Little Bones: A totally addictive crime thriller

by Patricia Gibney

  This mound of Mother Earth was perfect for the rituals. Each of his experimental fold had a mother who’d abandoned them, himself included.

  Lugh, the Celtic Sun God, was a warrior king, master craftsman and saviour. He had magical weapons including an invincible spear. At that time the boy didn’t have a spear, but he’d found razor blades. They were just as good. A spear might kill. He didn’t want to kill, not yet. A blade could cut, cause pain and raise blood. The act itself was addictive. Especially to those already broken.

  Wednesday

  61

  As dawn broke, Lottie dressed quickly and vowed to have a proper breakfast before heading into work. When she switched on the light in the dark kitchen, a bulb flickered then died. Not again!

  Down in the basement, she found the fuse box and flicked the offending trip switch. She hoped Michael Costello would come up with an affordable quotation, otherwise she’d spend the rest of her life climbing up and down these steps and likely fall and break her neck.

  Back in the kitchen, she was surprised to see Katie sitting at the table. Her daughter’s hair was piled in an untidy bun on top of her head and her face was streaked with mascara trails.

  ‘Why are you up at this hour, hun?’

  ‘Couldn’t sleep.’

  ‘It’s difficult to get used to this old house.’

  ‘It’s not the house, Mam.’

  ‘Is it Louis?’ Lottie pulled out a chair and sat. ‘You can talk to me, you know that.’

  ‘Whatever.’

  ‘Listen to me, Katie, I’m up to my armpits in multiple investigations and I have to get to work, but I’m not leaving here until you tell me what’s upset you.’ She realised that despite everything that was going on, she had to put her family first, even though she hadn’t always managed to do that.

  ‘I should be happy. That friend of yours, Michael, he offered me a job in his company.’ Katie tugged at a strand of flyaway hair and twirled it around her finger like a child.

  ‘That’s good, isn’t it? You never really liked working in the café. You’ll probably make more money, too.’

  ‘But what about the day care costs for Louis? Five days a week. I won’t be able to afford it.’

  ‘Don’t worry. We can figure something out. I’m sure Chloe will help.’

  ‘You’re joking me! Look, forget about it. You’ve enough to be doing without worrying about me, Mam. Go to work. I’ll be fine.’

  ‘You’re not fine. You’ve got more shadowy circles under your eyes than I have, and that’s saying something.’

  Katie grinned lopsidedly, like her dad, and Lottie reached for her hand. Her daughter looked out from beneath her long lashes, where tears had caught on the fine hairs like dew drops.

  ‘I miss Dad.’

  It was as if invisible fingers had caught Lottie’s heart and squeezed until it threatened to burst. ‘We all miss him, sweetheart. But we have to live our own lives now. He would have wanted that.’

  ‘I know all that. It’s just … if only I could talk to him. Dad could make things seem all right even when they weren’t. He was like a magician.’ Tears escaped her lashes and fell softly to her cheeks.

  ‘If you give me a chance, I can try too.’ Katie had gone through so much in the years since Adam’s death, and had come out the other side. Or was Lottie deluded in thinking that?

  ‘It’s just … sometimes I feel I don’t deserve this luck. I mean, that man just walked in here and offered me a job. Why?’

  ‘Maybe he sensed you weren’t happy. And he has a vacancy in his office.’

  ‘I know all that, but I’ve messed my life up so much. I don’t want to mess this up.’

  ‘You won’t, and I’ll help any way I can.’

  ‘Mam, you’re the best, but you have your own life.’ Katie snatched her hand away. ‘I have to stand on my own two feet and grow up.’

  ‘I really want to help you.’ Lottie was at a loss to know what else to say.

  Katie stood and flicked on the kettle. ‘Tea or coffee? I’ll put some toast on. Did Boyd not stay last night?’

  The conversation was over. But not quite. She’d give it one last shot. ‘I have to go to work, but I’ll be home early this evening and then I want you to tell me what’s really bothering you.’

  Katie’s eyes flashed with anger. ‘Mam, you will not be home early. Here, have a slice of toast. Eat it in the car.’ She slapped the barely toasted bread onto the table and left the kitchen.

