Little Bones: A totally addictive crime thriller

by Patricia Gibney

‘I’m doing it bit by bit. I refurbished the kitchen. Just need to hire a JCB to dig the foundations to add another room.’

  ‘Okay.’ Lottie wondered if the Gallaghers were in debt. Money was a murder motivator. ‘Do you have a bank loan?’

  ‘No. I need to save first and then they might lend me something.’

  ‘Credit Union loan?’ She remembered the book in Isabel’s handbag.

  ‘Yeah. A few thousand. For the kitchen. Repayments are all up to date.’

  ‘And you plan to do the work yourself?’

  ‘There’s a man who helps me out. Kevin Doran.’

  Lottie made a note of the name. ‘Is he a builder?’

  ‘More like a handyman.’

  ‘Has he been at your house recently?’

  ‘Not for a few weeks, I think.’

  ‘I’ll need his contact details.’ Lottie took down the number Gallagher recited from his phone. ‘Is he local? Do you have his address?’

  ‘I don’t know. He just turns up when I need him.’ Jack pocketed his phone then stared at Lottie. ‘You don’t think he could have done this, do you?’

  ‘Do you?’

  ‘If he touched her, I’ll kill him myself.’

  ‘I’ll talk to him.’ She could do without a grieving husband getting involved. ‘Now, tell me, how were you and Isabel getting on?’

  ‘What do you mean by that?’

  ‘I’m trying to get a full picture of your relationship, to see what might have motivated someone to kill your wife.’ Lottie blew out a soft breath. ‘How was your marriage?’

  ‘My marriage has nothing to do with this … this monster that killed my wife.’

  ‘Everything has to do with her death, until we can eliminate whatever it is that has nothing to do with it.’

  He leaned into the wooden chair with the stuffing coming out of the seat and stared at the ceiling. When he lowered his head, he was crying softly.

  ‘Me and Isabel, we loved each other straight away. We clicked. Oh, we had our rows, but doesn’t everybody? We married after a year of dating, and I set about renovating the house for her. She couldn’t wait until I refurbished the kitchen. She wanted everything modern and streamlined. She loved cooking, though that changed a bit after having Holly. I’ve a well-paid job, but I’m not making enough to do all she wanted. It led to a couple of rows when I pared back her plans. But she seemed to lose interest in it once she was pregnant, and even more so after Holly arrived.’

  ‘Was she diagnosed with post-partum depression?’

  ‘She wasn’t diagnosed with anything, as far as I know.’

  ‘Was she on any medication?’

  ‘She’s not into pills for this and that. Didn’t even want an epidural, though in the end she took it.’

  ‘And she saw her doctor regularly after Holly’s birth?’

  ‘Only for the baby’s vaccines and check-up. I’m sure there was nothing medically wrong with Isabel, Inspector. Holly wasn’t sleeping through the night and Isabel was tired all the time, which was understandable. Nothing a good feed wouldn’t fix. When she had a mind to cook, that is.’

  Between the lines, Lottie was getting the impression that all had not been well in the Gallagher household.

  ‘I see the way you’re looking at me,’ he said, ‘and I don’t like it. I did not kill my wife. I love … loved her. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do without her. Can I see my baby now?’

  ‘In a few minutes. We need to have a word with Anita. In the meantime, can you provide me with a list of Isabel’s friends?’

  He twisted his large hands into each other. ‘She hadn’t any … many friends. Kept to herself. Too busy with Holly to be going out anywhere.’

  ‘I couldn’t find her mobile phone. Do you know where it might be?’

  ‘She didn’t have one. Too expensive. Used the landline when she needed to make a call.’

  Where you could monitor her calls on the house phone bill, Lottie thought. Stop, she warned herself. She had nothing to point to him being controlling, but something itched under her skin where she couldn’t reach to scratch.

  ‘Did Isabel have a car?’

  ‘An old Golf. It’s at the back of the house. I drive the company van.’

  ‘Did you keep cash in the house?’

  ‘No … Wait. Do you think someone came to the house looking to rob us?’

  ‘I’m still establishing facts. I didn’t see cash or cards in her handbag.’

  ‘She didn’t have a bank card.’

  ‘Cash?’

