No Safe Place(Detective Lottie Parker #4)(67)

‘He said to talk to you.’

‘Did he now?’ The meddling bastard.

Cynthia was still talking. ‘I want to see if Ragmullin gardaí missed something at the time. Especially now that I’ve discovered that Elizabeth Byrne vanished from a train. Same as Lynn O’Donnell.’

Lottie sighed with relief. At least Cynthia had no inkling about the possible disappearance of Mollie Hunter, also last seen on a train.

‘And then there’s Mollie Hunter,’ Cynthia said with a smile that verged on being sly.

‘For Christ’s sake,’ Lottie exclaimed. ‘For your information, we have no missing person report on Mollie Hunter. You’ve been misinformed.’ She stood up and opened the door.

‘Shut the door for a moment.’

‘What?’

‘I said shut—’

‘I heard you,’ Lottie said, ‘and I think it’s time you left. When the press office has information to share publicly, I will make sure you are included on the email list.’

‘I’m already on the email list. But don’t you think it a bit uncanny that almost exactly ten years after Lynn vanished, suddenly you have the murder of a young woman of similar age, and another missing? All disappeared after getting the evening train from Dublin to Ragmullin. Maybe the killer is back on the trail again. Stalking and killing young women. That could spark panic among commuters. To the detriment of a train station already under threat.’

Closing her eyes, Lottie counted to three and opened them again, hoping Cynthia had scuttled out the door. No such luck.

‘If you start spreading malicious rumours, causing panic in Ragmullin, I will hold you responsible.’

‘I don’t mind causing panic if in the process I help save the life of some other unsuspecting young woman. Do you have anything to add?’

‘About what?’

‘The O’Donnell case?’

‘Listen here, Ms Rhodes, you and I both know that the chances of finding Lynn O’Donnell are virtually non-existent. For all we know, the girl was murdered back then and her body dumped in the Dublin mountains. If that is the case, she’ll never be found, unless by accident. So please don’t go raising the hopes of that poor family when you know there is none.’

‘Anything else?’

‘Get out.’

‘Oh, I’m leaving, but remember, Detective Inspector Parker, your past will catch up with you in the end.’

Lottie stood, open-mouthed. ‘What the hell do you mean by that?’

‘I think you know right well. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’





Fifty-Seven





Lottie pounded into her office and banged the door shut. She kicked off her boots, swung her feet up on the table and opened the Lynn O’Donnell file. As if she hadn’t enough to be doing! Cynthia Rhodes had crawled under her skin and was scratching like vermin trying to suck blood from her veins. She didn’t even know the woman and already she hated her.

Before starting on the file, she rooted around in a drawer for a pill. She needed something to slow down her angry heart. Something to ward off the demons of her past. What had Cynthia meant? Was she referring to the fact that Peter Fitzpatrick, Lottie’s dad, had been a bent guard? Did she think Lottie was the same? Surely not. Or was it to do with her biological mother? But no one knew about her. Did they? She found a pill and swallowed it dry, gagging at the chalky aftertaste. Was she turning into a replica of her addict mother? God, she hoped not.

Her memory of the file’s contents was hazy, the result of a combination of things from last night, including vodka. Shit. She sensed another headache. God help anyone who came in the door.

She focused her eyes on the photograph stapled to the inside cover. Auburn hair, curled around the shoulders. Sky-blue eyes full of life. Lips turned slightly upward in a mischievous smile. Lynn O’Donnell appeared younger than her twenty-five years, and Lottie wondered if it was a photograph taken some time before she vanished.

The file made for sombre reading. The last sighting of the young woman had been on the 5 p.m. Dublin to Ragmullin train. Jimmy Maguire, the station porter, had given a statement saying he came across her after she had disembarked. She had dropped her handbag and he helped her pick up her belongings. After that … nothing. She simply vanished. There were no CCTV cameras around the station ten years ago, and very few in the town, and even after an intensive investigation the gardaí still had nothing to go on. Lottie could see plenty of areas that hadn’t been explored at the time. Things that would be done differently today.

Superintendent Corrigan had written copious amounts of notes at the back of the file. As she scanned them, she remembered the cases of other young women who had disappeared over the years. Some of them had been found. Murdered. But there were still too many unaccounted for. Too many families without answers. Like the O’Donnells.

If there was a remote likelihood that the current cases were linked to Lynn, then Jimmy Maguire would have to be interviewed again. The O’Donnell family members were listed. Maybe she’d have a word with them also.

And as she reached for the phone, an uneasy shiver warned her that Mollie Hunter needed to be found soon.

Before she could lift the phone, it rang.

Jane Dore.