Chapter 21

TWENTY-ONE

The drive back to Ragmullin relaxed Lottie’s brain a little. The rain cleared and a pink sky lit up the horizon as she sped along the motorway. Her phone buzzed and she was tempted to ignore it. The number came up as unknown, but she knew it off by heart now. She tapped the screen to answer and was glad she’d put it on hands-free mode.

‘Lottie? Is that you?’

‘Who do you think it is, Leo? I’m sorry I missed meeting you today, but work got a little hectic.’ She indicated and took the slip road off the motorway. ‘I’ll be back in the office in ten minutes if you want to give me a call then.’

‘No, no. Don’t hang up. This is serious.’

His voice was frantic, and Lottie clutched the steering wheel, her knuckles turning white. ‘What’s happened?’

‘She’s gone. Bernie. She’s disappeared.’

‘What the hell? Leo, what have you done?’

‘Listen up. There’s no point in taking this out on me. What I did, I did for the benefit of us both. But now she’s gone.’

‘Where are you? You sound drunk.’

‘I think she drugged me. My head is in bits. The room’s spinning around me …’

‘Where are you?’

‘The Joyce.’

‘Don’t move. I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

She hung up.

Called Boyd.

And pressed the accelerator to the floor.

‘I can do without this shit right now. What a mess.’ Lottie stormed through the lobby of the Joyce Hotel.

‘Calm down,’ Boyd said. ‘You can’t do anything if you get yourself into a state. Let’s see what the man has to say for himself before you explode.’

Belfield was sitting at the bar, a tumbler of what looked like whiskey in front of him. He turned as Lottie strode towards him. The urge to slap him was greater than the fear of what Bernie Kelly might be up to.

‘How could you?’ she said. ‘Why on earth would you want to take her out of a secure facility?’

‘I’m sorry. I wanted to know the truth.’

‘And you thought you’d get that from a lying, conniving, murderous bitch, did you?’

‘Whatever I thought, I know now that I was wrong.’

Lottie stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets. Safer there. God, she needed a Valium, or a Xanax. A crutch on which to lean all her worries. But she’d ditched her habit. New home, new life, new Lottie. She felt Boyd’s hand on her elbow, steering her towards the stool beside her half-brother.

‘Tell us exactly the sequence of events,’ Boyd said.

As she sat up on the stool, she noticed that Leo had aged since she’d last seen him. He was no longer the fresh-faced NYPD cop. He looked like an old man staring back at her, troubled, with something like physical pain etched on his face.

He gulped a mouthful of whiskey and spoke into the glass. ‘I got her released yesterday. She’s due back this evening. No need to go into the technicalities of how I managed it; safe to say I made a mess of things. She was so endearing and persuasive that I was taken in. I reserved a twin room here. I’m not that much of a fool as to let her have her own space. And then … I woke up and she was gone.’

‘But you texted me this morning. Arranged a meeting for one o’clock today,’ Lottie said, incredulous.

‘I didn’t do that. She must have used my phone.’ He pointed to the device on the bar counter.

‘Check if she sent any other texts or made any calls.’ Lottie felt the shift of urgency in her chest, like a sharp pain. This was serious shit. A woman incarcerated by reason of insanity with the blood of God knew how many on her hands, and now she was free. Double shit.

Leo shook his head. ‘Just the one to you.’

‘Did you check with the manager? The reception staff? Did anyone see her leave?’

‘I did, and they didn’t.’

‘Boyd, get them to go over their security footage.’ Lottie’s voice quivered with panic.

‘But we have no idea when she left,’ Leo said.

‘He’s right,’ Boyd said. ‘She could be anywhere now. What good is an image of her back as she runs out the door?’

‘They have cameras on the street. Check those. For the last twelve hours,’ Lottie said.

‘I have no idea how long I’ve been out,’ Leo said.

‘This is going to cause a shit storm.’ Lottie slammed her fist on the bar, shaking the glass. ‘I have two young women lying dead in the morgue and a full-scale investigation to conduct. I don’t need this.’

She caught Boyd’s eye. He was shaking his head, silently telling her to shut up. He was right. There was nothing to be gained by losing her temper. But she had no idea how to handle this.

‘What will we do?’ she said.

‘What will she do is a better question,’ Leo said.

‘Oh shut up,’ Lottie said. ‘We need to find her. Scratch that. You need to find her!’

The fact that the evil bitch was out and free to roam through her town settled like a black shroud of death on Lottie’s shoulders. She’d sent Leo to search and told him to check in every hour on the hour. They’d made a decision – rightly or wrongly, she wasn’t sure – to keep word of Bernie’s escape between them. For now. As soon as she got her head together, she would think about it. She rang Katie and instructed her to keep the doors locked, and told Rose the same. She hoped Chloe and Sean were safe at school and put a reminder in her phone to pick them up at four.

‘Kirby, please tell me you have good news for me.’ She dropped into a chair in the incident room and stared intently at the detective.

‘We got their computer devices from their parents and McGlynn dropped off both girls’ phones. Tech guys are going through them now. So far there’s nothing to suggest they were targeted online.’

‘And?’

‘And what?’

‘Give me something, Kirby. It’s been a shit day.’

‘Is that my fault as well?’

She jumped up and paced the room, coming to a stop in front of the boards. Someone had pinned up photos of the girls beside their victim photos. She traced a finger over the outline of first Amy’s face, and then Penny’s.

‘Two young women with their lives ahead of them, cut down like meat in an abattoir. Why?’

She leaned her head against the board, thinking. Trying to dispel the image of her evil half-sister on the loose. Hopefully she was somewhere they could find her easily. Maybe she should send out a search team? But this was Leo’s mess. Let him deal with it. Until it went tits-up. She pressed her fingers into the palms of her hands and squeezed her eyes shut. She’d made a mistake, she was sure of it, but she had two murders to solve. They took priority. She just hoped she could keep her family safe.

‘The coins are home-made, according to McGlynn. Edges appear smooth but are rough to touch. There’s no engraving so it’s impossible to trace them,’ Kirby said.

‘Who’s organising interviews?’ Lottie sat down again, facing him.

‘We need more staff, boss.’

‘I’m working on it.’ She made a mental note to follow up with McMahon.

‘I drew up a list. Penny was unemployed, but she did manicures and gel nails, whatever that is, based at her apartment. SOCOs are there now. She might have a customer list.’

‘I doubt her killer has gel nails,’ Lottie said, ‘but I’ll head there and have a look around. What else?’

‘Amy’s colleagues have to be interviewed again. I’ll do that myself.’ Kirby ticked an item on his list.

‘Good. Check your notes and cover anything you missed at the pharmacy last time.’

‘Will do.’

She caught a glance from the detective. ‘What?’

‘Were the victims sexually assaulted?’

‘No evidence to suggest it.’

‘That’s one small mercy in this brutal world we live in.’

She stood and squeezed his shoulder. ‘Keep at it, Kirby. Keep busy. It helps.’

Leaving him scouring a list of people who had to be interviewed, she went to find where Boyd had disappeared to. Anything to keep her mind off Leo Belfield and what he’d done.