Irish Secrets

by Paula Martin

  She posed for him, smiling coyly under her lashes, and he laughed as he handed the phone back to her. "Send it to me, will you?"

  She clicked her phone a couple of times. "Done. Do you want to check you've got it?"

  "I'll check later. At the moment, I have the real Kara here with me."

  He reached across the table to squeeze her hand, and was tempted to tell her who he was. But he couldn't risk it, not when they were so near to cracking this case.

  * * * * *

  At six o'clock on Sunday evening, he returned to his usual hiding place in the bushes, prepared to sit it out until, hopefully, someone arrived to pick up the loot. He'd brought a long baguette stuffed with chicken mayo to stave off the hunger pangs, and a couple of bottles of water. He also had his waterproofed sleeping bag in case he had to spend the night here.

  The plan had been worked out during the long call with Enya, which came about an hour after he dropped Kara off at the house that afternoon.

  As soon as anyone arrived at the cottage, he would hit a fast dial number to Clifden Garda station where Martin Stevenson, the District Superintendent, would be on standby to despatch two cars. One would go to the cottage, via the farm. The other would go to Mist Na Mara House, to pick up Guy Sinclair and take him to the station for questioning.

  "I'm not a hundred percent certain of his involvement in this," he told Enya.

  "You've told me enough to arouse my suspicions," Enya replied. "The cottage is on his land, since he bought it from the Leary farm. He gave the contract for restoration to Conor McBride, who is one of our major suspects; he seems to be on amicable terms with Mick Leary, whom we also suspect, and today you've told me his wife was wearing earrings that bear a strong similarity to the ones stolen from Waterside Hall. Come on, Ryan, he's in it up to his neck and, if necessary, we'll apply for a warrant to search Mist Na Mara for the rest of the jewellery. Once we get both him and whoever turns up at the cottage in for questioning, I'm hoping we can conclude this investigation."

  Now, sitting on a small plastic sheet in the middle of hawthorn shrubs, he wished he shared Enya's confidence. It wasn't yet a done deal, but he let his mind drift. If everything worked out as they hoped, this might be the last night of this assignment, and even the end of undercover work. Promotion was a definite possibility, in which case he might be the co-ordinator of undercover detective operations, instead of doing the tedious hours of investigation and surveillance.

  Meantime, it was going to be a long night.

  * * * * *

  At nine o'clock on Sunday evening, Kara joined Liz and Maria in the staff room for the first episode of the new season on TV of Upton Manor, a late Victorian period drama. She hadn't seen any of the previous seasons, but Liz assured her she would love it.

  "It's triggered a few ideas for our presentations," she said, "and it's interesting seeing all the furniture, costumes, and props. Last season, the lady's maid was brushing the Countess's hair with a brush exactly like the one in our Victorian bedroom."

  "Are Jenna and Amy not joining us?"

  "Amy's having an early night because Olivia Maeve kept them up for a couple of hours last night. She wouldn't settle after her two o'clock feed. And Jenna said earlier she was tired, which isn't surprising as she only has about three weeks to go before her baby's due, so she and Guy have gone up to their room."

  Maria poured glasses of wine for them all, and they settled down to watch the television. To begin with, Kara had no idea who everyone was, or why one of the women had a toddler but no husband.

  Her mind scudded back to Margaret and Jon, and to her unsolved dilemma of what to tell them. The excuse of her mother being on vacation wouldn't last forever, but her heart sank at the thought of telling them the truth about her mother's attitude. Maybe she needed to go to Dublin again, and try to explain how her mom had closed her mind to her past.

  During the first advert break, she turned to Liz. "Everyone seems to accept Lady Mary's son, but weren't the Victorians scandalised by illegitimacy? Like people here in Ireland were in the fifties and sixties."

  "No, the son isn't illegitimate, but Lady Mary's husband—" Liz broke off at the sound of a car outside. "Jaysus, that car's going fast down the road."

