The Lost Child (Detective Lottie Parker #3)(79)

‘I’ll see what Lynch found out about the data on Marian’s hard drive.’

‘No need,’ he said. ‘I’ve looked through it myself. Nothing of interest. Don’t waste your time.’

‘It’s my job, whether you like it or not.’

‘I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but you’re out of line, Inspector. Be careful whose toes you step on.’

She would have slammed the door on him if there had actually been one there to slam.





Seventy





Lynch was tying and untying her ponytail, wrapping her hair around her fingers.

‘You look stressed,’ Lottie said.

‘A bit. I’ve spent all morning trying to piece together what Marian was working on. But it’s like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle with nothing only blue sky.’

‘At least it’s not a black cloudy one,’ Boyd said.

Two pairs of eyes scowled at him.

‘Right, I’ll check with Kirby to see where he’s at,’ he said.

‘He should be following up with the land registry to see if Tessa had any more property. Will you get on to the HSE and find out if they have any records relating to St Declan’s in the seventies?’

‘What has that got to do with anything?’

‘Boyd, can you do what you’re asked without questioning it?’

‘I can and I will, but I’d like to know why. Okay, okay. I’m going.’ He left the office muttering to himself.

‘You were saying.’ Lottie pulled her chair over beside Lynch, conscious of McMahon sitting in what should be her office. He had a good view of them but hopefully he couldn’t hear them.

Lynch pointed to the printout. ‘It’s all to do with the course she was studying. I didn’t discover anything relating to drugs. Unless you count pages and pages about herbs and plants.’

‘I found a herbal book on her bedside cabinet. Wait a minute.’ Lottie rushed over to her desk and picked up the book. The outer jacket was torn and discoloured, the pages inside faded.

‘Awfully small print,’ Lynch said.

Lottie sat down again. ‘Culpeper’s Complete Herbal. She might have had an interest in this field. Any word on the haul from the coal bunker?’

‘Hypericum perforatum.’

‘What?

‘St John’s Wort. It’s a medicinal plant. Used to be sold for treating depression. Off the market now.’

Lottie ran her finger along the index and found St John’s Wort. Highlighted in pencil. Interesting.

‘By growing the plants in the bunker, Marian might’ve been trying to recreate its natural habitat – shady woods. Says here it is used for the treatment of melancholy and madness. I could do with some of that treatment.’ She closed the book. ‘What else on the transcript?’

‘It looks like she was attempting a family tree. We only have her Word documents. It’d be great if we could retrieve her internet history.’

‘Can we get access to her emails?’

‘I can check it out, if you think it’s of any use.’

‘Be good to know who, if anyone, she was in contact with. How far had she got with the family tree?’

‘Not far at all. She had Arthur’s family mapped out, linking into her marriage with him, and then down to Emma.’

‘And we still have no idea where he is,’ Lottie said. ‘On her own side, what did she have?’

‘Not a lot,’ Lynch said. ‘Parents – Tessa and Timothy Ball. But wait for this.’

Lottie glanced at the page Lynch was holding. ‘I haven’t got all day.’

‘She wrote a name, in brackets, beside Tessa’s. It is O’Dowd.’

‘What?’ Lottie took the page and read, scrunching her brow in a frown. Was it there because Marian had found out that Tessa had had an affair with Mick O’Dowd? Or were Tessa and Mick related somehow. Cousins? Brother and sister? Wouldn’t locals have known? Maybe it explained why Emma had fled to O’Dowd’s farmhouse. Or did it? ‘This is very confusing. Any other theories?’

‘Nope.’

‘You’re a font of information today, Lynch.’

‘That’s why I’ve been tearing my hair out.’

‘Keep going through it. Something might turn up.’

‘Right, but I don’t think it’s going to help us solve who killed Tessa and her family. If you ask me…’

‘Go on.’

‘I tend to agree with Inspector McMahon’s viewpoint: this is a drugs feud.’

Sure you do, Lottie thought. ‘We have to explore all avenues. Leave him and his cronies to follow up with his drug buddies, and we’ll do our side of things. Understood?’

Wheeling her chair back to her desk, Lottie realised she was beginning to sound a lot like Superintendent Corrigan.



* * *



The email icon flashed on her computer. She clicked open Emma Russell’s post-mortem preliminary report. Scanning through the document, her eyes zeroed in on the cause of death.

‘Boyd!’

‘You don’t have to shout, I’m just across from you.’

‘Cause of death… asphyxia due to aspiration of fluid in the lungs. Emma was drowned. And Jane found lacerations consistent with her spectacles being smashed into her face. Also a contusion on the back of her skull. Unable to determine if this was from a fall or from being hit with an as-yet-unknown implement.’