by Linda Coles
In a low voice, Chrissy said, “Hello little man.” He stared back at her; he was still in his own state of half awake. Should he cry or not? Lorcan stepped in to help him understand. Flynn wriggled in his seat and screwed his face up, threatening tears, and Lorcan soothed him with a hand to his head, stroking gently.
“Let’s get you both inside.” Chrissy stepped from the car as he opened his own door and released Flynn from the booster seat and into his arms. It was then he noticed the small group gathered by the front door as he headed towards the house. Rupert bounded towards him and he quickly ruffled the dog’s head before re- focusing on the group of adults. How much did they know? he wondered. Would he be welcome? How much had Chrissy told them? He hadn’t heard her call anyone, but then he had drifted off when they’d finally hit the road. Adam stepped forward and reached out a hand, and Lorcan shook it heartily, searching the other man’s eyes for confirmation he was welcome. The last thing they’d want would be a wild woman turning up on their own doorstep, making a scene. He shuddered at the memory of only a few hours ago and hoped Tess was miles away someplace. Where? He didn’t much care.
“Hello again. Come on inside,” Adam suggested with a sympathetic smile, leading the way into the living room. “Make yourself comfortable, I’ll go and get your gear.”
Lorcan placed Flynn down on the sofa for a moment and let him settle himself, which he did by lying out flat and closing his eyes again. It wouldn’t be long before he’d be back asleep. He sat himself, closed his own eyes, head back, just for a sweet moment, and let his shoulders fall back down to their normal resting place. He hadn’t realised how far up by his ears they had been, a sure sign of the stress he’d been under. Someone entered the room. Julie. He remembered dancing with her on their first night in the village, and he managed a smile.
“Adam has put your things in the spare room, you’ll be quite comfortable in there. There’s even a travel cot so Flynn will be safe too.” Did she sound a little businesslike, or was that his imagination? Perhaps she didn’t approve of his impromptu overnight stay.
“I’ll be gone first thing, but thanks.”
Julie sat down in a chair opposite and studied the man who had caused so much intrigue of recent.
“You’re mad, aren’t you? At me,” he said.
Julie studied him for a moment before speaking. “Mad isn’t a word I’d choose. Confused, yes.” Her tone was cool, untrusting, and Lorcan knew he’d have to appease her if he wanted her on his side.
“Is this where I say I can explain?”
Rupert sauntered over and flopped down by his feet.
“Why don’t you try me. I’ve never sat opposite a human being that deserted his little boy and ran off before. I’m interested in hearing what could possibly be so important.” The words stung, but he would have thought the same had the roles been reversed. Lorcan fixed his mouth firmly, chewing his lower lip while he contemplated what to say next.
“Leave the man alone, Julie!” Chrissy said as she entered the room with Adam and Richard right behind her. “Lorcan will speak when he’s good and ready, I’m sure. Won’t you, Lorcan?” she asked, eyeing him almost like a matron on a hospital ward in an old movie. He held her gaze for a long moment as everyone sat down.
“I know I owe you all an explanation.”
Julie harrumphed and tucked her legs underneath herself as she did so, turning the other cheek. He carried on: “I can only tell you so much. Not because I don’t want to explain, but if I go into too much detail, there’ll be others at risk, in danger.”
“Others?” Richard asked. Chrissy had kept him out of the loop.
Lorcan took a deep breath in and released it noisily. It was time to start filling in some of the pieces. “Yes. Men mainly, like me. Men that have been victims of domestic abuse, many far worse than my own experience.” Richard raised his eyebrows in surprise, it was not what he’d been expecting to hear.
“So I’m guessing you ran away, escaped?” he asked.
“Flynn and I, yes. I couldn’t leave him with Tess, my wife, I couldn’t trust her not to harm him too.”
Another harrumph from the corner as Julie again looked the other way, unimpressed so far. Richard sent her his best glare, but she’d turned to stare at the opposite side of the room.
