The Lost Child (Detective Lottie Parker #3)(10)

‘What happened then?’

‘He turned round and glared at me like a wild bear – not that I’ve ever seen a wild bear – then dropped the poker and ran out the back door. I got Marian to a chair. She wasn’t bleeding, just badly bruised. Said she didn’t want a doctor or the guards. Asked me to keep Emma at mine for the night and to call her mother.’

‘And what did you do?’

‘I did as she asked.’

‘And you didn’t report the incident?’

‘Marian told me not to.’

‘You said you thought Marian was depressed. What way did you notice that, besides her not going out for a drink with you?’ If Marian was in fear of an abusive husband, it was understandable that she might retreat into herself, but it didn’t mean she had to be depressed.

‘I’m not sure I should speak ill of the dead…’

‘We have no evidence to suggest Marian is dead.’

‘I mean her mother. Tessa Ball.’

‘What about her?’

‘She was a right nag when she wanted to be. Didn’t agree with the barring order. One of those old-fashioned biddies who believed in “for better, for worse” even when the worse was so bad you had to lock your husband out.’

‘So she was nagging Marian over Arthur?’

Bernie nodded.

‘But she was the person Marian wanted the night she was assaulted?’ Boyd said.

‘I wondered about that. I think Marian had to show her mother just how brutal Arthur could be.’

‘Makes a kind of sense,’ Boyd said, scrunching his eyebrows together.

‘Any other instances of domestic violence in the Russell home that you can recall?’ Lottie asked.

Bernie sighed and looked down at her clasped hands.

‘Is there something you have to share with us?’ Boyd urged. ‘Rest assured everything is confidential.’

‘Yeah, right. Until I read it in the newspaper or online.’

‘You’re here to help us. We need to find Marian,’ he said. ‘To make sure she is safe. Something you say may help us locate her.’

With another sigh, Bernie said, ‘I think Tessa Ball beat Marian too.’

Lottie exchanged a glance with Boyd. ‘Why do you say that?’ she asked.

‘It’s just something Emma told Natasha once. About how it was such an injustice the way the courts treated her dad, when he was like a puppy compared to her granny.’

‘But you have no eyewitness account of Mrs Ball beating Marian?’

‘No. But after what happened last night, I think I can believe it.’

‘You think Marian attacked her mother and left her dead on the kitchen floor?’ Lottie asked.

‘It seems like it from where I’m sitting.’

‘Is there anything else you’d like to add?’ Boyd asked.

‘No. I want to go home now.’ Bernie Kelly picked up an umbrella from the floor and shook it.

‘Of course,’ Lottie said. ‘I’m sending a family liaison officer to stay with you until we find somewhere for Emma.’

Bernie’s cheeks flared red. ‘I’ve told you we don’t need a babysitter.’

‘Emma needs protection until we find her mother.’

‘She says she wants to go home.’

‘That’s not possible. Not at the moment.’

‘She can stay with me as long as she wants. And I don’t want any guards in my house.’

‘And I’ve to do my job. Thanks for coming in.’ Lottie stood up to complete the interview protocol. ‘I’m sorry for leaving you waiting earlier.’

Bernie Kelly stood too. ‘I’d nowhere else to be anyway. Except being at home watching the girls.’





Nine





The garda technical van was still parked on the road outside the Russell house, and spotlights were casting tunnels of yellow light up at the grey-black sky. Jim McGlynn was standing outside the door, instructing his assistant to head upstairs.

‘Hi, Jim. Did you see a teenager hanging round here this morning?’ Detective Maria Lynch asked, holding the umbrella over both of them. ‘I’ve been up at the Kellys’ but there seems to be no one there.’

He ducked away. ‘That thing is dripping all over me. Who is it you’re looking for?’

‘Emma Russell. Granddaughter of the victim. She might have been with a friend.’

‘Ah, yes, saw someone. Around ten o’clock. Wanting to get in. The cheek, like.’

‘Do you know where they went?’

McGlynn said, ‘I was busy trying to finish up here so I didn’t pass any remarks. Is it your job to be minding the young one?’

‘Yes, it is. And I can’t find her,’ Lynch said. A gust of wind took hold of her umbrella, blowing it inside out.

‘Rather you than me, then, having to tell DI Parker you lost her.’ McGlynn chuckled to himself as he hurried inside the house.

‘For fucks sake,’ Lynch said. She was already in Lottie Parker’s bad books – God only knew what for – and now this. She’d wring Emma Russell’s neck when she found her.

And then a terrible thought struck her.