Chapter 28

TWENTY-EIGHT

The sky on Wednesday morning was more beautiful than Lottie had seen it all week. Though it was dawn, a few golden rays broke through the trees where birds perched. Tiny flies flitted in the half-light. But she could not shed the unease sitting between her shoulder blades.

She picked up the bag holding the seeds she’d gathered from her doorstep last night. Must be about fifty of them, she thought. Did the number mean something? Or was it an indiscriminate figure, meant only to confuse her as she tried to decipher the significance? It was enough to know that her half-sister had been that close to her home, to her children and grandson. She’d left her calling card.

The warmth and comfort of her new home was suddenly distilled into darkness as a shudder of trepidation crawled up her vertebrae. Stop. No way was she letting that woman ruin her new-found happiness. Ghosts had plagued her life for long enough. She was not returning to that monstrous dungeon of despair and uncertainty.

‘Damn you, Bernie,’ she said.

‘What?’

Lottie swung around. ‘Katie! Oh my God, you scared the life out of me.’

‘Sorry, Mam.’ Katie opened the cupboard and extracted a box of cereal.

‘What has you up this early? I didn’t hear Louis wake.’

Katie sat at the table and shoved a handful of cornflakes into her mouth. ‘It’s not Louis.’

‘Don’t talk with your mouth full, and what’s wrong with getting a bowl and spoon?’

Pushing the cereal box across the table, Katie clenched her hands and lowered her chin to her chest without reply.

Dragging out a chair, Lottie sat in front of her eldest child and wrapped her hands around Katie’s. ‘What is it? You can tell me.’

‘It’s okay. It’s nothing.’

‘You’re not pregnant, are you?’ The possibility caused Lottie’s heart to lurch in her chest. No way could she handle that scenario.

Katie looked up from beneath long lashes and smiled. ‘Unless it’s the immaculate conception, I don’t think so.’

Lottie let out a shadow of a sigh. ‘What has you worried then?’

‘It’s nothing. Honestly. Just my mind playing silly games.’ Katie looked away.

Lottie gently turned her daughter’s head and looked into her eyes. ‘It’s something, otherwise you’d still be asleep and not up raiding cornflakes at this hour.’

‘You’ll think I’m crazy.’

‘No, sweetheart, I’m the crazy one in this family.’

‘It’s just this feeling I have. A weird sensation that someone is watching me. Following me.’

Lottie dropped her hand and shifted uneasily on the chair. ‘When? Where?’

‘Don’t rush into detective mode, Mam.’

‘Tell me.’ Lottie spied Louis’ wool jacket on the back of the chair. She picked it up and began to fold it. She needed to be doing something.

‘In town, the other day,’ Katie said. ‘I thought someone was watching as I tried on clothes in Jinx. And then last night, I had this awful feeling that someone was looking in the window. Which is ridiculous seeing as my room is upstairs. It’s probably all my imagination. Hormones or something.’

Or something, Lottie thought. She was going to find Bernie Kelly and string her up from the tallest tree she could find in Ragmullin. This was too much.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said, lacing her voice with as much nonchalance as she could muster. She didn’t want to frighten her daughter, but at the same time she needed her to be wary. ‘It could be hormones, or just the time of year. Halloween coming up and all that. But be careful all the same. Keep a close eye on Louis. And Chloe and Sean.’

She ran her fingers over the soft knitted ribs of the little tan jacket. Maybe she should tell Katie. Warn her. But what good would that do? Terrifying her children wasn’t going to keep Bernie away. After all, she was sure she was after her, not her children. But just in case, she would organise a taxi to ferry Chloe and Sean to and from school every day.

‘Perhaps you should stay in today. Louis has a touch of a cold and it might be best to keep him in an even temperature.’ She placed the jacket on the table.

‘There’s something you’re not telling me, Mam.’

‘Just be watchful. That’s all. I’m investigating two brutal murders of young women not much older than you, so you never know.’ She had already spoken to her daughters about the murders, but they had no recollection of seeing anything untoward on Saturday night at the club.

‘Thanks for the reassurance,’ Katie said.

‘Is that a cynical reply?’

‘No, Mam. Only you do the cynical stuff, along with the crazy stuff.’ Katie stood, and Lottie felt the warmth of her daughter’s arms circle her shoulders in a hug. She smelled Louis on her, and it was calming.

‘Now, get a bowl, spoon and milk. I’ve to go to work.’

Lottie picked up Louis’ jacket to hand it to Katie. As she did so, she heard the tinkle of something hitting the floor. She looked down at the dizzying white tiles. What was it? A small disc, glinting in the half-light shining through the window. Her breath caught in her throat. She recognised the coin. An exact replica of the ones found at the murder scene and in Amy Whyte’s room.

‘What is it, Mam?’

Lottie dropped to her knees to inspect the coin. ‘Katie … where were you yesterday? Who were you with?’

‘You’re scaring me now. What’s that? Did it fall out of Louis’ pocket?’

‘I think so. How did he get it?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Where did you go with him while he was wearing this jacket?’

Katie shrugged. ‘Town. To Granny’s house for a few minutes and the chemist for lemon syrup for Louis. I stopped at Fallon’s for a bowl of soup. Then I came home. That’s all.’

‘And you had Louis in your sight at all times?’

‘Of course I did. What’s this about, Mam?’

‘Are you absolutely sure?’

Lottie saw the colour that had risen in Katie’s cheeks slip slowly away. Her daughter’s eyes were darkening, and not just from the effect of smudged mascara.

‘When?’ she said. ‘When do you think you might not have had your eyes on him?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe when I was trying on clothes on Monday, in Jinx. But the shop assistant, June, she watched him for me. Mam! You’re scaring the shit out of me. What is it? What’s going on?’ Katie dropped to her knees beside Lottie.

She had to defuse this immediately.

‘I think it’s just a cheap home-made disc of some sort. Maybe someone thought it was a euro and put it in his pocket trying to be kind.’ Lottie didn’t believe a word she’d just said. She added, ‘Now get your cereal and let me deal with this.’

‘Is it evidence of some sort?’ Katie got up and fetched a bowl and filled it with cornflakes and milk.

Lottie shook her head slowly. ‘I doubt it. Leave it to me.’

When Katie had left the kitchen, Lottie ran to the counter and unwrapped a pair of plastic gloves from a box in a drawer. Pulling on the gloves, she found a small freezer bag and placed the coin inside. She took it to the window where she had left the bag of seeds and wondered just what the hell was going on.