‘Hmm, yeah …’ She sounded a little hesitant. ‘That should be okay. I can stay on for a while. If it gets really late, Charlie can stay with me. I’ll put him on to you, will I?’
‘Hi, Mum, are you on your way?’
‘No, honey, I’m stuck in work. Sophie says she can stay on for a bit. If it gets late, you can sleep over in her place.’
‘But we got stuff to make more pancakes.’ He sounded disappointed.
‘I know, honey. I’ll be there as soon as I can.’
‘No, you won’t. You’re always saying things like that. I hate you.’ She heard him drop the phone and then, a couple of seconds later, his bedroom door slammed.
‘Charlie,’ she called down the phone.
The next voice she heard was Sophie’s: ‘Hi, Kate – don’t worry, he’s upset, that’s all. He’s probably overtired. He’ll be okay in a while.’
‘But …’
‘Look, don’t worry. It can’t be helped.’
‘Tell him I love him, and I’ll be there soon.’
‘I will. Listen, I best go into him.’
‘Yes, of course. We can talk later.’
She hung up. Mark Lynch walked towards her. ‘Everything okay?’ he asked.
‘Fine,’ she replied, even though she felt like the worst mother in the world.
‘We should have the warrant in the next fifteen minutes. O’Connor’s on his way down. The recon team have been at the Regan house for the last four hours. There hasn’t been a sighting of either of them.’
‘How far away from the woods is Sandra’s old home?’ she asked, shivering now the sun had gone down.
‘No more than ten minutes. In the dark, it could take us longer. There’s back-up on standby from Dublin, depending on what we find. I’ll need you to hang back if this thing starts to unravel.’
‘I didn’t stay on to sit in the car.’
‘Look, calm down. The truth is, Kate, if Sandra Regan and her husband are down here, they could be anywhere in these woods.’
‘People always return to the familiar. She may not have happy memories of that house but it would be her starting point. We’re all creatures of habit, and killers are no different from the rest of us.’
Driving through the village, the back road to the house was no more than five minutes away, but far enough to be isolated. Soon the secondary road gave way to a dirt track, coming to a stop at a rusted gate.
When Lynch opened the gate, even in the dark, under an archway of blackthorn bushes, he could see the impression of recent tyre marks on the overgrown pathway. Kate rolled down the window. ‘Well?’
‘They’re here, all right.’ He looked at the three squad cars stopped behind them. Going to the car furthest from the gate, he said to the driver, ‘You stay here while we check it out. If O’Connor comes, tell him to hang back with you. The other two cars can follow me.’
Getting back in, he turned to Kate. ‘We’ll drive on another bit.’
The cars rumbled their way slowly up the path, the only light guiding them that of the moon. Halfway up, the road took another twist. Mark stopped the car, got out and instructed everyone, except Kate, to walk the rest of the way.
‘You stay here until we give you the all-clear. Lock the doors and don’t attempt to open them for anyone except me.’
‘Okay,’ she replied, and watched the half-dozen detectives set off along the narrow path.
She checked her phone – seven o’clock: an hour since she had spoken to Charlie. Unless there was a miracle, there was no way she’d be back to Dublin in time to put him to bed. She leaned back, suddenly exhausted as she stared at the full moon. In the distance, she could see the woodlands. The tips of the trees were engulfed in a fast-falling fog, reminding her of a mystical landscape.
She jumped out of her skin when she heard tapping on the glass.
‘Bloody hell, Adam,’ she said, opening the door. ‘You gave me a fright.’
‘I thought I’d join you for a bit of moon-gazing. Where’s the Lone Ranger?’
‘You mean Mark?’
‘Yeah.’
‘He’s up at the house. I’m to stay put here until he gives the all-clear.’
‘Looks like we’re about to get it,’ he said, pointing at the torchlight approaching the car. When Lynch was level with him, he asked, ‘What’s the situation up there?’
‘They were here, all right. There was a fire lit in the grate and the car is still there, but no sign of either of them.’
‘So they’ve gone for a night excursion?’ Adam lit his own flashlight.
‘Wherever they are, they travelled by foot. I’m going to call in more back-up and spread the search as far out as we can. In the meantime, I’ve left three of the guys at the house. I want Kate to take a look upstairs. There’s a shitload of art stuff and photographs in the rear bedroom. Maybe she’ll be able to make sense of it.’
‘Will I go with her?’
‘Yeah, walk her to the house, but let the guys take over. She’ll need to be booted and gloved as a precaution. After that, I’ll want you back in the village – see if you can get some of the locals to give us guidance on the terrain. Any help we can get will increase our chances of finding them sooner.’