The Boatman's Wife(60)

When she woke, shame swept across her and she burst into tears. She pulled the covers over her head and tried to quieten her sobbing. She didn’t want Noreen or her girls to hear her.

As the tears began to slow, she clenched her jaw. She couldn’t give up. In her heart, she knew she’d never lay her husband to rest unless she did all she could to find his grandmother. She emerged from the bed and reached for her phone. Her mom had left a voicemail when she’d called last night, and she hadn’t listened to it yet.

‘Hi, Lily.’ Her mom’s voice came down the phone. ‘Hope you find what you’re looking for.’ Pause. ‘We’re getting the Coast Guard report any day. Things are real tough here right now. Your father is very low. We need you home, Lily, as soon as you can.’

Her mom’s message enraged her. Lily nearly threw her phone against the wall in frustration. It felt like her parents had ganged up on her.

The other missed call was from her dad, but he’d left no message. It didn’t surprise her. Her dad never left voicemails.

She crawled out of bed, groaning. She was never, ever going to drink again.



Noreen was alone in the kitchen. The girls had already gone to school.

‘What can I get you?’ Noreen asked, looking at Lily a little nervously. ‘Full fry? Scrambled eggs?’

Lily still felt annoyed about Noreen’s refusal to tell her where Rosemary lived the previous day. But she was also starving.

‘Scrambled eggs, please,’ she said, sitting down at the table, scratching her itchy arm.

Noreen gave her a curious look. ‘I didn’t hear you come in,’ she said. ‘Did you have a good night?’

‘Not really.’ Lily grimaced. ‘I went to the pub and drank too much Guinness.’

‘Well, no harm,’ Noreen said, clearly trying to break yesterday’s tension as she mixed a bowl of eggs with a fork.

‘I met some locals,’ Lily said, determined to interrogate Noreen further, despite the fact she was feeling so rough. ‘A guy called Daniel and his brother. I think Daniel knew Connor, but he wouldn’t tell me anything, either.’

Noreen turned around, despite the fact the pan was spitting oil. ‘Would that be Daniel Malone and his brother, Sean?’

‘I don’t know what their second name was. But yeah, his brother was called Sean. Daniel had dark hair, was a bit messy-looking with stubble, and Sean was very big. Thinning hair.’

Noreen chewed her lip, looking very serious indeed. ‘Oh dear,’ she said, turning back to the pan.

After Noreen put down Lily’s breakfast plate, crammed with eggs and toast, she sat opposite her at the kitchen table.

‘I’ve been thinking about it all night,’ Noreen said, frowning. ‘I’m going to tell you why it’s best never to mention the name Connor Fitzgerald around here. Especially to the Malone brothers.’

Lily’s heart leapt in her chest – finally, she was going to find out the truth. But Noreen looked deeply troubled.

‘I’m sorry to tell you this, Lily, because you seem to be a lovely girl, and clearly Connor must have turned his life around when he met you, but…’ Noreen paused, licked her lips and looked nervous.

‘You can tell me,‘ Lily said firmly, putting her knife and fork down. Her appetite had suddenly vanished. ‘The reason I’m here – aside from trying to find Rosemary – is because I got this email. It was warning Connor to never come back here. Threatening to kill him if he did. I need to know what it’s all about.’

‘The name Connor Fitzgerald is not popular around here,’ Noreen told her. ‘He was a bit of a wild teenager, constantly getting into a bit of bother. Rosemary couldn’t control him in the least.’

Lily listened, astonished. The Connor she knew had been extremely law-abiding.

‘I think they were both in their final year at school,’ Noreen continued, ‘so they would have been about seventeen when they started dating – much to the disapproval of the Malone father. According to him, Eve was a diligent, hard-working student until she met Connor. He was a bad influence, distracting her away from her studies by getting her stoned and taking her to late-night raves at the weekend.’

Lily sat in stunned silence. It wasn’t that she hadn’t expected Connor to have girlfriends before her – but he had never, not once in all their time together, mentioned a girl called Eve. She began to feel a bad sense of foreboding. Did she really want to know the rest of the story? But it was too late now.

Noreen ploughed on. ‘I remember seeing them in a gang on the beach drinking cans of beer, and building fires at night-time. There was Eve and Connor of course, then also Eve’s brother, Daniel, the Armstrong boy, and Maggie Leahy.’

Lily tensed with surprise. Daniel had told her a barefaced lie last night. Not only had he known Connor, he had actually been his friend.

‘What did Eve look like?’ Lily found herself asking Noreen.

‘Small and slight, with fair hair.’

The opposite of Lily, who was nearly the same height as Connor and sturdy from all her fishing years.

‘Are you sure you want to hear this?’ Noreen asked, looking shrewdly at Lily’s expression.

Lily nodded. ‘Just tell me everything you know,’ she said.

‘Well, Eve got pregnant.’