  ‘A weekly allowance for groceries and baby stuff.’

  He blushed, and Lottie gathered he realised this appeared suspicious.

  ‘So she could have had cash in her wallet?’

  ‘If so, there wouldn’t have been much. We bought the groceries at the weekend. If anyone wanted to steal from us, good luck to them. We had nothing worth taking.’

  ‘Did either of you have any enemies?’

  ‘I don’t know of anyone who could bear enough of a grudge to do something like that to my Isabel. And I don’t know who could hate us enough to do it either.’

  Boyd leaned across the table, his face close to Gallagher’s. ‘We need your permission to access your phone and financial records.’

  Gallagher drew back, almost toppling his chair. ‘You’ve got some cheek. My wife is lying dead in our house and you want to know if I have money in the bank? You know what you can do? You can stop looking at me for this, and find the monster who killed her.’ He folded his arms and bit his lip.

  Lottie watched him, more determined than ever to scrutinise the Gallaghers’ bank statements. First, though, she’d have a chat with Anita.

  10

  Watching Anita Boland hold a bottle to her granddaughter’s mouth, Lottie felt an ache clench her heart. As good as her own mother, Rose, had been when Katie, Chloe and Sean were babies, she had never seen her look on them with the same affection as Anita did with Holly. In later years, after Adam died, Rose had softened, helping out when she could, but they were young teenagers by then, and it hadn’t been easy. Lottie hoped little Holly grew to appreciate her grandmother’s love in the absence of her murdered mother’s. At least the baby still had her dad. That was good, wasn’t it?

  ‘I need to go home,’ Anita said. ‘I have to get clothes for Holly.’

  ‘You live here in Ragmullin, don’t you?’ Lottie said.

  ‘Yes, Wisteria Villas. Sounds like an address out of a Hollywood Wives episode, but it’s plain and simple, with a garden I can manage on my own.’ Anita smiled sadly. ‘I’d have preferred it if Isabel lived closer to me, but she was still only a ten-minute drive away. Too far, as it turns out.’

  ‘You were first at the scene, so I’d like a quick word. Is that okay?’

  ‘I want to take my grandchild out of here. I’ve had my fingerprints taken and supplied a DNA sample. What more do you want?’ She kept her head bowed, a grey streak breaking the crown of dyed blonde hair in half. Lottie put out a hand to comfort her. The woman retreated into the chair, clutching the baby tighter.

  ‘Just five minutes,’ Lottie said. ‘I want to find the person who killed your daughter. We can talk at the same time as you’re feeding Holly. Is that okay?’

  ‘I suppose so.’ Anita raised her head, the lids of her eyes red from crying. ‘What do you want to know?’

  ‘Tell me about Isabel. What was she like? Was anything worrying her? Anyone causing her anxiety? That kind of thing.’

  ‘I don’t know what I can tell you that will help. Isabel was my everything. My husband, Fred, died when she was seven. Heart attack. So for more than twenty years it was just Isabel and me. Until she met Jack. Then I was out in the cold.’

  ‘How was that?’

  ‘Nothing major. But I was no longer her confidante. No longer her friend. Just her mother.’ Anita sighed and shifted her weight as the baby continued to guzzle the bottle. ‘Isabel was a bit of a loner growing up. Not man
y friends to speak of, and then Jack appears and whisks her off her feet, so to speak. She gave up that good office job at Quality Electrical because of him, and ended up working a few hours a day in Foley’s. That’s a crèche.’

  ‘I know it.’

  ‘Jack took her to that house in the arsehole of nowhere, an awful wreck of a place. She got pregnant not long after they were married, when I knew she didn’t really want a baby. I think she was afraid any child she might have would endure a lonely childhood without friends like she did.’

  ‘Why didn’t Isabel have many friends growing up?’

  ‘She was a loner. Her father was dead, as I said, and I had to work to keep up with the mortgage payments. School was daunting for her. She struggled. She lacked self-confidence and was the butt of bullies’ jokes. I protected her as much as I could. Maybe that was a mistake …’ Anita’s voice drifted off as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

  Lottie got the impression the woman had tried to cocoon Isabel from the world, and had failed. ‘I’m sure Isabel was delighted to have you in her corner.’

