‘Where was your wife?’
‘She was still at work. We worked hard for our kids. Day and night. And that’s how the girl repaid us. Slut. That’s what she was. A fucking slut.’
‘There’s no need to speak ill of your daughter like that.’ Keelan hugged her arms to her chest, her features incredulous.
‘Please continue, Donal,’ Lottie said. She didn’t want him to clam up, or they might never find out what had happened; might never find Grace and Mollie. That is, if they were linked at all.
Donal eyed her before continuing. ‘You’ve no idea what it was like. I nearly died, right where I was sitting. That’s the kind of shock it was. But when she said who she’d been whoring around with, I lost it. Jumped up and hit her smack in the face. She fell back and Cillian caught her. He started shouting at me, and Finn stood there with his mouth open like the big eejit he was and always will be.’
‘And then?’
‘And then I stormed out of the house. Went to the pub. Must have drunk ten pints, and when I got home, there was no Lynn.’
‘What had happened? What did your sons say?’
‘Cillian said Lynn had run off. He told me he’d driven round to the site, where that yoke lived, but she wasn’t there and the tinker hadn’t a clue.’
‘And did you believe him, that she’d run off?’
‘What else could I believe? That he’d killed her and hidden her body? That’s what I believed for the last ten years. That’s why I never mentioned the McWard fellow. There was enough disgrace hanging like a noose around my family without that.’
‘And your wife. What did you tell Maura?’
‘Finn told her that Lynn never came home. And that’s what we stuck to. That’s the story we told all those years. He covered up for Cillian, like brothers do.’
‘But Lynn wasn’t dead. Where was she?’
‘I’ve no idea. I convinced myself she was dead since that day, and now she is.’
‘Where’s Cillian now?’ Lottie turned to Keelan.
‘I don’t know. He was out half the night. Like he is most of the time.’ Keelan paused, struggling to get the words out. ‘We had another blazing row this morning and he stormed off. But he said something that frightened me.’
‘What did he say?’
‘He told me I was a jealous bitch. Then he said that jealousy took his sister from him and got her killed, and if I didn’t shut up, he’d kill me.’
‘Any idea where he goes at night?’ Boyd asked.
Lottie glanced at his anxious face, etched with concern for his sister. ‘Keelan, do you know where he might have kept Lynn hidden all these years? Where he might be keeping Mollie Hunter and possibly Grace Boyd?’
‘Oh God. You don’t think … He couldn’t. Not Cillian.’ Keelan stood up, her hands pulling at her hair.
‘Please think,’ Lottie said. She turned to Donal. ‘Is there anywhere your sons went to when they were younger? Someplace no one would think of looking?’
‘All the houses beside us are empty, ten if not eleven years. Maura wouldn’t let us move in case Lynn came home and couldn’t find us.’
‘Okay. I want you to come to the station. We’ll organise a search.’
‘I’m going nowhere,’ Donal said.
‘Mr O’Donnell, you’ve been complicit in covering up a crime. You’re coming with us.’
‘You’ll have to handcuff me.’
‘I will.’ Boyd pulled a set from his pocket and clicked them open.
‘Wait a minute,’ Lottie said. She turned to Keelan. ‘We need to get Finn and his wife into protective custody. Are they at home?’
‘I imagine so.’
Lottie phoned Kirby to get there straight away with a squad car. She left Boyd with Donal and ushered Keelan into the sitting room to collect Saoirse. The room exuded misery and loss.
‘Inspector?’ Keelan said.
Lottie looked at her.
‘I don’t think my Cillian could do that to his sister. He loved her.’
‘Love can do strange things to people,’ Lottie said.
Ninety-Four
The car windows were fogged up from their lovemaking. Carol straightened her clothes, glad that her nausea seemed to have waned. She ran a finger down Cillian’s face. ‘You look sad.’
‘I love you, Carol,’ he said. ‘I know a horrible thing happened to you. But I need to know if the baby you’re carrying is mine or from the bastard who raped you.’
Carol turned away. Why was he saying this? It was him, wasn’t it? She couldn’t tell him that she knew he was her rapist. That he’d got drunk and followed her and attacked her that night. She’d been fairly drunk too, so what would that make her? Complicit? The only thing keeping her going was the fact that it could only be Cillian’s baby. She hadn’t had sex with anyone else. How could she convince him?
She wanted to be angry at him, but her heart was filled with love. And sorrow for her dead friend. Lizzie, who had held onto the chain and ring she’d pulled from her rapist’s neck. The same one that Cillian had always worn but no longer did. Oh, why could she not remember more? Why had she been drinking so much that night?
‘Answer me,’ he said, leaning over her, his mouth so close she was swallowing his words. ‘I’ll tear him apart with my bare hands. Who was the bollocks who did it to you?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘But you have an idea?’
‘Yes.’
‘Tell me.’ His face was hard and his eyes darker than she’d ever noticed before.
‘First I need to know that you’re going to leave your wife,’ she blurted, clasping her fingers into each other.
He pulled away from her and she felt a cold void spring up between them. And something else. Something that was consuming the cramped space in the car.
And then she knew.
It was her own fear.
* * *
Kirby took Keelan, Saoirse and Donal to the garda station. Donal was raving and shouting about evil spirits, so Lottie told Kirby to call a doctor. She was in enough trouble without being the cause of a suspect dying.
‘I need to find Grace,’ Boyd said as they finished searching the old man’s house.
‘The search team are working their way through the terrace. So far we have nothing.’
‘Where could he keep a girl hidden for ten years? Never mind the why.’
‘There must be a clue in this house. This is the last place we know where Lynn was.’
‘You’d think she’d be safe in her own home.’
‘A house with a demented father and two brothers oozing hormones, and God knows what the mother was like. Then Lynn brings home news that in Donal’s mind was the ultimate taboo. Pregnant by a traveller. Prejudice is an awful thing, Boyd.’
‘So is keeping a young woman hidden for ten years. Do you think when Lynn died he went over the edge and took Elizabeth to replace her?’
‘That’s what I suspect. Then Elizabeth escapes, and he kills her and has to find another replacement. Where the hell did he keep them?’
Lottie entered Donal’s small bedroom again. It was suffused with such a thick, fusty smell that she felt she could touch it if she put out her hand. She didn’t dare. Beside the bed was a small bookcase, folders sticking out haphazardly.
‘I already looked there,’ Boyd said. ‘Seems to be old work stuff. Mainly relates to the nursing home.’
‘That’s where he works.’
‘The boys worked with him for a while. I saw invoices. Donal was a cute fucker. Billed the health board for his sons doing a bit of painting.’
‘Where did you see that?’
Boyd tugged a black A4 ring binder from the shelf and two others slipped to the floor.
‘Jesus, leave them there,’ Lottie said as he bent to tidy up. ‘Which page? Show me.’
He leaned over her shoulder and flipped through. ‘There. Fixing up a boiler room and painting some corridor or other. February 2001.’
‘This relates to the old nursing home. It closed down maybe a year after that. Could that be it?’
‘What?’
‘I think it might be where he kept Elizabeth.’ Lottie made for the door.
‘Jesus, that’s a long shot,’ Boyd shouted.
She kept running.
* * *