‘Do.’
‘We know Dervla Byrne and Kevin Doran were fostered by Frank Maher and his wife, but did you know that the Mahers also fostered Joyce Breslin? At one stage, all three were there at the same time.’
‘Wow!’ This was news. ‘I’ll need to talk with Maher again. Any link to Isabel or Jack Gallagher in these records?’
His ears grew red. ‘No. Not yet.’
‘Keep looking. Talking of Dylan Foley, anything turn up regarding his key?’
His ears positively pulsed. ‘I asked him for a list of clients he met on Monday and the names of those who attended the late meeting he had before he left for the gym. I have him scared shitless, so he’s emailing the list to me.’
A gust of hot air blew into the office as Kirby shoved in the door and slapped a file on the desk.
‘Forensic report on Jack Gallagher’s van. No evidence that Gallagher held or transported Joyce in the vehicle. It’s packed to the gills with electrical materials, and his boots don’t match the footprint found at his house or those discovered at the pond where Joyce’s body was found.’
‘Any way of checking if the boot print belongs to AJ Lennon?’ McKeown asked.
Lottie said, ‘Lennon is a small man, probably a size nine or ten. Doubt it’s him. But check it out.’ She paced the room, tearing at her arms. She thought about the mice, and shivered again. ‘What’s the motive for killing Isabel and Joyce? Something to do with the smuggling? Or the crime that happened at Castlemain Drive?’
Boyd had come in behind Kirby, and the sound of his voice broke Lottie’s concentration.
He held up a hand for silence. ‘Thanks, Gráinne.’
‘What did she have to say?’ Lottie dared to hope the SOCO had been able to get DNA results.
‘The teddy bear from the house at Castlemain Drive. You were right. She fast-tracked the DNA sample and it’s a match for Evan Breslin. And the blood on the razor blades I found in the scarf is a match for Joyce.’
‘That’s proof that Joyce and Evan were in that house on Castlemain Drive at some stage.’
‘Yeah,’ Boyd said. ‘They must have lived there before she moved in with Nathan.’
‘Well, we can’t ask either of them what happened, but it could be a motive for the current crimes,’ McKeown said.
‘It’s clear that a child died there,’ Boyd said. ‘Forensics are still checking for more evidence.’
Lottie nodded. ‘Okay. The boy’s real father must have lived there too. But he is still an unknown. We need to look at what we know. Jack Gallagher bought a car from Frank Maher via Dervla Byrne. Then Joyce Breslin was in possession of said car. That car was registered to Lugmiran Enterprises, as was the Castlemain house. Anything from CAB or DOCB on finding the names behind Lugmiran?’
McKeown said, ‘Not yet, but I have the revenue office digging into it too. Could be linked to the drug smuggling. By the way, Revenue have been following Jack Gallagher for back taxes for his freelance work.’
Lottie continued to pace, unaware that she was bumping into desks. ‘If a crime occurred in that house while Joyce lived there, she may have told Isabel and that knowledge got them both killed. And Evan is caught in the crossfire. Can his DNA tell us who his father is?’
‘No match to anyone on our system.’
‘So it’s not Jack Gallagher or Nathan Monaghan. What about Kevin Doran or Frank Maher? Did we take their DNA?’
‘Jesus, Lottie,’ Boyd said. ‘Frank is eighty-three.’
‘Get his DNA and fingerprints. Age is no barrier to crime.’
‘Right.’ Boyd made the call. ‘I’ll tell the lab to run Kevin’s DNA too.’
She came to a stop in front of the boards. ‘Anita is Isabel’s mother. It’s unlikely Isabel was ever in foster care, so … Wait a minute. Remember when Kevin was mumbling. He said something that sounded like AJ, but he also said sorry and something else. It could have been Isabel.’
‘I didn’t catch what he said,’ Boyd said.
‘Any update from the hospital? When can we interview him?’
‘He’s in surgery. Head wound and one of the stab wounds are their biggest concern. The rest of the cuts are superficial.’