  ‘It was hard to know with her. She was a bit naïve, if I’m honest. She worked in AJ Lennon’s Hardware a few years ago. There are branches throughout Ireland.’

  Lottie nodded. She could see how painful this must be for Anita.

  ‘She found it hard to deal with the irregular shifts there, and then she got the office job at Quality Electrical. Nine to five. That suited her, though I worried how she was coping. Her moods were quite dark at times, until she met Jack. He was the first guy to take any real interest in her, and she was besotted with him.’ Bowing her head, Anita looked at the baby sucking contentedly on the bottle. ‘In a way, I didn’t blame her. He was really good to her. They seemed to be so in love. He’s a bit older than her, so maybe she saw him as a father figure. Oh God, I don’t know.’

  ‘He’s thirty-eight and Isabel was twenty-nine, is that right?’

  Anita nodded. ‘But he’s older in other ways too … oh, all sorts of things.’

  ‘Care to elaborate?’ Lottie watched as Anita placed the baby on her shoulder and rubbed her back. Holly burped immediately.

  ‘It has no bearing on what happened.’

  ‘You can’t know that. Tell me what you mean.’

  ‘I don’t believe Jack killed my daughter. He loved her and she loved him. Anyhow, he was working miles away, wasn’t he?’

  ‘That may be so, but—’

  ‘Inspector.’ Anita swallowed a sob, caressing the baby’s hair. ‘Whoever did this to Isabel is a monster. Jack’s not a monster. He’s clever with money, that’s all I meant. He kept control of the budget. He had all his financial records locked in the garage. I know they were saving, but all the same, I think it hurt Isabel that he didn’t trust her. ‘

  Lottie considered this, and made a note to check out the garage. ‘Is there anything else you want to say?’

  ‘Will Holly be psychologically scarred for life now?’

  ‘I’m sure she won’t. She’s young enough not to remember what happened.’

  ‘But you saw the blood on her little face. Deep down, subconsciously, she’ll always know something horrible happened in front of her eyes.’ Anita gazed down at the baby. ‘I suppose I should be grateful that she wasn’t physically harmed.’

  ‘That’s one positive to take from this awful situation,’ Lottie said, trying to keep the worry from her voice. The gruesome attack had left a sour taste in her mouth.

  She looked closely at Anita. ‘Jack told me Isabel didn’t own a mobile phone. Do you find that odd?’

  ‘They had a house phone. She told me they couldn’t afford to pay for two mobiles plus a landline. She was at home most of the time, so she cancelled hers.’

  ‘But she was a young woman and I’m sure she needed a mobile for social media. We didn’t find any laptop or computer either.’

  ‘Isabel despised social media. Said it was an intrusion into her privacy. She just wanted to build a life with Jack and Holly.’

  ‘Right. You said she had a doctor’s appointment this morning? Do you know what for?’

  ‘I assume it was a check-up.’

  ‘She wasn’t taking Holly with her. Why?’

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe she wanted a few hours on her own.’

  ‘Isabel was isolated out in Cloughton,’ Lottie said, ‘and Jack seems to think she might have been capable of harming herself. Was she depressed?’

  ‘That’s preposterous. Why would he even think that, let alone say it?’

  ‘That’s the impression he gave me.’

  Anita thought for a moment. ‘She’d become very withdrawn, but I didn’t think she was depressed, just tired. Maybe that’s why she had the doctor’s appointment. Can you find out?’

  ‘I’ll do my best, but … patient confidentiality …’

  ‘Maybe Jack could give permission for you to see Isabel’s records?’

  ‘Who was her GP? I’ll see what I can find out.’

  Anita sighed and gave her the name of a Ragmullin doctor.

  Lottie said, ‘Do you know if she intended to return to work at some stage?’

  ‘She never said. After she met Jack, she didn’t confide in me as much as she used to.’

  Lottie was beginning to get the impression that Anita didn’t know a whole lot about Isabel’s recent life. Was that because either Jack or her daughter didn’t want her to know?

  ‘What friends did Isabel have?’

  ‘Not many, I guess.’

  ‘Other new mothers, maybe?’

  Anita shrugged.

