No Safe Place(Detective Lottie Parker #4)(77)

‘A very long meal, including alcohol from what I can smell.’

‘Chloe, there’s no need for that.’

‘I think there’s every need. You’ve been drinking. Jesus, have we to go through all this again?’

‘Please. I only had the one glass.’ Why was she explaining? But she knew her drinking had caused her children suffering in the past. Dear God, she didn’t want to go back there again.

‘Drinking with Boyd?’ Chloe curled up her lip. ‘And I thought he was nice. Just shows what I know.’

‘It’s nothing to do with him.’ Lottie let her arms fall limply by her sides. Nothing good could come of sleeping with Boyd. The fire was a warning. Leave him alone, she told herself, or you’ll succeed in dragging him down to your level. She had no idea how to explain things to her seventeen-year-old daughter, so she didn’t even try.

She said, ‘I have to work again in the morning, but ring me any time you want to talk. Please.’

Chloe pulled the duvet to her chin and eyed her. ‘So how was Boyd in bed?’

‘Goodnight, Chloe.’ Lottie switched off the light.



* * *



He had left the light on. His ‘treat’. Then he’d sat on the small wooden chair, staring at her. She had no idea how long he stayed there before he rose and slowly traced a line down her body with his finger. She shuddered and cringed, but he had tied her down and she couldn’t fight back.

She must have passed out, because when she awoke, he was gone and she was untied. The light was still on and the first thing her eyes focused on were the bones. Laid out on the bench in the form of a skeleton. Fear obstructed her throat and congested her lungs.

Finding the bottle of water and the sandwich he’d left for her, she wondered if she should ration them in case he didn’t come back. But he would be back. She knew that as surely as she knew the bones on the bench were human. She knew it from the pain he’d left between her legs. Bile swirled in her stomach.

Closing her eyes, she sucked in a deep breath of stagnant air. When she opened them again, she scanned her surroundings. Then she noticed something she hadn’t spotted before. Paintings. Tiny watercolours. Pinned to the wall behind her.

She got up from the bed and gingerly tested the floor with her bare feet. It was cold to the touch. She felt weak from being cooped up. Two steps and she was beside the wall where they hung, faded and grey. Screwing up her eyes, she tried to make out the initials in the corner of one of them. But they were smudged. Even the subject matter was hard to decipher. Once more her eyes were drawn downwards to the bones that had haunted her all day.

Bones that were so small they could only belong to a baby.





Day Four





Saturday 13 February 2016





Sixty-Seven





The fire trucks were lined up on the main road and traffic was being diverted. Lottie walked onto the site. The smell of smoke and soot choked the air. Lynch and Garda Gilly O’Donoghue had replaced Boyd and Kirby. Lynch looked worse than yesterday. Lottie was glad she didn’t have to face Boyd. The vodka she’d downed after her confrontation with Chloe was lodged in the pit of her stomach. The pill hadn’t helped either. No, she didn’t want to see Boyd.

She looked up to find Paddy McWard running at her like a bull at a matador. Tears streamed down his face, smeared by his blackened hands.

‘This is your fault. Your fucking fault, you pigs.’

‘Mr McWard, Paddy, I’m sorry …’ Lottie reached out to him but he swiped her hand away. He’d been nowhere to be found last night. How the hell had he accessed the site?

He kept ranting. ‘Don’t you dare say you’re sorry. Don’t even begin to talk to me. Pigs poking around brings nothing but trouble. My wife and my son. Dead. Mark my words, you’ll pay for this.’ He spat at Lottie’s feet, then turned swiftly and stormed back to the smouldering remains of his home.

She couldn’t bring herself to move until she felt a hand on her arm. Boyd.

‘I thought you’d gone home?’ She buried her chin in the collar of her jacket and her hands deep in her pockets.

‘Couldn’t sleep. Decided I’d be better employed back here.’ He dropped his hand.

Had he sidestepped away from her? Shit, her imagination was in overdrive. She turned her attention to the SOCOs. McGlynn and his team were moving about at the periphery of the site, waiting for the fire chief to give them the go-ahead.

‘What in God’s name happened here, Boyd?’ she said.

‘Revenge? For something Paddy was involved in?’

‘Or for Bridie talking to us?’

‘But she didn’t tell us anything that could point us to Elizabeth’s killer, and the body was found by accident. Don’t go blaming yourself for this.’

‘A mother and baby. Burned to death in their own home. I can’t get my head around it.’

‘Don’t even try until we have all the facts.’

‘She was only a kid herself.’ Lottie found herself thinking of Katie and Louis and the text she’d got earlier from her daughter, full of the joys.

The fire chief eventually gave the SOCOs the nod, and they began their work.

‘Is Jane Dore on the way?’ Lottie asked McGlynn.