“So, who is Ciara then? If Tess is your wife, where does she fit into all this?”
“I don’t think I can say where she fits in, not yet, for her own sake. But I can tell you she’s a therapist, a psychologist. Maybe that will be enough for you.”
“Tell us about what happened that night,” Adam said.
Lorcan again took a deep breath and bowed his head a little, thinking back. After a few beats, he spoke. “I had a phone call, when I was last here. Somehow, she’d got my number. Scared the hell out of me, I can tell you. She said she was on her way, knew about the castle, that I couldn’t escape her. I was terrified, so I called Bronagh, told her we had to move on, and quickly. There was no time to do anything more than grab our clothes and flee. Tess could have been parked up the lane for all I knew.” He gathered his emotions that were threatening to spill over as his voice caught on leaving his child alone, even for a short time.
“Where does Bronagh fit in then?” asked Chrissy.
Lorcan paused while he contemplated his answer without saying too much. “She’s a marvel. She takes care of any children as the need arises; we refer to her as ‘the sitter’. She’s looked after Flynn on many occasions – like when Ciara and I first met you in the pub that night, he was with her.”
That fitted. Chrissy nodded for him to carry on.
“We’d had to travel separately, Flynn and I, to get here. To keep away from the authorities. They’d have been on the lookout for a man and his child so separating us made more sense. Safer. When we had to leave on Monday, Bronagh was to babysit, take him back to hers and we’d sort it from there. I couldn’t risk Tess finding him if she was on my tail, so it was best if we split again, for a while. She was on her way over when…” Lorcan’s voice trailed off as the group filled in the blanks. “But she never reached him that night.”
Julie turned to him, all negative thoughts about his actions visibly gone, tears in her eyes at the revelations so far. She’d obviously no idea how much he’d been through and had jumped to her own conclusions about why he’d abandoned his son. She could never have thought it would be something so frightening and heart-wrenching. He’d never meant for any of it to happen, events had taken hold and he’d had no way of knowing what was going on behind him. Thank goodness Chrissy had found Flynn when she did.
“I had the pleasure of meeting Tess earlier,” Chrissy added sarcastically.
“Tess hated Flynn with a passion. More than she hated me. There was no way either of us could stay.” Shock waves filled the room – how could that be?
“She sounds like a piece of work does Tess. How can a mother hate her son so much?” Julie asked.
Lorcan glanced at Julie as he said, quietly, “Flynn isn’t hers.” All eyes were on him. He could see Chrissy doing the rough maths in her head as she pondered a possible but obvious explanation. Flynn must have been from a previous relationship of Lorcan’s, but still, even that equation has an overlap time. Flynn’s age didn’t stack up right.
“Flynn is— was my sister’s child,” he said. “She passed away six months ago, and I took his care on at her request. I’d have taken him anyway, he’s family, and a lovely boy into the bargain, and I could never have handed him over to the state to look after, never.”
“That explains the hair colour,” said Chrissy. The room sat silently as they each digested what they’d been told. It sounded horrific because it was. There was so much more to understand, but it was getting late. The day had been tough on both Lorcan and young Flynn, who was now sound asleep again.
“I’ve been calling him Flynn for so long, I wonder if I’ll remember to call him by his real name ever again,” he said, watching t
he child sleep beside him. Could he love him any more than he already did?
The room seemed to wait for him to reveal what it had once been, what he’d been christened. As he glanced at Chrissy, it was obvious she was dying to know.
“Blue. He’s called Blue. His mother was a bit of a stargazer at times. She’d wanted to call him Cloud, but settled on Blue, thank goodness,” he said, smiling at the memory. While it had been her decision, Lorcan— Matthew had thought she’d gone mad. Blue it had been.
“It suits him,” Julie offered, her olive branch. “Little boy Blue.”
