‘Of course. We’ll go and join your aunt, Milo.’ They moved away.
‘Milo, I want you to stroll very casually into the library with me, laughing and chatting.’
‘What…?’
‘Just do as I ask, it’s vitally important, maybe a matter of life or death.’ Although overcome with horror, she had exercised supreme self-control, so far managing to keep her cool.
She shut the door firmly and told him what Freddie had said.
‘Oh come on, Noola. Let’s not be ridiculous! Freddie implicated in this whole nightmare. No, it’s just not . . . Oh, dear God, it could explain so much. But we mustn’t jump to conclusions. It’s a dreadful thing to think of anybody.’
‘But he spoke of fits as one of Izzy’s on-going health problems. He could only have been told she had fits by the men who abducted her. They didn’t know she was making it up and nobody else here knows anything about the story. We must do something. And poor Mageen! If he is implicated, however marginally, she’ll be completely devastated. It’ll break her heart.’
‘I think Sean’s still here. I’ll bring him in casually on some pretext. We’ll be breaking our promise to Izzy though.’
‘Strictly speaking Freddie’s spoken about it first, so it’s already been told. But anyhow, in the circumstances, I know she’d give us the go ahead. I’m going back now to sit beside her and Sarah.’
Milo returned very quickly with Sean in tow. They were laughing and talking until Milo closed the door and told him the story. He looked completely shaken and for a few seconds didn’t reply.
‘So maybe we’ve found our informant at last. Oh, Milo! In my job you get the nastiest surprises. I should be immune to it by now but this beats a lot of things I’ve come across yet. It sounds so preposterous but we can’t dismiss it, however unlikely. It’s not that late and he probably won’t be leaving for a while yet. You know which is his room in Trinity?’
‘Yes. It’s on the top floor of one of the blocks overlooking Front Square.’ Milo gave him the full address.
‘I’ll get a couple of detectives over there now to search the room. I don’t like it but we daren’t let it go. Even if they find nothing, the evidence is flimsy but sufficient to take him in for questioning.’
‘To tell you the truth, Sean, if you didn’t, I’d have a go at him myself and I wouldn’t guarantee not to beat him senseless if there was the slightest doubt as to his innocence. I can think of a few others who’d willingly help me too. There have been times in my life when I’ve been angry almost beyond control, but I feel totally outraged at the idea that Freddie, who was welcomed into this family; who wants to marry my much beloved eldest child, who is deeply in love with him; who has wormed his way into all our affections, could somehow be instrumental in this unbelievably evil crime. A crime against a frail, gentle child, who never hurt anyone or anything in her short life. It was a miracle she wasn’t killed – thanks, ironically, to one of the villains. Even worse, Izzy herself likes him. He knows that and could do such a thing to her. Talk about the ultimate betrayal.’
‘I can fully understand how you feel, Milo.’
‘Can you? Can you really? Can you honestly imagine how you’d feel if it was one of your children? I mean it, Sean. I’m ready to kill him if I find there’s the slightest shred of truth in this. I tell you something else. I can guarantee that Noola feels just the same way and would help me. Sorry to rant on at you, Sean, you who, more that anyone else, has done so much to help us. It’s unfair but I’m beyond being rational. If it turns out to be a false alarm then I’ll owe the man a huge mental apology and bitterly regret my lack of belief in him as a decent human being.’
‘Leave it to me, Milo. If there’s anything at all in it, I’ll get it out of him I promise you. In the meantime, use whatever means you can to keep him here for a while. Give my men a chance to sweep his room. He may have been so sure of himself that he hasn’t been too careful. Go back to the party and make a supreme effort to be your usual convivial self, entertaining friends and family.’
While Sean got things moving with unbelievable speed, Milo followed his advice and made his way to join Noola beside the sofa. He put his arm around her and drew her a little aside and whispered.
‘Sean’s getting things going straight away. He wants us to carry on as if there’s nothing untoward and keep Freddie here as long as possible while he searches his room. Interesting, isn’t it? Now we know why evening after evening recently he’s refused to stay overnight, something he’s been only too happy to do until now.’