  "And there's another," Maria added. "Surely not kids racing down here? Don't they realise they'll end up in a farmyard?" She crossed to the window which overlooked the lane, and pulled open the curtain. "Flashing blue lights. It's the Gardai. They must be going to the farm. Wonder what's happened?"

  Less than thirty seconds later, they all jumped at the sound of heavy banging on the front door.

  "What the—?" Liz leapt up, and Kara and Maria ran after her along the corridor to the hallway. She opened the door to a Garda officer standing outside. Behind him, Kara saw the white car with its yellow strip, and its lights still flashing.

  "I need to speak to Guy Sinclair," the officer said.

  "What's going on?" Liz asked.

  "Nothing for you to worry about, ma'am. Is Guy Sinclair here?"

  "I'll go and fetch him," Maria said.

  As Maria ran up the stairs, Kara peered at the other lights in the distance, which seemed to be near the cottage.

  "What's all this about?" Liz persisted. "Is it something to do with the…"

  She didn't hear the rest of Liz's question when another figure approached.

  "Okay, we've got the one at the cottage," Ryan said to the Garda officer. "No surprise that it's McBride."

  Everything jumped into a weird nightmarish scenario, and she clutched the doorframe as her knees started to tremble. "Ryan, what are you doing here?"

  He looked past her, and she turned to see Guy coming down the stairs. As he reached the door, Ryan stepped forward and flipped open an ID wallet. "Guy Sinclair, I'm arresting you on suspicion of handling stolen goods. You do not need to say anything but it may harm your defence if…"

  Her jaw dropped, and her mind went numb.

  Chapter 22

  The scene in front of Kara's eyes seemed unreal, as if she was watching and hearing everything from a distance. The flashing lights, the Garda officer, Guy – and Ryan.

  "Handling stolen goods?" Guy's forehead creased in a deep frown. "What stolen goods?"

  "Sir, please get in the car," said the officer.

  Guy held up his hand. "Hold on a minute. I need to tell my wife."

  "The car, sir," the officer said again.

  Ryan nodded. "I'm sure one of your staff will inform your wife."

  Guy turned to him. "I don't understand what's happening. Ryan, you're a taxi-driver. Why are you here?" When Ryan held out his ID card again, Guy's eyes widened. "Detective Ryan O'Neill? Bureau of Criminal Investigation? But what am I supposed to have done?"

  "We need you to come to the station."

  "Okay." He turned to Liz. "Tell Jenna not to worry. I'm sure all this can be sorted out quickly."

  "I'll go and tell her what's happened," Maria said.

  As she ran back into the house, Liz looked around at Ryan. "What did you say earlier about Conor? Has he been arrested?"

  "He's been taken to the station for questioning."

  "This is ridiculous," Liz protested. "He said he was going across to Dublin today to pick up some electrical stuff because it was quicker than waiting for them to send it. I'm sure you can easily check that out. No way would Conor get involved with any stolen goods. He's built up a good, reliable, and honest business, and—"

  "We'll be checking everything, of course," Ryan said.

  After Guy climbed into the Garda car, Kara stiffened when Ryan looked at her for the first time.

  "I'm sorry," he said. "There's a lot I need to explain to you, but I have to go to the station now. I'll call you."

  Later, she couldn't remember if she nodded or even showed any reaction before Ryan turned to get in the car. She hadn't been able to organise any cohesive thoughts from the moment he appeared. The world had jolted on its axis, and no explanation
could erase the stomach-turning shock of what had happened. Not only Guy's arrest, although that was bad enough, but the revelation that the man she'd fallen in love with wasn't what he claimed to be. He was a detective, just like the other man who had lied to her.

  Liz squeezed her arm as the car set off down the drive toward the gate, and they went back into the house. "They'll soon realise they've made a mistake, then they'll have to come back here with an apology. Guy and Conor can probably sue them for wrongful arrest."