  What in the name of God was all that about?

  62

  Deep in his tiny little heart, Evan knew his mummy wasn’t ever coming back, and it made him cry and cry. Last night he had felt a cold shard of ice slip down his back and it reminded him of something he had blocked out. His mummy had told him to forget all about that time, that it never happened, but Evan knew it had happened and it made him so scared.

  And now she wasn’t around to tell him not to be scared any more. She would have come for him if she could, so something real bad must have stopped her.

  He didn’t like it here with no proper food. He missed going to day care. He missed seeing all his friends. He even missed Louis, though Louis was really only a baby and could be so annoying. He missed Sinéad but he didn’t miss Dylan. He was a bit scary with his big muscles always moving under his shirt. And he missed Nathan, and his bed and his teddy. It was so hard to sleep without Teddy.

  It was too dark. He forgot what it was like to be outside, even though he thought he’d only been here a few days. Maybe it was more. He didn’t know.

  The space where he was kept at night was too small and tight, though he was tiny. It was like a cupboard under the stairs because he heard footsteps go up and down some of the time. Other times it was so quiet he thought he must be alone.

  ‘I want you, Mummy. Come and pick me up …’

  She had to be on her way.

  But at the same time, Evan knew she wasn’t ever coming for him.

  He missed his teddy.

  63

  Driving to the station, Lottie made a call to AJ Lennon’s hardware shop and got confirmation that Tanya Cummings’ shift had started at seven. She swung the car in a U-turn and headed there. If Cummings was indeed Jack Gallagher’s bit on the side, she might prove to be a pivotal cog in his innocent plea or else confirm his guilt. It was imperative Lottie talk to the woman before tackling Jack again.

  She entered the same small office with the jowly man sitting behind his desk. He got up and smiled, holding out his hand. She shook it quickly and sat, biting her tongue because it was too soon to accuse him of smuggling. She needed evidence.

  His hair was distracting her and she itched to tell him to cut out the faded orange dye. He wore the same navy jumper with the hole in the cuff. How the hell could this man be a millionaire? His shirt looked clean, with a starched collar biting into his thick neck.

  He indicated a chair, his hand shaking nervously. ‘Don’t mind this place. I like being in here. Helps me think. Some people expect me to have a big luxurious office, but I’m not one for all that malarkey. I still have to do the same job, no matter what the trappings are.’

  ‘Your shop opens very early.’

  ‘Seven on the dot, every day Monday to Saturday. Sunday, ten until six. I’m sure you’re not here to learn all that, though. What can I do for you?’

  ‘Did you ever check out if Kevin Doran was on your accounts?’

  ‘Who?’ His eyes narrowed.

  ‘You were to ask your finance department if he had charged anything to the Gallagher account.’

  He slapped a hand to his forehead. Pure dramatics. ‘Clean forgot. I’ll get on to it this morning.’

  ‘Do that.’

  He half rose from the chair. ‘Is that all?’

  He seemed anxious to get rid of her. Feck him.

  ‘I’d like to have a word with one of your employees. Tanya Cummings.’

  ‘Oh. Right. Tanya. Right. Quiet young one, as far as I
know. What has she done to warrant someone as important as yourself needing to talk to her?’

  ‘She hasn’t done anything that I’m aware of. It’s in relation to a case. Could I use your office to talk with her? Won’t take long.’

  ‘No bother. I’ll get someone to fetch her. Give me a minute.’

  Alone, Lottie felt the air relax around her, Lennon having brought his nervous anxiety out the door with him. She looked around his office. It was indeed below the level she’d expect from a millionaire businessman, but at least it wasn’t a faux banker’s look.

  He bustled back in. ‘Tanya will be with us in a minute.’ He sat, and the space was once again suffused with an uneasy silence.

  ‘Is this the location of the original Lennon’s?’ Lottie said, making conversation.

  ‘No, that was a small shop on the edge of a housing estate. First place I sold. Too many sad memories there.’

  ‘Oh?’

