by Finn Óg
There was silence until they reached the edge of town, turning left and keeping the warm glow to their right.
“Hope you packed your bucket and spade,” Fran’s voice laughed through the speaker. Sure enough, a minute later they passed a sign to a place called Sandpit.
“Is that Fran?” Sinead’s confusion was beginning to upset her. “What is happening?”
Sam gripped her tighter and muted the mic on the phone.
“A lot has happened.”
She sat dazed for a moment, the turned to him with a pleading look. “Tell me.”
Sam hissed out air between his teeth. “I dunno where to start.”
“We’re goannie be on the road a while at this rate,” Min said. “And I wouldn’t mind hearing it meself.”
“Tell me,” Sinead said again.
“Look, long story short, there was a mobile phone and you seem to have picked it up and used it to call me.”
“In the Caribbean,” she said vacantly.
“Did they drug you? Give you pills?”
“No,” she replied, still distant. “It was hers.”
“What?”
“The phone.”
“We don’t need to get into this now. Just rest.”
“It belonged to the woman in the house,” she spoke as if in a dream.
“Clodagh?”
“No. There was another woman.”
Sam could barely hear what she was saying. Her voice was weak, her will all but shattered.
Min leaned over. “Maybe we should close the comm channel completely?”
“Yes,” Sam said.
Min cut the muted line entirely.
Sam turned again to Sinead. “Who was the other woman? Back in that house?”
“She came to the convent. So rude. She ran off but forgot her phone. I took it home. See if Áine could find where to send it.”
“To give it back to her?”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Stupid,” she muttered.
“What?”
He could feel her shaking slightly and held her a little tighter. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter now.”
She was sobbing then, as she spoke, determined. “We thought you were being hunted by the police. In the north. We wanted to contact you, so thought … this phone’s not linked to us so it’s safe.” She snorted in derision with the full benefit of hindsight at the decisions they’d made.
“Look Sinead, that made sense. You couldn’t have known. Now rest. Forget about it for now. You’re safe.”
“Áine!” she said, immediately alarmed.
“She’s fine. She’s fine.”
“What’s happened?” she was gripping his jacket now.
“It doesn’t matter. Everything’s going to be OK.”
“Tell me,” she growled.
Sam sighed. “Someone was able to work out that you used that woman’s phone to call a number in the Caribbean. They got the number you reached me on and then called my friend.”
“Daniel.”
“Yes. He saw it was an international call and handed the phone to me. But none of this is for you to worry about now. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“I wanna know, Sam,” she tugged on his lapel.
“They… they threatened to hurt you if they didn’t get their phone back.”
Sinead stared ahead for a minute. “And you came back,” she said softly.
“I knew they weren’t joking.”
“How?”
“I knew they’d attacked Áine.”
“How?”
Sam shifted uncomfortably. “They sent a picture.”
“Of what?”
Sam shook his head.
“Tell me,” she hissed.
“They took a picture of her – when they beat her.”
Sinead’s head burrowed into his crooked arm. “You’re sure she’s OK?”
Sam turned to Min to fill the gaps. “She’s fine,” he said. “Absolutely fine.”
“And you came back as well,” Sinead said, her head slightly turned.
“Aye,” was all Min had to say.
“You found me,” she said again, trying to push herself upright, painfully but with purpose. “We need to call the Guards. Honestly, Sam, we checked and there’s nobody looking for you. Didn’t we, Min?” she said desperately.
“Yes,” Min conceded, but glanced at his friend.
“What are you not saying,” Sinead began to panic again. “Where is Áine?’
“She is safe, I promise. If he says she’s fine, then she’s fine.” Sam held his hand gently against the side of her face. “Listen, what happened before I left isn’t the reason we can’t call the police. You need to listen to what I’m saying – a lot has happened since then.”
“Ok,” she said quietly, searching his face, seeking reassurance.
He gave up on any plan of keeping his activities to himself. “I had no way to find you, right? So I had to get inside that gang.”
Min cocked his head, curious.
“The people who took you,” Sam said, “they were doing really, really dreadful things.”
“What things?”
“We can talk about this later, honestly.”
“Just bloody tell me.”
“They were getting people to …” Sam hunted for a way to explain, “compromise themselves. And those people – young people – were being forced to pay for the gang’s silence. Online.”
“What?”
“Blackmail,” Min said. “But, for what it’s worth, your sister has managed to put some of that right.”
Sam looked at Min, surprised, then looked at Sinead, who seemed completely lost. There was silence for a few moments as the three of them tried to make sense of the separate strands.
Sinead started to fidget. “If you’re here, who’s with Áine now?”
“She’s at the apartment,” Min said.
“Who’s minding her?”
Min began to look uneasy.
“Sam?” she turned from Min, the distress choking her. “Who’s with Áine?’
“The gang is gone now. They’re gone,” Sam tried to calm her.
“But she’s alone? You left her on her own?”