‘We know Kevin worked at Gallagher’s house. Isabel was murdered the same day Joyce went missing,’ Lottie said. ‘Then Evan was abducted. Come on, lads, talk to me. What does it all mean?’
‘I think you were right when you said they knew something they had to die for,’ McKeown said. ‘But it doesn’t explain why Evan was taken.’
‘We need to find Evan’s father. He either knows what went on in the Castlemain house or he’s responsible for all of this.’
‘Doesn’t bode well for finding the little boy alive when we don’t know who we’re looking for,’ Kirby said.
‘The ray of sun shines again,’ McKeown said.
‘I’ll interview AJ Lennon when he’s brought in,’ Lottie said. ‘Find out what’s keeping them. I’m going down to have a word with Jack Gallagher, and then I’ll talk to Frank Maher again.’
She turned on her heel and shut the door softly, leaned against it, closed her eyes and exhaled. She had to find Evan. Alive.
* * *
Lottie nodded at the guard and pressed the switch to release the cell door. It was cold down in the bowels of the station. She missed her sweater.
‘Am I being released?’ Jack asked half-heartedly, without standing. ‘My daughter. I want to see Holly. My solicitor is working on a complaint against you.’
‘Jack, shut up for a minute. Tell me about the car you bought from Frank Maher.’ She leaned against the wall, the light hurting her eyes.
‘What car?’
She sat beside him on the plastic mattress. ‘You have a daughter. I believe you love her, and that you loved Isabel in some twisted way. I’d like to know what changed between you.’
‘First you ask about a car I know nothing about, and now you want to know about my marriage. Make your mind up.’ He folded his arms but didn’t turn away.
‘I’m racing against the clock to find a four-year-old boy alive. I don’t have the full picture, though I believe whoever killed Isabel and Joyce has taken him. You’ve been our number one suspect, but now I honestly don’t think you did it.’
‘What’s changed your tune?’
She rested her head against the granite wall, feet on the cot, and hugged her knees. She kept her eyes wide open, staring at the side of his head. Now that she suspected Evan’s real father had taken him, it couldn’t be Jack. His DNA was not a match. But was he innocent of everything? What about the car?
‘Tell me what happened to the black Ford Focus you bought via Best Deals from Frank Maher five years ago.’
His muscles twitched, his hands tightening on each other between his knees, and he turned to look at her. ‘Then can I see my daughter?’
‘I’ll see.’
He nodded slowly. ‘There’s nothing to tell really. I hadn’t been working at Quality Electrical very long at the time, and one of the lads, Ciaran Grimes, asked me to answer an advert on Best Deals. So I did.’
‘Bloody hell,’ Lottie said. She’d talked to Ciaran Grimes at the site where Joyce’s body had been found.
‘I met a young woman at a house down by the harbour, handed over the five thousand cash Ciaran had given me and drove it back to him. That’s it. That’s the truth. Can’t say I ever laid eyes on it after that.’
‘Ciaran Grimes asked you to buy the car?’ she asked incredulously.
‘Yep.’
‘Why couldn’t he just go and buy it himself?’
‘I didn’t think about it, just did as I was told.’
‘He might have been muddying the purchase trail.’ She was thinking out loud now. ‘Could Grimes have masterminded all this mayhem? He works for Michael Costello.’ Jumping up from the cot, almost falling over her feet, she headed for the door. ‘Holy shit!
‘What does it mean?’ Gallagher unwound his body and stood
.
‘I don’t know.’ She was totally confused. ‘You ever hear of Lugmiran Enterprises?’
‘Never.’
She paused by the door. ‘Isabel worked for Costello for a time too.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Was there ever anything between them?’
‘You mean an affair? No way. She never really liked him. He treated her like dirt.’
‘Was Isabel ever in care? Fostered?’
He shook his head. ‘I doubt it. You could check with Anita.’
Her mind was tumbling with scenarios. ‘Did you ever see Grimes or Costello with Joyce Breslin?’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t think so, but I was on the road all day and only docked into the yard in the morning and evening. I know you think I had something to do with her murder, but I swear I was with Tanya at that time.’
‘I believe you.’
‘At last.’
