “She called Eira’s lawyer this too?”
“No, his was different. I only heard it once or twice. It started with an O, I think—I never asked Eira what it meant, it wasn’t my place. I usually was supposed to be out of the house by then anyway.”
Avery remembered this part of an investigation well: the thrill of that last puzzle piece falling into place. Yet the adrenaline that began to elevate her heart rate was not excitement, but dread. “Was it Osian?”
“Yeah, that was it! What’s it mean?”
It meant it was very likely Saga had just unknowingly gone to see a murderer by herself. Her heartbeat quickening, Avery ignored his question to ask one of her own. “How did he seem at the will reading?”
“We didn’t have a reading,” said Benjamin. “We were all sent copies through certified mail with instructions on the next steps as the original went through probate.”
“Whendid they arrive?”
“Yesterday morning?”
Then how did pages of it get stuffed inside Alistair Campbell’s body late Sunday night? “Faex.” Avery dug into her pocket and fumbled for her phone, pulling it out. Frustrated, she made her way through the menu the way Saga had shown her and found the woman’s number, bringing it up to her ear. She felt breathless and afraid.
It rang.
“Do you know where Mr. Bowen’s office is? I know it’s in Holborn somewhere.”
It rang again.
“Uh, I can look it up?” Benjamin offered.
“Quickly. Please?”
The third ring was cut short.
“Hi, this is Saga—”
“Saga, thank fate—”
