Chapter 10

Liam got up and left the room after Eileen was done telling. She had told him everything, every detail. He knew about her father, Ben, even about Stark! She didn't know whether to go after him or not. She decided not to and curled up on his bed. She had never seen Liam this mad. And she could understand him, he had just been completely honest to her about the Robin Hood Project and she had thanked him with being a total bitch and telling the poor guy she'd been lying to him the entire time. After some 10 minutes Eileen got up and left. Nobody stopped her. She called a cab and drove back to her B&B. She felt completely empty and she finally caught up with the truth: The file she found in Maria Alm was a fake. Some-body had wanted to lure her to America, far away from Ire-land and Ben, her only Irish connection. Eileen lay down on bed, her thoughts spinning. Why would anyone want her out of the way? Who would lead a false trail, away from the real murderer? Eileen could only think of one answer: The mur-derer himself. If that was true, Eileen had done what HE wanted all the time. She was starting to feel sick. That. Was. Just. Impossible. Was it? But why on earth would he want her to get out of his way? She felt so stupid. Was it actually possi-ble that she knew Fergus' murder? Eileen went to the next pharmacy and bought herself some sleeping pills. She felt blank and weird; all she wanted was to escape from reality. After swallowing the pills with some tea she slid into a dreamless, agitated sleep.

The sun shining on her face woke her the following day. Eileen looked at the alarm clock and was surprised: she had slept until 1 pm! When Eileen checked her cell phone the dull feeling came back at once: No new messages. No word from Liam or Amy, from any of her friends. Eileen sighed and after eating some Mexican food Roberta had left for her in the fridge she went back upstairs into her room and, with a heavy heart, started to pack her bags. She had made the decision to go back to Ireland sometime this morning, because there was no point in staying here – not if the murderer knew exactly where to find her during the witness-protection programme. He hadn't harmed her; she'd never been his target. Eileen booked a direct flight from SF-Airport to Cork Airport this evening and waited for her departure.

The airport was noisy but Eileen didn't notice. She was im-mersed in the new book she had bought. She hadn't read for weeks and it was time to get back to old habits – back to herself; before she met Liam. The flight was long and annoy-ing; she watched a comedy programme and finished her book two hours before landing in Cork. The rest of the time she listened to horrible airplane music, because she needed something to distract her.

Cork was as rainy as expected, the sky was as grey as always and it was chilly. After the cab had dropped Eileen off at her house she went inside and upstairs into her room. Her house looked as if nothing had happened: Fergus could be coming into the front door at any moment and slam the door the way he always did. Nothing at home had changed, but Eileen had. Fergus probably wouldn't recognise his own daughter if he saw her sitting on her bed. Eileen shook her head, what was she thinking? Fergus was dead. After refreshing herself Eileen had to go out and buy some groceries, and she wasn't sur-prised a bit when she walked back towards her house and saw Ben's car standing in front of it. Ben got out of it at once with an umbrella and offered her to take the bag with the food. They walked through her garden in silence. They went inside the living room and while Ben made a fire in the old fireplace Eileen sat down on her favourite couch. She was exhausted but she knew she had to tell Ben everything she had done this last month, she owed that much to him. So when Ben asked, Eileen started to tell. He listened alertly and observantly and nodded when Eileen commented on her theory about the murderer leaving the fake file for her. When she was done telling him she was so weary and tired from the flight and the jet lag that she asked Ben to leave, and he did. He didn't say a word about her leaving him in Austria or about being mad at her, but Eileen knew that this conversation was going to take place in the near future. She made herself some tea, went upstairs and slept.