‘Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back.’ She pressed the buzzer to be released.
Outside the cell door, her phone rang.
‘Hi, Jane.’
‘I’ve had a quick look at the bones that were brought in from the hill.’
‘Anything to identify who the child was?’ Lottie held her breath, hoping the pathologist might be able to solve that mystery.
Jane continued, her voice low and soft, ‘No but two of the tiny rib bones have marks consistent with knife wounds. Lottie, this child was stabbed.’
72
AJ Lennon was a puddle of sweat when Lottie entered the interview room. He cut a sorry lump behind the table. She felt nothing for him as her body twitched with nervous energy. She sensed she was getting close to unravelling everything, and maybe, just maybe, she could find Evan before it was too late.
‘AJ, I want you to be honest with me. There’s a four-year-old’s life on the line.’
‘I know nothing about him or his abduction.’
She chanced a different tack. ‘People are being murdered, AJ. Did you hear Kevin Doran was attacked this morning? He’s very badly injured?’
‘Kevin?’ Lennon looked like he was about to puke all over the desk. She edged against the wall, just in case.
She forced a nonchalant cadence, though she was buzzing like an electric current had struck her. ‘He mentioned you, you know, before he lost consciousness. Someone caved his head in and stabbed him.’
Lennon’s pallor turned green. ‘You’re lying. I don’t understand. Why would someone attack him? He’s … h-harmless.’ His words were caught in his throat.
‘You know him, then?’
Lennon pursed his lips. Silence.
‘Come on, AJ. A little boy could die. I need to know what you know. How is Kevin involved in all this?’
‘He’s not involved in anything.’
‘Not even your smuggling ring?’
His eyes flashed like steel. ‘I’m not smuggling anything.’
‘Chris Dermody says different.’
‘I don’t know who that is.’
‘Your lorries were smuggling cocaine into the country. You have to know that, because your employee Nathan Monaghan drove them. Across Europe and back to your warehouse.’
Lennon seemed to shrink into the collar of his shirt, jowls wobbling over the cotton. ‘I’m not involved in the day-to-day running of the warehouse. How is Kevin?’
‘It’s your lorries that are involved in the smuggling operation.’
He tugged at the worry hole in his sweater, leaning towards her. ‘I’m so sorry, but none of this is my fault.’
She shook her head and remained silent, watching him squirm. In reality she wanted to leap across the table and wring the truth out of him. Evan’s life depended on speed.
‘Okay, you win,’ he said. ‘Tell me how Kevin is and then I’ll tell you what I know.’
‘You’re in no position to make a deal.’
‘You need to find that little boy, don’t you?’ A dark streak skittered across his eyes, the steel glint morphing into black onyx.
Bastard, she thought. ‘Kevin’s in surgery. When I know more, I’ll tell you.’
He nodded a couple of times, as if he had no choice but to believe her. He hadn’t.
‘Michael Costello was using my lorries for smuggling drugs. I had to turn a blind eye. I had no control; I was at his mercy.’
‘What?’
‘You heard me. He is one mean bastard in every sense.’
‘You are a successful business man reported to be worth millions. Why would you let Costello use you like that?’ She watched the small man shrink smaller, and she knew. ‘What does he have on you, AJ? Why was he blackmailing you? Sexual harassment of your workers? Fraud in your business?’
‘I’m not like that, I swear to God. I pride myself on my morality.’
‘For heaven’s sake, AJ, just tell me.’
‘It was Kevin.’
‘Kevin was smuggling?’
‘No. Kevin … Kevin is my son.’
She hadn’t seen that one coming. The cogs in her brain turned furiously, trying to catch up.
‘Why was Kevin in foster care if he’s your son?’
‘I abandoned him like I abandoned his mother. He was put up for adoption and it didn’t work out. I kept tabs on him as much as I could. Then one day he came to me and told me he’d found out about me, but he wanted nothing from me. Broke my heart.’
‘I don’t understand any of this.’
‘Talk to Anita, though I only told her this week who Kevin is.’
‘Isabel’s mother? Anita Boland?’ She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘Anita is Kevin’s mother too. We were teenagers, kids really. We had no other choice.’