‘I’m just as upset as you are, Milo, but let’s wait until we’ve some definite evidence. If it’s true then he’s taken the whole lot of us for the biggest bunch of gullible eejits ever. Now let’s try to carry on as though nothing has happened.’
‘You’re an amazing woman, Noola,’
‘You’re still my gorgeous big eejit!’
He managed a weak, reminiscent smile.
‘Okay. Here we go!’
Noola managed to be the perfect hostess, without ever moving any distance from Izzy, while Milo circulated, never letting Freddie out of his line of vision and when at last it looked as if Freddie was getting restless and wanting to leave, he took action.
‘I hope you’re not going to leave us just yet, Freddie. The night’s young and it’s not everyday you become engaged to someone like my beautiful daughter!’
‘Well I mustn’t miss the last bus back into town.’
‘You could stay, you know. We’re not exactly short of space.’
‘Thank you but I must get back. I’m hoping Katie will come over to celebrate with us and there may be a message from her. If there is I must call her. She gets worried if she doesn’t hear from me.’
Entirely plausible, thought Milo.
‘Well don’t worry. If you miss the bus I’ll ask Mickeen to give you a lift.’
‘Thank you but I’ll make sure I get to the stop in time.’
Milo was now ready to read evasion into everything that Freddie said and the young man didn’t seem too happy at the idea of staying late. Strange since it was his engagement party. Then when Freddie was saying his goodbyes, Sean edged Milo back to the library.
‘We’ve got him! The men found a radio receiver locked into a suitcase in his room. All ready for a quick getaway. Ideal spot for a good signal too, up at the top of that building. There was a loaded gun with it which is not all that surprising. We’ve got paper evidence too. It was well hidden but my men don’t miss a thing. They’ll be waiting for him and they’ll be armed. He’ll be arrested. You don’t want us to do that here I’m sure.’
‘Oh, please no, for a whole lot of reasons but especially Mageen. Let the unfortunate girl enjoy the rest of her engagement party. I hate to think what this’ll do to her. Noola and I will have to tell her in the morning. Good thing it’s Saturday and everybody’ll be around to help her through.’
‘I suggest you wait until I come back to you with whatever information we’ve found. We’ll leave him to cool his heels for a while and, when we’ve been through the papers, we’ll question him.’
‘I’m finding it hard to accept the implications of the whole thing. As Noola said, we’ve been such gullible eejits. I’d give a lot to be there when you question him.’
‘I know, Milo, but it would be totally against all the rules. However, we might arrange it that you could overhear some of it without been seen. As far as I can judge he’s totally unsuspecting, but, just in case, I’m having him followed all the way back. I have a couple waiting casually up at the bus stop. They’ll hop on the bus with him. He won’t get away.’
In the end it was remarkably easy. Freddie was still feeling happy after all the champagne and he and Mageen strolled up the drive and waited for the last bus. They joined two others waiting there and when the bus came they kissed goodbye. It was the last time she ever saw him.
Chapter 14
The bus pulled into the terminus at O’C
onnell Bridge. Freddie hopped off with a satisfied smirk on his face. Things had gone well and he was going to be able to regain some lost ground, to get his hands on a lot of Butler money. The fact that people had died in his earlier effort to achieve this didn’t worry him in the slightest. The two plain-clothes detectives, posing as an ordinary looking couple, were close behind him. They pointed him out and he stepped straight into the path of two burly Garda.
‘We’d like you to come with us, Sir.’
‘What?’
‘We’ve got a car across the street and we’d like you to come with us to headquarters.’
‘What the hell are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere with you.’
‘We have a warrant for your arrest, Sir, so please come quietly.’