  Kara shook her head, and the fog began to clear. "I can't believe either of them is involved in anything illegal, but I have a different problem with all of this."

  "You never suspected Ryan was a detective?"

  "Not for one minute. Oh, I knew he was intelligent and knowledgeable, and I did wonder why he seemed to be satisfied with—"

  "Where's Guy?"

  She and Liz both turned at the sound of Jenna's anguished voice. Guy's wife, heavily pregnant at eight months, lurched down the curved staircase, followed by Maria.

  "Jenna, don't worry," Liz said. "They've taken him to the Garda station but—"

  "You mean he's been arrested? I don't understand. What do they say he's done?"

  Kara leapt forward when Jenna stopped a few stairs from the bottom, gripped the banister rail with one hand, and clutched her swollen belly with the other.

  "Jenna, are you okay?"

  Jenna reached the bottom of the stairs and gave a strained smile. "Yes, it was just a twinge, but let's go into the lounge, because I want to know what was said and—oh!" She let out a grunt and her face contorted as she bent forward with another gasp. "Ohhh!"

  "Come and sit down." Kara helped her toward the lounge door, and glanced anxiously at Liz. "Do you think we should call the emergency doctor?"

  * * * * *

  "Where are we going?" Ryan asked when Paul, the Garda officer, turned right instead of left out of the gate.

  "I need to pick up Adam," Paul replied. "Sergeant Byrne's taken the other suspect back to the station, but left Adam to collect all the stolen goods from the cottage."

  "Stolen goods in the cottage?" Guy said from the back seat. "What the hell is going on here?"

  "We'll talk when we get to the station," Ryan said. His gut instinct told him Guy's bewilderment was genuine, but he turned to Paul. "Turn right through the farmyard, and right again across some waste ground. That'll bring you to the cottage door." Ten seconds later, the car's headlights lit up a white van with McBride Construction in large letters on the side.

  "Interesting," he went on, voicing his earlier thoughts when he'd seen the van arriving at the cottage. "He's been driving an unmarked white van for the past month or so. Pull up alongside."

  Adam, the young Garda officer, stood by the cottage door, and Ryan jumped out of the car. "Found everything?"

  "Nothing, except for boxes of electrical cables, sir."

  "That's because it's hidden," he said. "Jaysus, don't they teach you young ones how to do a proper search? Okay, leave it with me. You go back to the station with Paul, and I'll pile all the stuff into one box, and bring my car down here. I parked it on the main road, so it won't take me long."

  "Are you sure, sir?"

  "Of course I'm sure. The Chief is on her way here from Galway, and she'll expect the interviews to be done, and the statements ready and waiting for her."

  After Paul reversed and drove back toward the farm, Ryan turned to the cottage door and switched on his flashlight. There were two boxes on the floor of the main room, which hadn't been there the previous night. A quick inspection showed they were circuit breakers and a fuse board from McKenna's in Dublin. Liz may have been right about Conor going across to Dublin to pick them up, but he was more interested in retrieving the electronic items from the other room.

  The boxes were no longer stacked as he'd left them. Adam had obviously lifted them all down, opened them up, but not bothered to search below the electrical cables.

  He crouched down to open the first one, but stared at the contents. The cables, which last night had been crammed at the top, now barely filled a quarter of the box, with nothing under them.

  "Shite!" he whispered, and tore open the other boxes. Disbelief followed by panic tightened his stomach as he searched under the cables in what he knew was a fruitless attempt to find the laptops, tablets, cameras, and phones.

  Nothing. He'd been wrong to mock the young officer. There was nothing here.

  He rocked back on his heels. "Shite," he breathed again.

  There was no point looking in the van, because Conor hadn't had time to load anything into it before the Garda car arrived. The goods had gone, presumably earlier in the day, and without them as evidence, they couldn't pin anything on Conor McBride or Guy Sinclair.

  His stunned mind latched onto the first thought that jumped into it. Last night, Sinclair had come out here after Kara and Liz reported seeing a flashlight. Had he panicked and removed everything during the day?