  Lottie pressed on. ‘Was she in any clubs where she’d have made friends?’

  ‘What type of clubs?’

  ‘Maybe tennis, or walking? A gym? That kind of thing.’

  ‘She wasn’t sporty, and like I said, she had moved on from me once she got with Jack. And then this little munchkin came along.’

  ‘Did you see your daughter often?’

  ‘Not as often as I’d have liked. They didn’t invite me round much. Didn’t stop me turning up now and again. She called me to sit with Holly from time to time, like she asked me to do this morning.’

  ‘If you think of anyone else we can talk to who knew Isabel, let me know.’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘Did you ever meet Kevin Doran?’

  Anita scrunched her eyes and leaned her head to one side. ‘Don’t think so. Who is he?’

  ‘Jack mentioned that he helped him renovate the kitchen. Did odd jobs for him. Did you see him at the house this morning?’

  Anita shook her head and settled Holly back on her lap. ‘I didn’t notice anyone around this morning. Only my lovely daughter and Holly. And all that blood. Dear God.’

  ‘Don’t worry. I’ll contact this Kevin and see if he’s been at the house recently, or noticed anything unusual.’

  ‘Inspector, do you think Jack is okay to take Holly, or does he want me to mind her for a bit? He has no other family.’

  ‘It would be good for you to be involved in Holly’s care. They’ll both need somewhere to live for a few days.’

  Anita’s eyes watered again, and tears fell on the baby’s head. She wiped them away with whispered kisses. ‘I’ll do all I can to help. I love this little one as much as I loved my daughter, but Jack is her father. Holly will give him something to focus on, something to keep him sane through all this insanity.’

  ‘Jack is in shock at the moment, like you are. You’ll need support. I’m assigning a family liaison officer to help you both.’

  ‘Thanks, but no,’ Anita said, her cadence adamant. ‘I need space to grieve. We won’t be wanting outside help.’

  Lottie laid a hand on her trembling fingers. ‘Your daughter has been murdered. You saw the results of the attack first hand. The FLO will be there for comfort and support.’ She didn’t mention that she wanted eyes on Jack while he was still a viable suspect. He seemed too broken to be involved, but she’d seen it all
, and anything was possible.

  Anita took up the bottle and, seeing some formula remaining, put it back to the baby’s mouth. She stared at Lottie with penetrating eyes. ‘I know what you’re thinking, Inspector. Jack would never hurt my Isabel.’

  As she stood to leave, Lottie wondered if the woman was overdoing the platitudes.

  11

  The office of Quality Electrical was located on the outskirts of Ragmullin. A large warehouse with a rolling door faced a two-storey office block. A wide yard separated the two buildings, stacked with wooden reels of cable and a couple of company vans parked up. It was only a kilometre outside town, but Kirby felt he was in the countryside.

  A sixty-something man in overalls met Kirby and Garda Martina Brennan on the forecourt and told them that Michael Costello, the boss, was upstairs in the office. Leaving Martina to talk to the foreman, Kirby headed inside.

  Costello looked to be in his forties, about five ten, wide-shouldered, sporting a thick beard and a head of ginger hair that fell in an unruly fashion over his freckled forehead. Behind horn-rimmed spectacles that Kirby imagined sported a designer label were eyes of an indiscriminate colour. He wore navy trousers, a white shirt and a green tie. His navy jacket had QE embroidered in gold thread on the pocket.

  He offered his hand when Kirby entered the small office.

  ‘Thanks for seeing me,’ Kirby said.

  ‘Will this take long? I’ve a meeting shortly.’

  Sitting on a swivel chair, Kirby went to fold his arms, but his belly got in the way so he laid them on the table that separated the two men.

  ‘So, what goes on around here?’

  Flashing a mouthful of pristine white teeth, Costello removed his expensive-looking spectacles. ‘I’m an electrical contractor. The building trade is booming once again and we’re in demand. My crews can wire anything from a chicken coop to a high-rise office block.’

  ‘Good, good,’ Kirby said. ‘You know why I’m here?’

  ‘Awful business. Poor Isabel.’ Costello buttoned his jacket. ‘What is this world coming to at all?’ His voice was soft and placating. A man used to smoothing over problems.