They showed him the warrant and he tried to make a run for it but they were ready for such a reaction and had him by the arms, hustling him across the street. He was no match for the two strong and determined men, who knew the bones of the story and especially that he might have been the ringleader of the gang that snatched the little girl, but at least was deeply involved. They weren’t too gentle. He was thoroughly frisked then pushed into a cell and left for what was sometimes referred to as “the long wait”, but from his past experience he recognized this as a softening up strategy.
‘I want to know why I’m here and what the charge is.’
‘All in good time, Sir.’
‘I want a solicitor.’
‘Yes, Sir. Have you got one we can send for?’
‘No, but I want one.’
‘A good solicitor will be found for you.’
‘I want one now.’
‘No chance of finding one at this hour, Sir.’
Three hours later, in the small hours of the morning, he was taken to a formal interrogation room where Sean was waiting for him. The Garda pushed him in and took up positions either side of the door.
‘Ah! Sean Flynn,’ he sneered. ‘Perhaps you’d be good enough to tell me what this is all about. I’ve been grabbed in the street and forcibly brought here and I would like to register my complaint in the strongest of terms. I want a solicitor and will be taking legal action against you and your force.’
‘Sit down, Mr Freddie Armstrong, but that’s not your real name is it?’
‘What are you talking about?’ he blustered. ‘You know damn well who I am. We’ve both come from the party celebrating my engagement to Mageen Butler.’
‘I know damn well you’re not Freddie Armstrong, but we’ll leave that for the moment. It’s not the main issue here.’
‘Oh, and what is the main issue?’
‘Your involvement in the abduction of Izzy Butler and holding her to ransom.’
Freddie made a good show of bursting into derisive laughter.
‘Now we’re in what they call the realms of fantasy. You can’t find the ringleaders so you’re clutching at straws. Poor Sean Flynn! Defeated in his search for those at the head of the organization, so he’s conjuring up scapegoats, frightened at having to admit failure. What a joke! What possible grounds do you have for trying to pin anything on me?’
‘You gave yourself away. Isn’t it interesting how those who think they’ve got away with a crime often become careless and make some small slip which betrays them.’
‘What the hell are you talking about?’
Freddie was putting on a good show but Sean, well used to interrogating the guilty, could hear the slight hint of uncertainty creeping into the voice and tiny beads of sweat starting to show in his upper lip.
‘Izzy suffers from dermatitis and other health worries.’
‘That’s no secret.’
‘How did you come to know about that?’
‘Mageen has mentioned it a number of times. I remember references to it by others in the family. In fact her mother spoke about it during the evening.’
‘Saying exactly what?’
Now Freddie was genuinely puzzled.
‘She said how Izzy was much better. I had said I noticed the dermatitis had cleared up and the split lip had healed.’
‘And you mentioned her fits maybe disappearing too?’
‘Yes, and Mrs Butler said she hopes they too will go in time. Look, this is getting more and more ridiculous – talking about a child’s ailments. Where’s it all leading?’
‘How did you know Izzy suffers from fits?’
‘I’ve just told you. These health problems have been talked about openly in the family.’
‘No, Freddie. You see Izzy doesn’t suffer from fits. She made that story up to create sympathy and worry amongst her captors. The only people she told about this were her parents and she swore them to secrecy because the poor kid thought it was a wicked thing to have done. True to their promise they never told another soul.’
The sweat beads grew and he lost some colour.
‘I don’t believe a word of this. You’re making it all up to pin something on me. You’ll have to come up with better than that!’
‘There’s only one way you could have known, Freddie. The abductors must have told you during one of their radio reports from their hideout.’
‘Radio reports! Hideout? More fantasy. Mageen told me.’
‘She couldn’t have, Freddie. Even now she doesn’t know about Izzy’s pretence.’
‘I remember her talking about it. You need a scapegoat and you’re just trying it on to make me confess to something I didn’t do. I know all about this kind of police trickery.’
‘And how would you know that, Freddie?’
‘Everybody knows about it.’
‘Well, how interesting. I suggest you know about it because you’ve been through this kind of thing before.’