“There’s nobody left to harm her,” he tried to lower the pitch.
“So she’s safe – she’s ok? You’re sure?”
“Yes. They’re gone, all of them.”
“Gone where?”
Sam paused for a second. Min took his eyes off the road seeking the same answer.
“They died of the virus.”
Min looked sideways at Sam. “Is it clean?”
“They all suffered asphyxiation.”
“Well, how’s that gonnie work?” Min asked.
“The Covid emergency line got a call from the man we had in the back of the van.”
“Aye.”
“Using his own phone.”
“I can remember an hour ago, Sam, aye,” Min hurried the explanation along.
“Well then you know that he told the emergency line that the people in the lock-up had the virus,” Sam struggled to contain his frustration, flicking his head towards Sinead while looking at his mate.”
Min didn’t get the hint. “So?”
“I researched options on the ship on the way over.”
“How?” Min barked, ever suspicious.
“There was a free Google terminal on the ferry.”
“Clear as muck.”
“Covid cases have no post-mortem. They’re body-bagged and burned at the crematorium. It’s as clean as I could make it in the time I had.”
“Very good,” Min said chuckling. “Very good.”
They fell into a thoughtful silence as the van wound its way east, then north, as unsure of its route as each of the people in the cab were of what, exactly, had happened. Eventually Sinead rose from the crook of Sam’s arm.
“What about the women?” she asked.
/> “At the convent?”
“No. Back there. At the house.”
“Well, you’ll need to explain that to me,” Sam said. “Who was the one with the tattoos?”
“That’s the madam. She’s the one who left the phone at the convent. We thought she probably ran some sort of brothel. I think she escaped the gang and came to us, but either changed her mind or they came and took her. They must have traced her phone, even back then.”
“Well, she’s still alive – she’s tied up in the house. But there’s another woman. When I got inside the gang, they told me you were being kept at Clodagh’s house.”
“They told you? Why would they just tell you?”
“They thought I was someone else, sent to help them from England.”
“She’s a dinner lady.”
“What?”
“Clodagh. She was in the convent too. I nearly died when I realised they’d taken me to her house. I can’t fucking believe they did that. I can’t believe she went back.”
“Back where?”
“Back home.”
“She’s part of this gang?” Sam was confused.
“No, she was escaping her husband. She was in the convent at the same time as the madam one – she seemed to hate her. I threw her out.”
“Why?”
“She was doing everyone’s nut. I placed her at a hostel in Rathmines, a women’s refuge. But she hated that I’d asked her to leave. She was really angry.”
“I don’t get it.”
“It’s so fucked up,” Sinead placed her head in her hands. “They kept me in the house to begin with. I only got snippets of what had happened.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Sam said.
Min turned to them. “Wait a minute. There’s two women back in that house while we try tae extract?”
“They’re not gonna call the police, Min.”
“You don’t know that?”
“Hundred percent. There’s a body in the bath back there.”
“What?” Min’s hands wavered on the wheel a little.
“A man?” Sinead asked, turning her face up to him.
“Yeah. Did you not see it?”
“No. But I heard him.”
“I’m not following this.”
“When they took me first, they put me in some photography studio for a few days, then said they’d be moving me. They were worried about something. Some boss was coming to take over, I think. I was put in the back of a car one night and the madam came too. The driver kept me in the car while the madam went up to the door. I couldn’t believe it when I saw Clodagh answer it and start talking to the madam.”
“Did they know each other?”
“I think years ago, maybe. At school or something, that’s what I picked up. Later when I heard them talking in the house. But I thought Clodagh hated her.”
“The madam?”
“Yeah. Back at the convent, she said something that made me think she didn’t like her. I can’t remember what.”
“Why did Clodagh let her in?”
“Why was Clodagh not at a refuge in Rathmines, was what I was thinking.”
“Well?”
“Sometimes they just give in. Go home. It’s pretty common. Bloody maddening. They locked me in the bathroom.”
“Downstairs or upstairs?”
“I never went upstairs. Why?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Sam said.
“I heard Clodagh asking what the hell was it all about and that her husband would be back soon. The madam told her to shut up cos they knew he was away on the rigs.”
“Oil rigs?”
“Dunno.”
“So they just barged in and commandeered her house?”
“Seemed like it.”
“Why her?”
“They’d seen each other at the convent. Then I heard them arguing and the madam told Clodagh that her husband was a dirty bastard.”
“Ah, right,” Min said.
“What?” Sam asked.
“D’ye no’ reckon the madam was telling Clodagh that her husband was a client of hers? That’s probably how she knew where to come. They’d have had him by the balls like everyone else.”
“OK,” Sam said. “Well the husband evidently came home.”
“I heard the madam promising Clodagh they’d sort him. All she needed to do was shut up and leave me stay in a room in the house for a few days. Clodagh hated me anyway. She must have agreed.”
“So where did they keep you?
“In the bathroom. They had me tied to the sink so I could reach… you know.”
