Chapter 76

76

‘I want Brenda Morgan in here, and I don't care how much she objects. She's staying at the Joyce Hotel. And I want to talk to Irene Dunbar. Gordon Collins too.' Lottie paced the tiny space behind her desk. ‘Let's work in the incident room, where we can breathe. Get copies of that photo, Garda Lei, and bring them in too. Good work.'

McKeown waved his iPad as he trooped into the incident room behind them.

‘I got Aneta Kobza's financials from Poland. I had the IBAN from the bank statement found among her possessions, so I was able to fudge the truth. They emailed over the full year's statements up to the December before she came to Ireland.'

‘And?'

‘A regular monthly sum was transferred into her account. I converted it. Around a thousand euro a month.'

‘From who?'

‘Don't know. I rang her bank again. The money was sent via a transfer from a London bank.'

Boyd said, ‘Where did it all go? She hadn't much left in the account per the statement.'

‘She must have withdrawn it or spent it,' McKeown said.

‘Did the money continue to hit the account monthly?' Lottie asked.

‘Yes.'

‘How do you know that?'

‘The clerk on the phone checked for me but wouldn't send me up-to-date statements.'

‘It could mean that whoever's sending it didn't know she had moved or that she was missing.'

Boyd said, ‘Unless it's someone with enough foresight to know we'd eventually check and this is their way of feigning innocence in her disappearance.'

‘A disappearance no one reported,' Lottie countered. ‘What about her family? Why wouldn't they report it?'

McKeown said, ‘I'll have to dig a bit further.'

‘We need to go through that mobile phone. Garda Brennan, can you check with Gary upstairs?'

Martina was back within two minutes. ‘Met him on the stairs. He got the phone partially charged. It's Aneta's, and the PIN was 1234, if you can believe that.' She handed Lottie the phone with the charger dangling from it.

‘Okay. Let's have a look.'

Lottie plugged in the phone in case it died, and opened the texts. ‘Only one message on it. Fourteenth of February, to Cuan, telling them she was taking the day off. Nothing before or after. That's odd. Why would she delete them?'

‘So there's nothing to or from her date?' Boyd asked.

‘Not on text anyhow. I'll check her calls… Shit. She either didn't call anyone, or she deleted the log.'

‘Gary can check it,' Boyd said. ‘He should be able to restore deleted stuff.'

‘But I need to know now.' Lottie couldn't help her impatience. Shannon Kenny was still missing, possibly taken by Aneta's abductor and murderer.

She opened Aneta's contact list. ‘She only had two contacts. Cuan, and Ragmullin Estate Agents.'

Boyd leaned his head to one side. ‘I talked to Charlie Lennon earlier. She could find no record of Aneta requesting a viewing of Pine Grove. But she did say they don't log calls unless a request is made.'

‘Damn.'

‘She didn't recognise Aneta from her photo, but it's possible she never visited the office.'

‘Maybe Aneta had the brochure because of John Morgan. She had his photo.'

‘But Morgan wasn't working at Pine Grove back then. He was in rehab.'

‘Aneta worked at Cuan,' Lottie said. ‘Why had she got his photo stashed away? She has no photos on her phone, which is odd for a young woman. She has to have had another phone.' She glanced at the incident board with the images of the three dead people plus Shannon Kenny. ‘See if Aneta was on social media. We need to trawl Shannon's social media too and get access to her phone records via her provider. Kirby, you do that and ask her brother about it. Martina, tell Gary I want Aneta's phone forensically examined for anything deleted and whatever else may be there.'

‘Will do.' Martina took the phone back.

McKeown said, ‘I couldn't find Aneta on any social media platforms. I could go through Shannon's social media. I'd be more up to date than Detective Kirby. I'd know what to look for.'

Kirby bit back his retort, for which Lottie was grateful. She eyeballed McKeown.

‘You have CCTV to finish, plus we need Aneta's Irish bank information. Follow up that warrant. Okay?'

‘Sure,' he said, without sounding even close to sincere. ‘It's a bit odd Aneta has no family contacts listed on her phone.'

‘Yes, it is,' Lottie said. ‘So there must be a second phone.'

Garda Lei said, ‘We went through everything in the suitcase and the box.'

‘Maybe whoever abducted her had her keys and took the phone and anything else that might have incriminated them.'

‘Should we examine her apartment?' Kirby said.

‘It's been totally redecorated. New furniture, too. We're lucky the caretaker hadn't dumped the suitcase and box.'

Garda Thornton, the desk sergeant, put his head around the door. ‘Is no one answering a phone? Brenda Morgan is downstairs. She's spitting fire, I may as well warn you.'

‘Thanks.' Lottie looked at her team. ‘You know what you have to do. We need to find Shannon Kenny too. Please, please get me something.'

She followed Thornton out, hoping they caught a break soon, otherwise she herself might break.