‘Rubbish! Trickery!’ The level of the voice was rising, the tone much more aggressive. ‘Your evidence is far too flimsy to be accepted. So I suppose your bully boys, who dragged me here, will try to beat me into a confession of some sort?’
‘We don’t use those tactics but anyhow, even if we did stoop to such methods, in your case we don’t need them. Let’s go into the room next door.’
Laid out on a table and carefully labelled were all the incriminating items which had been found in his room in college. The two detectives who had collected them were standing by and confirmed the source. Further denial was pointless, but he wasn’t giving up that easily.
‘I’ve never seen any of this stuff before. You’ll have to prove these items are mine.’
‘They were all found in your room. We do have a great collection of fingerprints and incriminating documents in your writing. And why would a student at university need a radio transmitter/receiver? One tuned to the wavelength used by the kidnappers. You see we did get their equipment, left with their van at Powerscourt. Denial is a waste of time. You do realize that the contents of this evidence will convict you of responsibility for the deaths of several people and abduction and incarceration of a young, delicate child. We still have the death penalty in Ireland and on the strength of this evidence, not least the kidnapping of Izzy, you will almost certainly be found guilty and condemned to hang by the neck until you’re dead.’
That finally seemed to take all the bravado out of him.
‘I’m not saying any more until I have a solicitor.’
Sean turned to the other men present.
‘Take him back to his cell. There’s no chance of finding a solicitor at this time of the night. We’ll have to wait until the morning and try to find someone willing to take him on.’
The two men left the room. As Freddie followed, Sean, who had more acute hearing than most, distinctly heard him mutter, in what Freddie intended to be under his breath:
‘Bloody kid. Pity they didn’t kill her off.’
Sean smiled to himself, pleased this vile creature realized that, when it came right down to it, he had been beaten by a clever little eleven-year-old girl.
* * * * *
Fortunately everyone had slept lat
e so all were still at home on Saturday morning. Bill and Harry had been for a strenuous row and planned to go into town for the evening. A group of friends were celebrating exam successes together, intending to go dancing. Freddie and Mageen had arranged to meet for a special dinner in a prestigious restaurant. She floated around the house in a dream-like state, not quite sure what to do with herself. Noola and Milo watched in consternation. This evil creature had turned their clever, practical and normally down-to-earth daughter into a totally distracted girl, unable to think or talk about anything else at the moment. Conversations with her were now on one topic only. That morning in the kitchen, where, by tradition, Milo and Noola, and often other members of the family too, had coffee with Kitty and Mickeen, she had taken up this well-worn theme.
‘Oh, Mum, Dad. I love him so much! Isn’t he wonderful? He’s so clever and kind. I’m so glad that you like him. Everyone in the family seems to like him.’
Mageen didn’t seem to notice that her parents’ responses were less than enthusiastic. She had that special glow about her that often characterizes a girl in love; her cheeks flushed, her eyes sparkling. Beautiful at the best of times, she now looked stunning. How she had passed her exams was a mystery to them. They were seriously concerned for her sanity when she was told the truth.
‘You know she won’t believe us, Milo.’
‘I know. That’s why I think it’s so important that it comes from Sean.’
‘It’s a mercy we found out now and not after they were married.’
‘Doesn’t bear thinking about.’
Shortly after midday Sean arrived.
‘It’s basically positive news. With all the evidence we found we’ve actually got enough to convict him. We were hoping to get more out of him but he’s demanded a solicitor before he says anything else, and he’s entitled. In the meantime we’re urgently following all the leads we’ve got so that we’ll have further evidence and, with any luck, catch the whole group. Once a solicitor has been persuaded to take him on we’ll be carrying on with the questioning. In fact I made sure I did the questioning myself. My men all know the story. Some of them helped in searching the mountains and the chemists and heard the way Izzy was treated. I couldn’t have blamed them if they had been quite rough with him. Even now, in their custody, I wonder how he’ll get on. But, in the circumstances, Milo, you won’t be able to listen in I’m afraid.’
The House by the Liffey Page 12