Sam and Min stayed silent for a few moments.
“Then something changed,” she said.
“How?” Min asked.
“The madam started to panic. I heard her pacing around. She sometimes had her phone on speaker and it just rang and rang.”
“Someone was calling her?”
“No, I think she was calling someone else. But they weren’t answering. She was getting more and more narky. Clodagh kept saying her husband would be home soon and there would be hell to pay, and the madam kept telling her the men would sort him out.”
“And did they?”
“When was this?” Min interrupted, the clock in his head ticking.
“Don’t know for sure. A day ago, maybe?”
“They’d have had the phone back by then.”
Sam looked over at Min. “But the madam didn’t know that.”
“Cos you’d got in the way.”
“What do you mean?” Sinead looked up.
“Well,” Sam started awkwardly. “If all they needed was the phone and they’d got it back, then they didn’t need you…”
“Alive,” Sinead finished the sentence for him.
Sam said nothing.
“But the madam obviously didn’t know the phone was back.” Min said.
“So they kept me alive? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Maybe,” Sam said, staring straight ahead, a dreadful thought brewing.
Min had questions. “So when did the husband come back?”
“Recently,” Sinead said. “Like, half a day, I’d say. They put me under the house, I thought then about fighting but I was in bits, and she had a bloody shotgun.”
“I saw it,” Sam said.
“So, they put me in that bloody coal hole. I heard shouting above a while later, then a fight and I reckoned Clodagh was getting it from the husband.”
“Other way round,” Sam said, grimly.
“Then it all went quiet. I wasn’t sure if the madam was there anymore.”
“Ok,” Sam said, thinking how quickly the acid had gone to work. “You’ve probably been in the coal-hole for ten hours or less.”
“How can you tell?”
“Well, Clodagh’s husband is dead in the bath.”
“How?” Min asked.
Sam turned to him and shook his head.
“Did you?”
“No,” Sam said, “before I got there.”
“They shot him?” Min said.
“No. Don’t know. But they were breaking him down.”
Min’s face creased. “Melting him?”
“What do you mean?” Sinead looked between the two men.
“Doesn’t matter,” Sam said, rubbing her shoulder.
“Tell me.”
“No.”
Sinead was quiet for a while, then her distress turned to sobbing. “I thought they were going to leave me there to starve to death. But it was even worse than that, wasn’t it?”
“We don’t know that.”
“You said they were melting him. With, like, chemicals?”
“Just forget about that now, we got away, that’s all that matters.”
“But they must have had the chemicals before. They must have had them ready.”
“We’ll need tae ring Fran shortly,” Min said.
“They were going to do that to me, weren’t they?” Sinead said quietly.
>
“Must have been for the husband,” Sam tried.
“It was for me,” Sinead said.
Min tried to shift the talk to the practical. “So we just left two crime scenes with multiple bodies?”
“Yeah,” Sam breathed in, irritated at the trail left behind.
“I think Fran’s gonnie have to lose his lovely van to the crusher.”
Sam closed his eyes. “Yeah.”
“And you’re gonnie have tae skedaddle, sunshine. This is gonnie be a mess.”
“Maybe not,” Sam said. “The body at the house won’t be there for long.”
“And you didn’t touch the body?”
“No.”
“There’s still gonnie be an investigation at some stage, and your DNA is gonnie be all over that house.”
“Maybe not. If there’s no body,” Sam said. He turned to Sinead. “And they didn’t hurt you?”
“No,” she said, rapidly, then looked up at him. “It wasn’t until they put me under the house that I really thought they were going to kill me. I thought they just wanted some muck-filled phone back.”
Sam pulled her in tight, closed his eyes and quietly gave thanks for having her back.
“How’s Isla?” she asked.
Sam smiled. “She’s great. With her granny and grampa. Delighted to see them.”
“So,” she paused, thinking, “you know now that you’re not being chased any more? You’re convinced?”
“I had two good friends help me with that.”
“Two?”
“This man,” he nodded his head sideways, “and the opso – a man we once worked with in the north. Boy called Rob.”
“Ok,” she said distantly.
“Look, sorry, but we need a plan here,” Min interrupted. “There’s other problems as well as all the stuff we’ve left at our arse.”
“Other problems?” Sam asked.
“Áine’s gone and pissed off a few plods, which would be manageable if it wasn’t for everything else. But two people left the apartment in ropey circumstances, and if four people come back, well, that’s gonnie be an issue.”
“So what do we do?”
“I know this is shit, given the circumstances, but we are gonnie have tae split up – and soon.”
“What?” Sinead said, desperation breaking her voice.
“There’s two guards convinced Áine’s breaking the lockdown rules and is wasting police time. You showing up safe and well is one thing – you showing up with him and me is another whole bag o’ hassle. I’m no’ supposed to be here, never mind having travelled to a different country with no good excuse. And you,” he looked at Sam, “have left your—”