Adam took charge. “Well I suggest we all go and get a good night’s rest. You’ll be safe here, I’m sure. We can talk more in the morning, figure out what happens next,” he said, stifling a yawn himself. Lorcan nodded, relieved at having said enough to explain the worst of it but not all of it.
Chrissy stood. “I agree. Let’s see how you feel in the morning. I’m sure Sergeant Staines will be here first thing.”
Lorcan just hoped the Guards weren’t going to be too hard on him.
“Come on, I’ll show you to your room.”
Lorcan picked Flynn up, who uttered a tiny whimper as he stirred, and followed Adam to the spare room at the back of the house. There was little point disturbing the sleeping child and so he placed him straight in the travel cot and covered him over with a blanket. He turned back to Adam.
“Thank you.”
“It’s Chrissy that deserves the thanks, not me,” he said warmly and headed to his own room, leaving Lorcan and the child to get some rest.
Chapter 76
Tess had finally calmed down after spending the afternoon being interviewed by the local Guards. She’d been released with a warning to steer clear of her husband, and the English police had been notified of her recent actions. While she was in Ireland, there wasn’t much else they could do. Banging on someone’s door and causing a scene wasn’t worth getting too excited over. No doubt when she returned home, there’d be a knock on her door and a visit from her local police force. She’d deal with that then, with her lawyer present. Until then, she had work to do and that involved tracking Matthew down and making him pay. She doubted he’d have headed back to England, so that meant he was still in Ireland. She just had to figure out where. Nobody walked out on her, not ever. She’d keep control of things, the child and all – he was her bargaining chip. And what was with the name change? Where had Lorcan come from? He was about as Irish as her little finger. She sniggered as she sat in her hotel room and tossed her third vodka back and gazed at the map of Ireland displayed on her iPad in front of her. His car tracker, the one the investigator had planted, showed his vehicle was stationary at the address she’d visited earlier, and hadn’t moved. But she knew he wasn’t anywhere close by; he was smarter than that. The tiny icon pulsed its location, but she’d been back to the property, even though she’d been warned against it by the Guards. It had been in darkness. The curtains all open, she’d peered in and looked at the meagre furnishings with disdain. A rental, with crappy second-hand-shop bits and pieces like you’d find in a halfway house for a criminal out on parole. It had been pitiful, certainly not what he’d been used to in their home together.
She’d provided well for him, and him for her, both with excellent, steady career jobs, but then the boy had come along and spoiled everything. He’d robbed her. She hadn’t asked for him, had had no choice in the matter, and resentment had taken hold early on. No sooner had he entered their lives than she had felt Matthew pull away a little. As the child received more and more of his attention, it seemed there was less available for her and so she’d shown him quite how she’d felt about being second place in his affections. Small at first, almost jokingly, little nips and pinches to get his attention, to make him aware she was still in his life, and that there was more than the little one that needed him. They’d laughed it off early on, neither realising what was happening, how things would then progress.
He’d spilled a mug of tea all over the kitchen floor one evening, right in front of her. He’d said it was an accident, caught the mug handle all wrong and down the whole thing had gone, smashing to the floor. Pieces of ceramic had shot off in all directions, the beige liquid running under the fridge. As he’d bent down to start the clean-up, she’d lashed out with her foot and kicked him in the side of his ribs. He’d yelled out in shock, staggered to his feet and got straight into her face, demanding to know why she’d done it. At last, a reaction, some attention, he’d noticed she was there. But it had only lasted a second or two as he’d yelled at her and she in return had slapped his face, and hard. It had stunned him. The pathetic excuse that was her husband hadn’t the balls to strike her back as she’d egged him on that night. She’d goaded him, begged him to, but he’d simply walked away. And that had been that. The thrill, the adrenaline, the anger even, whatever it had been had lingered a while and she’d enjoyed it immensely, had celebrated it. She’d slept beside him wordlessly, relived it over and over in her mind for the rest of the night.
He never mentioned again.
What a weak man.