  He laughed. ‘A-ha! I can spot the way your detective’s brain is working. Imagining a crime in everything, no matter how innocuous it might seem to the man in the street. Or woman, for that matter.’ He laughed, and Lottie shifted awkwardly. ‘My father was a hard taskmaster, and the first chance I had, I transformed the company from groceries to hardware. When that took off, I sold the old place and opened up in a bigger premises. All over the country now. Ah, here she is, the woman herself.’

  ‘You were looking for me, Mr Lennon?’ Tanya Cummings looked not much more than twenty, and only came up to his shoulder, her wild fair hair held back from her face by a hairband. She wore a yellow short-sleeved T-shirt and navy trousers.

  ‘I’m Detective Inspector Parker and I’d like a word, Tanya,’ Lottie said, standing. ‘Could you give us a few minutes alone, Mr Lennon?’

  ‘Sure. Unless Tanya wants me to stay. Moral support, you know.’ He winked and Lottie felt her skin crawl. The man was only trying to be polite, wasn’t he?

  ‘It’s fine, Mr Lennon,’ Tanya said.

  ‘If you’re sure?’ He patted her bare elbow as he left, and Lottie thought she saw the woman flinch.

  ‘Take a seat.’ She indicated the visitor chair.

  ‘I’m really nervous, talking to a detective. What is this about?’

  Lottie leaned against Lennon’s desk, and crossed her legs at the ankles, getting to the point straight away. ‘You know Jack Gallagher?’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Jack told me to talk to you. Gave me your contact details.’

  ‘Why would he do that?’

  ‘So you do know him?’

  A one-shoulder shrug. ‘A little, I suppose. Just to talk to. He comes in here now and again. Buys electrical materials and stuff for his house. He said he’s renovating it.’

  ‘When did you last see him?’

  ‘Haven’t a clue.’

  ‘Could it have been yesterday?’

  ‘I was working yesterday.’

  ‘You mentioned he comes in here to buy stuff. Did he come in yesterday?’

  Tanya sat up straight and seemed to make herself taller on the chair. ‘His wife was murdered, so I doubt he was in buying anything for his house.’

  A smart mouth, Lottie concluded. Two could play that game. ‘He doesn’t seem particularly grief-stricken to me.’

  ‘Why would you say that?’

  ‘Because he was messaging you yesterday.’

  Her eyes widened and she had the grace to blush. ‘It’s not what you think.’

  ‘And what do you think I think?’

  ‘That we’re having an affair.’

  ‘Are you?’

  She bit her lower lip and twirled the silver stud in her ear. ‘I know Jack from when he used to work here.’

  ‘That’s over five years ago. You couldn’t have worked here then?’

  ‘I’m twenty-five. I know … I still look like a teenager. My mam says it will stand to me when I’m sixty.’

  ‘Tell me about Jack.’ Lottie hadn’t time for Tanya’s small talk.

  ‘He’s a lonely man. We like to chat. That’s all.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yeah, really,’ she sneered. ‘His wife doesn’t … didn’t understand anything about the materials needed to renovate a house. I know everything there is to know, having worked in this dump since I left school.’

  ‘Don’t you like it here?’

  ‘It’s a job, isn’t it? Pay isn’t bad. Almost makes it worth having to put up with creepy jaws.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘AJ. The boss.’ She froze, then looked around the office. ‘Shit, he could have cameras in here.’

  ‘I doubt that.’ All the same, Lottie scanned the room too, glad she was blocking the computer, as it seemed to be the only thing that might be filming them.

  ‘He’s a bit of a perv,’ Tanya whispered. ‘You know I once—’

  ‘Let’s get back to you and Jack Gallagher. Did you contact him yesterday?’

  More twirling of the stud before she said, ‘I did.’

  ‘And did you meet him?’

  ‘I did.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘He walked up the canal line. I met him under the bridge. I’d taken a late lunch break.’

  ‘He wasn’t driving?’ Lottie asked.

  ‘Not then.’

  ‘But later on he was, is that what you mean?’

  ‘Yeah. He went back to his mother-in-law’s house to fetch his van and then he picked me up after work.’

  ‘What time was that?’

  ‘Four thirty.’

