No Safe Place(Detective Lottie Parker #4)(19)

‘I’m Carol. What do you want with me?’ Her voice was timid.

‘You’re not at work today,’ Lottie said without preamble. ‘Where do you work?’ She knew, but she wanted the girl to relax.

‘Rochfort Gardens. Why do you want to know? This is the first day I’ve missed in two years. I don’t think that warrants the council calling the guards.’ She sank down on the armchair opposite Boyd. ‘Are you going to tell me what this is about?’

‘It’s about Elizabeth Byrne,’ Lottie volunteered. ‘You’re her friend?’

‘What if I am? I doubt she’s done anything wrong. She’s above all that.’

‘How do you and Elizabeth get on?’

‘Why do you want to know?’

‘Answer the question,’ Boyd cut in.

‘She lives on the good side of town. But we’ve been friends since school. Her uppity mum doesn’t like it, but tough. Life isn’t all sweet, is it?’

‘No, I don’t suppose it is,’ Lottie said, sniffing the distinct scent of weed in the coldness of the room. She sat down on the sagging couch. ‘When did you last see Elizabeth?’

The girl’s eyes skittered around nervously. ‘I call her Lizzie, by the way. Her mother rang me on Monday night, asking me the same thing. I’d like to know why you’re asking these questions. You’re scaring me.’

‘We don’t mean to scare you. We’re trying to trace Elizabeth’s movements and we need to backtrack to the last time she was seen.’

‘Trace her movements? Is she missing or something?’

‘Something like that.’ Lottie didn’t think the time was right to inform Carol that her friend had been found dead. They needed formal identification first.

Pulling the sides of her dressing gown together, her hands worrying each other, Carol crossed her bare legs at the ankles. Gulping, she said, ‘I saw her on Saturday night. We went to the Last Hurdle. That’s a nightclub. We had a few drinks here first before we went to the pub. Then to the Hurdle. Sorry, I’m messing this all up.’

‘You’re doing fine. Did you meet anyone? Friends?’

Carol looked from one to the other. Deciding what to say? Lottie waited her out.

‘Loads of people were out, but we stuck together. Lizzie didn’t even want to go to the nightclub, but I insisted. I’ve been trying to boost her up ever since that prick Matt dumped her. We were there until maybe two o’clock. I think. Taxi dropped me off first, then Lizzie, because she said she’d pay. I’ve heard nothing from her all week, but that’s not unusual because she works in Dublin and commutes on the train. Long days. Sometimes we go out during the week, but not that much.’

‘No texts or WhatsApp messages? Snapchat?’

‘No. Nothing. Like I said, that’s not unusual.’

‘This boyfriend she had. What do you know about him?’ Lottie folded her arms and stared at Carol.

‘Matt? Couldn’t stand him.’

‘Really? Why?’

‘The way he treated her. Leading her up the garden path, my mum said.’

‘You didn’t think he was ever going to put a ring on her finger, then?’

‘Not in a million years. Lizzie might be a step above me, but Matt was a flight of stairs above her. The minute he got his transfer to Germany, he was out of here like Usain Bolt.’

‘So he’s been gone a while?’

‘Almost a year. Why are you asking about Lizzie? She seemed fine on Saturday night, just a bit drunker than usual. What’s happened?’

‘Do you think she was over her relationship with Matt?’

‘Well and truly over him. She hates him with a vengeance.’

‘And Matt? Know where he might be?’

‘Germany?’ Carol shrugged her shoulders.

‘Anyone else Elizabeth might’ve been interested in?’

‘I’d really like to know what this is about.’ Carol folded her arms and stared defiantly.

‘Answer the question, please.’ Lottie stood up like a military commander conducting a court-martial. Her legs had cramped on the low couch.

Carol appeared to shrink into the folds of her dressing gown. ‘I don’t think there’s anyone in Lizzie’s life. The only place she ever goes is her job in Dublin. Talk to her workmates.’

‘We’ll be interviewing them as soon as possible. So far, we know she was at work on Monday and caught the 17.10 train, but apparently she never arrived home. We need you to think where she might have gone Monday evening, and who she might have been with.’

‘She is missing? Oh God. I honestly have no idea. This is so out of character for her. She doesn’t even go into town without telling her mother. You’d think she was twelve the way that woman keeps a rein on her.’

‘Did she hook up with anyone at the nightclub?’ Boyd asked.

Carol shook her head. ‘No. She wasn’t with anyone. Only me.’

‘Your brothers. Were they out Saturday night? Either of them got their eye on Elizabeth?’

‘You must be joking me. Terry is gay, and Jake is only fourteen.’

Lottie rubbed her hands together, feeling the cold in the room. ‘If you think of anything, will you let us know?’