The following day he’d gone to work as normal, but she’d noticed the shift in his attitude towards her. The distance he put between them hurt and she despised that even the tiniest spark of attention to herself had all but died. So she’d upped her attempts to make him see her, want her, desire her again, make him understand he couldn’t ignore her. That was where the child had come in handy. Pinching his flabby upper arms had got the reaction she so craved. He’d looked at her and though she knew it wasn’t affection in his eyes, it would do nonetheless. From there it had been easy to keep the attention up and it became almost a daily event to look forward to. But then a nosey neighbour had called the police over the screaming and shouting going on one evening and they’d had to deal with that. No charges were ever brought, because no one figured it was a woman administering the violence. When asked if she wanted to make it official, she’d played the attention game once again and pleaded no, she was just fine. The sympathy she saw in various officers’ eyes was almost better than the attention Matthew afforded her. At least theirs was genuine, the emotion lingering just a little while longer than anything she received from her loving husband.
But like a rogue sheepdog after attacking a lamb, she had a taste for it. Now she wanted more.
She made a call to her private investigator. Matthew had to be found. And soon.
Chapter 77
His instructions had been clear: find him in the next twenty-four hours and there would be an extra ten thousand in it for him. That wasn’t to be sniffed at. It would take the immediate pressure off his own life’s problems, though it wouldn’t stop the avalanche once it started to roll. He’d deal with that when it happened. Sitting at a scuffed desk in a dreary hotel that smelled of cheap pine air freshener, he’d wondered about being moved on by the Guards and had assumed at the time it’d been a concerned neighbour. But since the turn of recent events, it looked more likely he’d been spotted and reported during surveillance, possibly by his target himself and that had been that. It had been embarrassing to say the least though, and Tess had torn into him when he’d called her with the bad news. Since she had already been on her way to the address, driving down from Dublin, she’d told him to leave things to her, that she’d take over and had it in hand. He wondered what had then gone wrong since she’d not long ago called and offered him the extra incentive to get back on the case and be quick about it. While she was a tough bitch to deal with, she paid well and on time, though it was one job he couldn’t wait to see the back of. If she ever called him for help in the future, he’d steer clear. Unless he was desperate again.
He knew the man’s car hadn’t shifted, the tracker he’d deposited still pulsing slowly at the house location, and she’d told him her husband had already fled, the place in darkness, deserted. That left him to wonder how the man had travelled and where he might have gone. Having a child along wi
th him would undoubtedly slow him down, but that could also be a saving grace, a bonus for finding him.
He looked at his watch, time was marching on. With no fresh leads to go on, it was like starting again.
Or was it?
He grabbed his notes and scanned each of the cars he’d noted coming and going, along with the odd delivery service. There hadn’t been many arrivals to the sleepy estate, but with the advantage of hindsight, maybe one of them could have been the husband’s guardian angel, or his co-conspirator? It was worth taking another, closer look. Several cars had left while he’d watched, all likely heading out to work, he figured, and since none had returned during the morning, he’d discounted them all. He’d made a note of the details nonetheless. It was surprising how often something so innocuous could turn into being nocuous later on in a case. He made a call and gave the man at the other end of the line the three vehicle registration plate details he’d recorded. It was a costly service to use, but the case now warranted it with the bonus on offer.
It didn’t take long to run a simple background check and get the results. A local florist, a woman in her twenties and the owner-driver, gave him no reason to investigate further than finding out she lived locally and had been in business for all of two years. He doubted she’d be a likely candidate for smuggling the man and his child off somewhere, though the van aspect interested him. He’d go back to her later. The second was an elderly man, probably too old to still be behind a steering wheel he thought, and likely visiting family. The house he’d stopped at had been a good way further up than his target’s and the old man had stayed for about an hour before leaving. Coffee with a daughter perhaps? That left one more vehicle, an older car with a woman at the wheel. It was registered to a garage, the woman driver not listed as the owner. The address flashed at him like a lighthouse beacon.
