No Safe Place(Detective Lottie Parker #4)(84)

The building shook and a window rattled.

‘What the hell …?’

She pierced the wooden blind with her fingers. A train hissed along the tracks. She could see into the carriages as they sped by. It was possible the people on the train could see right back in at her.

Extracting her fingers, she let the wooden slats settle.

‘No diaries.’ Boyd’s voice echoed from the other room.

‘Young people nowadays don’t write in diaries. Everything is on their phones, Facebook and … That reminds me …’ She stood at the door and watched Boyd systematically going through the drawers of the dressing table.

‘Reminds you of what?’

‘Elizabeth and Mollie’s phones. Not a peep from them.’

‘Probably in the bottom of the canal.’ With gloved fingers, Boyd held up a plastic bag with a red thong inside. ‘What is this?’

Lottie shook her head and turned away. ‘Sometimes you disgust me, Boyd.’

‘No, I’m serious. I know it’s a thong. But it doesn’t match any other item of underwear in the drawer. Everything is practical and clean. This is not clean and it’s the only one. And it’s in a plastic bag! If she had underwear for special occasions, don’t you think she’d have more than one, even a matching set?’

Returning to the room, Lottie held out an evidence bag and Boyd dropped the bag with the thong into it.

‘Maybe it isn’t hers,’ she said.

‘If it isn’t hers, why is it here?’

‘We’ll ask her if we find her.’

‘When we find her.’

‘Okay, Mr Positivity. When we find her.’

Inside the front door, a line of hooks held jackets and coats. Lottie went through all the pockets and checked the soles of the shoes and boots.

‘Anything?’ Boyd asked, coming up behind her.

‘Not even a tissue.’

‘That’s what struck me. Her neatness. Everything in order, in its proper place. The only items left unwashed are the cereal bowl and spoon, presumably because she might have been rushing. And the red thong.’

‘Still doesn’t tell us anything,’ Lottie said, then added, ‘But Elizabeth was fastidiously neat too. Two similar personalities?’

‘What did you make of Bridie McWard?’ Boyd asked.

Lottie closed her eyes, recalled the shining table and white leather sofa. ‘She was a neat freak also.’

‘Not like your kids then.’

‘Not like my kids at all. Does it mean anything?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘But I think something links these three women, and we’d better find out what, because it might give us an answer.’

‘Do you think Mollie is dead?’

Lottie shook her head. ‘My anxiety levels are at a status red warning level, but I sincerely hope she isn’t dead.’





Seventy-Three





Lottie placed the evidence bag on the desk.

‘What is that?’ Gilly O’Donoghue said, her eyes widening in shock.

‘You know what it is. Why did Mollie have it?’

Gilly turned up her nose. ‘How would I know what kind of underwear she likes? We’re not that close.’

‘It was the only one. No other similar types of underwear. And it was in that plastic freezer bag. Don’t you think that’s odd?’

Gilly shrugged her shoulders helplessly.

Lottie persisted. ‘Why did she give you the key?’

‘She lives alone. Her family are in London. I believe I’m her only friend.’

‘Did you have any sense that she was in danger? Feared anyone?’

‘No. Not at all.’

‘Then why the need to give you a key? That puzzles me.’ Lottie tapped Mollie’s name into PULSE. It came up blank. ‘She hasn’t even got a parking ticket.’

‘She hasn’t got a car.’

‘When did she give you the key?’

Gilly thought for a moment, brushed her hair behind her ears. ‘We’d been friends a good few months, but I think it was sometime before Christmas. Let me think.’ She screwed her knuckles into her brow. ‘It was mid December. I was pissed at Kirby because he was working on that stakeout thing. Mollie and I went for drinks and on to a nightclub. She asked if I’d hold onto her spare key in case she ever got locked out or I wanted a bed. I didn’t think it odd. I just said, sure.’

‘And she gave it to you that night?’

‘Yes. We shared a taxi. Dropped her off first, then me. Nothing out of the ordinary. A few drinks, a dance and then home.’

‘She had no other friends? No boyfriend?’

Gilly shook her head. ‘Not that I know of.’

‘Did she know Elizabeth Byrne or Bridie McWard?’

‘Sorry, boss, I have no idea.’

‘What did you talk about? When you were out?’

Gilly smiled. ‘Mainly it was just me giving out about Kirby.’

‘That’s an—’ Lottie clamped her mouth shut before her words hurt the young woman in front of her.

‘An odd match?’ Gilly laughed. ‘You were going to say that and you’d be right. He is a lot older than me, but you know what? We click. I like him. And he’s good fun to be with, so I don’t care what people say behind my back.’