  Momentarily ignoring what Enya's reaction would be, his thoughts switched to Kara.

  He couldn't have invented a worse way for her to find out who he was even if he'd tried. The shock in her wide eyes said it all, and she hadn't responded when he spoke directly to her.

  He dragged in a deep breath. First things first. He needed to collect his car, go to the station, and find out what was happening there. Then, either later tonight, or tomorrow morning, he'd call Kara, and hope she'd agree to meet him and give him the chance to explain everything to her.

  He was half way up the lane when the wail of an ambulance siren echoed in the night air. Expecting it to speed past on the main road, he jerked back when it turned into the lane with its headlights full on him, and flattened himself against the hedgerow as it passed him and entered the Mist Na Mara driveway.

  After a second's hesitation, he raced back the way he'd come. They could manage without him at the station for five minutes. He needed to find out what warranted an emergency ambulance here.

  One of the paramedics, in her high-visibility green and yellow gear, stood by the open doors at the back of the vehicle. He showed his ID card and nodded toward the house. "What's happened? An accident?"

  "Seems like a baby's decided to make an appearance before its time," the woman said. "Stand back, sir. Here they are now."

  He turned as Jenna was wheeled out in an ambulance chair by a male paramedic. She looked pale and strained, and her hand was pressed to her stomach.

  "Tell Guy—" she gasped to Liz who rushed out of the house after them. "Someone tell Guy – please—"

  "Of course we will. Do you want me to come with you?"

  "No, no, I'll be all right, so long as Guy—" She winced. "Oh, God, please tell him to hurry."

  Ryan waited while the paramedics settled her in the ambulance, and realised no one had seen him when Liz called out to the group who stood near the door of the house, "Someone call the Garda station and tell them."

  "No need." He turned to the paramedic again. "Stop off at the station, and tell Sergeant Byrne to release Guy Sinclair on bail and let him go to the hospital with his wife." When the woman hesitated, he went on, "Tell him it's an order from Detective Ryan O'Neill."

  "Yes, sir. Okay, Dan, let's go."

  As the ambulance sped down the drive, Liz snapped, "Well, thanks for that. It was the least you could do, since you're the cause of all this."

  He held up his hands. "Look, I can explain—"

  "Explain what?"

  He whipped around at the sound of Kara's harsh and accusing voice. For a split second, his head fought with his heart. He urgently needed to get to the station before Enya arrived, but this was more important.

  "Kara, please listen. You have every right to be angry, but I've been working undercover."

  "And so you lied. Right from when we first met, you've lied to me."

  "I'm sorry. I couldn't tell you. Especially not when I started to suspect stolen goods were being stored in the c
ottage."

  "But you could use me, couldn't you?"

  "Use you?" His blood ran cold. "I haven't used you."

  "No? What about when you asked me about the cottage? Casual conversation, was it? Or gathering evidence? I've no idea what stolen goods you think Guy and Conor are involved with but—oh! Yes, of course, the thefts at Waterside." Her eyes widened. "You even asked Conor about fences and how thieves disposed of the goods they stole, and you asked me to find out more about Conor and his business."

  "I never asked you to find out anything," he said. "Apart from whether Conor was married with six kids, which was for Liz's sake."

  He glanced around, and saw Liz had returned to stand on the doorstep with one of the other staff members. They were probably cursing him to hell and back right now.

  Kara let out a short, ironic laugh. "And, being naïve and gullible, I gave you plenty of other information that you stored away."

  He took a step toward her. "Kara, this wasn't your fault. It was mine, and I'm so sorry. I don't know how to start putting things right."

  In the light from the open doorway, he saw her blue eyes flash with indignation. "Put things right? There's no way you can ever do that. Okay, I understand why you didn't tell me about your undercover work when we first met, but after that – you knew I used to work with the police, you must have realised I'd know how to be discreet."