No Safe Place(Detective Lottie Parker #4)(107)

‘Fuck off, devil woman. Talking evil in my house. I won’t have it.’

The doorbell chimed.

‘I’ll get it,’ Boyd said, and escaped.

He returned a few seconds later followed by Keelan and a little girl.

‘Hey, Dad, what’s going on?’

‘I’m not your dad! What do you want?’

Lottie noticed Keelan shrinking back and her daughter cowering behind her legs.

‘I’m … I’m looking for Cillian.’

‘He’s not here. You can bugger off.’

Lottie interjected. ‘Sit down, Keelan.’ The woman was so scared, she might as well have had the word FEAR written in bold letters on her face.

‘I’ll just let Saoirse play in the living room.’

When she returned, she sat at the end of the table.

Lottie said, ‘Donal, this is serious. Please tell us what happened this day ten years ago.’

The lids of his watery eyes rose slightly before he looked down at his hands and shook his head.

‘It was bad. Evil. My girl brought a curse on this family. Cavorting with the likes of them, living in caravans with their spells and curses. Can you imagine how my poor Maura would have felt if she’d found out about it? Devastated she’d have been.’

‘Was Lynn planning on telling her mother?’ Lottie said.

‘She told Cillian. He was always her favourite. She never got on with Finn. Think the lad was mighty jealous of his brother. But that’s beside the point. Cillian knew she intended to tell all that day, it being Valentine’s, and she’d planned to meet the tinker fellow.’ He paused as if the word caused his mouth to dry up. ‘I was just in from work when the boys sat me down. She stood there.’ He pointed to the dresser. ‘Stood there like a hussy and told me she was pregnant.’

‘Where was your wife?’

‘She was still at work. We worked hard for our kids. Day and night. And that’s how the girl repaid us. Slut. That’s what she was. A fucking slut.’

‘There’s no need to speak ill of your daughter like that.’ Keelan hugged her arms to her chest, her features incredulous.

‘Please continue, Donal,’ Lottie said. She didn’t want him to clam up, or they might never find out what had happened; might never find Grace and Mollie. That is, if they were linked at all.

Donal eyed her before continuing. ‘You’ve no idea what it was like. I nearly died, right where I was sitting. That’s the kind of shock it was. But when she said who she’d been whoring around with, I lost it. Jumped up and hit her smack in the face. She fell back and Cillian caught her. He started shouting at me, and Finn stood there with his mouth open like the big eejit he was and always will be.’

‘And then?’

‘And then I stormed out of the house. Went to the pub. Must have drunk ten pints, and when I got home, there was no Lynn.’

‘What had happened? What did your sons say?’

‘Cillian said Lynn had run off. He told me he’d driven round to the site, where that yoke lived, but she wasn’t there and the tinker hadn’t a clue.’

‘And did you believe him, that she’d run off?’

‘What else could I believe? That he’d killed her and hidden her body? That’s what I believed for the last ten years. That’s why I never mentioned the McWard fellow. There was enough disgrace hanging like a noose around my family without that.’

‘And your wife. What did you tell Maura?’

‘Finn told her that Lynn never came home. And that’s what we stuck to. That’s the story we told all those years. He covered up for Cillian, like brothers do.’

‘But Lynn wasn’t dead. Where was she?’

‘I’ve no idea. I convinced myself she was dead since that day, and now she is.’

‘Where’s Cillian now?’ Lottie turned to Keelan.

‘I don’t know. He was out half the night. Like he is most of the time.’ Keelan paused, struggling to get the words out. ‘We had another blazing row this morning and he stormed off. But he said something that frightened me.’

‘What did he say?’

‘He told me I was a jealous bitch. Then he said that jealousy took his sister from him and got her killed, and if I didn’t shut up, he’d kill me.’

‘Any idea where he goes at night?’ Boyd asked.

Lottie glanced at his anxious face, etched with concern for his sister. ‘Keelan, do you know where he might have kept Lynn hidden all these years? Where he might be keeping Mollie Hunter and possibly Grace Boyd?’

‘Oh God. You don’t think … He couldn’t. Not Cillian.’ Keelan stood up, her hands pulling at her hair.

‘Please think,’ Lottie said. She turned to Donal. ‘Is there anywhere your sons went to when they were younger? Someplace no one would think of looking?’

‘All the houses beside us are empty, ten if not eleven years. Maura wouldn’t let us move in case Lynn came home and couldn’t find us.’

‘Okay. I want you to come to the station. We’ll organise a search.’

‘I’m going nowhere,’ Donal said.

‘Mr O’Donnell, you’ve been complicit in covering up a crime. You’re coming with us.’