‘Sweet Jesus.’ It dawned on her then. Kevin and Isabel were half-siblings. ‘Did Kevin kill Isabel?’
‘God, no. I think in some part of his brain he believed he was keeping watch over her.’
‘But he lived like a hermit.’ A filthy one at that. ‘How could you allow your own son to live like that?’
‘Kevin had his troubles.’ AJ tapped the side of his head. ‘It’s hard to explain, but …’
‘Go on, please.’
‘I think it’s all down to Michael Costello. He thrives on being in control of everyone. I believe he could have killed Isabel. She worked for him for a time, and he tried to control her until Jack stepped in. I don’t think he ever forgave Jack for that.’
Lottie noticed how AJ was shifting blame, but his words held a hint of truth. ‘How could Costello force you to allow your lorries to be used for drug smuggling?’
‘He found out Kevin was my son. I don’t know how, but he did. Threatened to sell the story to the papers. How I let my son live like a pauper while I wallowed in supposed millions. It wasn’t like that at all. Kevin lived his life the way he did because he wanted to. He was damaged. Poor boy. I let him down terribly.’
You should be ashamed of yourself, she thought, but then who was she to judge?
‘AJ, do you think Costello could be involved in Isabel and Joyce’s murders, and Evan’s abduction?’
‘I wouldn’t put anything past that bastard.’
* * *
Rushing out of the room, Lottie made her way up the stairs two at a time, adrenaline fuelling her steps.
She yelled at Kirby.
‘Bring in Michael Costello and Ciaran Grimes for questioning. Boyd, we have a quick trip to make. Forget about your blasted coat. We won’t be long.’
73
Frank Maher was curled up beside his dog on the floor by the stove. No matter what Lottie or Boyd said, the man refused to move.
‘Leave me alone. Go away.’
The one link they had appeared to stem from Frank Maher’s fostering. She had to ask the question.
‘Was Michael Costello one of the children you fostered?
Frank looked up at her, eyes narrowing as if surprised by the question. ‘Michael was the first child we ever took in. Like a so
n, he was. But he was hard work, poor Michael.’
She’d give him poor Michael if it turned out he was a devious murderer and kidnapper.
‘Was it a formal fostering?’ Michael’s name hadn’t been on Dylan Foley’s list.
‘No. You see, he was my wife’s sister’s kid. She fecked off to England once he was born and left him with us. Died of a drug overdose in Luton five years after that.’
‘And you never registered with the relevant authorities the fact that you were raising someone else’s child?’
‘Why would we? He was family by blood.’
‘Joyce Breslin was one of your foster kids, wasn’t she?’
‘She was.’ The man looked too defeated to argue or lie. ‘Poor little thing was like a lost bird. Michael was intrigued by her. He tried to fix her. They were all lost, and I couldn’t help them find themselves. Michael tried, God love him.’
‘Tell me more.’ She ground her teeth in irritation.
‘Michael was the brightest and smartest child I’d ever met. He grew up to be an intelligent and successful man. Made something of himself and I’m proud of that.’
‘How did he get on with the other children you took in?’
Frank cried out as if in pain and the dog whined. ‘Shush now, Bosco. It’s okay, boy. No one is going to take you away from me.’
‘Mr Maher?’ Boyd said. ‘Please talk to us, sir.’
‘I like respect. Thank you. You see, Michael was very taken with Joyce when she arrived. She was the youngest and the last we took in. He had a place of his own by then and was on his way to building up his business, but he called in to see me regularly. Stayed the odd few nights too.’
‘In what way was he taken with Joyce?’
‘I’d go so far as to say he was in love with her, but I know Michael couldn’t love anyone. Despite all his virtues, he has a hard heart. It pains me to tell you that. But that’s what made his business a success.’
Plus funds from smuggling drugs, Lottie thought.
Frank was almost whispering by now. ‘I think, even though she was young, she was stronger than the others, and he saw her as a challenge … he wanted to break her.’
Little Bones: A totally addictive crime thriller Page 34