  ‘And where did you go?’

  She shrank her neck into her shoulders and dropped her eyes. ‘Around.’

  ‘Come on, Tanya. I haven’t all day.’

  ‘We drove out to his house. He wanted to show it to me. I’d never seen it.’

  ‘He brought you to the scene of his wife’s murder?’ Lottie gasped, appalled.

  ‘What’s wrong with that? Gee, the man’s grieving. It was his way of dealing with it.’

  ‘And did he bring you inside the house?’

  Tanya shook her head. ‘He wanted to, but there was crime-scene tape and guards at the wall. He parked down the road and we just sat in the car. We could see the house from there. We talked. That’s all.’

  ‘What time did you leave there?’

  ‘I don’t know. He dropped me back here so I could get my car. Said he had to put his little girl to bed.’

  That was a lie. ‘Did he drive by Quality Electrical, where he works?’

  She shook her head emphatically. ‘Not when I was with him. But he drove by the house in Bardstown where he was supposed to be working when Isabel was killed.’

  ‘Why did he bring you there?’

  ‘He said that if he’d had access to the site Monday morning, then he’d have an airtight alibi and you wouldn’t be thinking he killed his wife.’

  ‘Did you stay long at that location?’

  ‘A few minutes. Couldn’t see much of the house with the hoarding around it.’

  Damn, Lottie thought, that was the sighting the farmer had had of Jack’s van. Did that rule him in or out? Or was Tanya complicit in his actions?

  ‘Did either of you get out of the van and enter the site?’

  ‘No, like I said, he wanted to show me his own house. Bit weird, I know, but it seemed to calm him down.’

  Lottie felt her head swim. She didn’t know what to make of this development. ‘How long have you been having this affair?’

  ‘I told you, it’s not an affair.’ A flash of temper lit up Tanya’s eyes. Lottie wondered if the young woman could have been consumed with jealousy and decided to get rid of Jack’s wife herself. It wasn’t outside the realms of possibility. Or maybe she helped him cover his tracks.

  ‘The relationship, then. How long?’

  ‘Maybe nine months or so. He seemed to be unable to fathom Isabel out after she got pregnant. So he said.’

  ‘Where were you on Monday morning from seven a.m.?
’

  Tanya’s mouth hung open. ‘You can’t be serious!’

  ‘I only asked you to account for your time on Monday morning.’

  ‘You think … God, I’ve heard it all now. It’s true what they say.’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘You try to pin things on people. Force things to fit where they don’t.’

  ‘Monday morning, Tanya. Where were you?’

  ‘I could refuse to answer.’

  ‘I could arrest you for impeding a murder investigation.’

  Turning up the corner of her mouth, Tanya nodded. ‘I met Jack for ten minutes before he went into work, and I was here for my shift at seven fifteen. Creepy jaws can show you the timesheets. Happy now?’

  ‘I’ll ask Mr Lennon for them. Thank you.’ It pained Lottie to be nice, but she had a job to do. ‘Where did you meet Jack on Monday morning?’

  ‘Pulled up in a lay-by, talked through the windows. Didn’t even get out of our cars. Happy?’

  She wasn’t, as there was no way to prove it. ‘Do you know Joyce Breslin?’

  ‘The woman who’s missing with her son? I know of her.’

  ‘And how is that?’

  ‘She was in here one day and there was a bit of a scene.’

  ‘A scene? Explain.’

  Tanya sighed, and was silent, as if debating whether she should tell or not.

  ‘Come on, Tanya, I haven’t all day.’

  ‘I suppose you’ll hear eventually anyway. You see, Isabel somehow found out that Jack was messaging me. She marched in here, brazen as you like. I was on the paint counter that day. I actually thought she was going to hit me with a can, she was that mad.’

  ‘But she didn’t?’

  ‘No, she just mouthed off stuff about Jack being her man and I could fuck off and all that. I was so embarrassed.’

  Lottie contained the urge to roll her eyes.

  ‘Then this other woman comes up and starts talking to her. I heard Isabel call her Joyce, and when I saw her on the news, I knew it was the same woman.’