Page 17

‘It might have been about six months ago. After Christmas maybe. Think she met him in a pub.’

‘Okay.’ That tallied with what Hayes had said. Kirby tried to straighten his back, but the soft cushions had him trapped. ‘Now, we want to ask you about your mother’s belongings.’

Martina took his cue. ‘Noel, in all the photos I’ve seen of your mother, she’s wearing jewellery – stud earrings, bracelet, a silver cross on a chain. They weren’t on her when she was found. We haven’t located her phone either. Do you think the jewellery or phone could be here somewhere?’

‘What good will it do anyhow?’

‘Her phone might have tracked her movements.’

He shook his head. ‘She always had her phone with her and I haven’t seen it here. But she wore that jewellery constantly. Why would it be missing?’

‘We don’t know yet.’ Kirby didn’t want to say Noel’s mother had been stripped naked and even her stud earrings had been removed from her ears. ‘When you came home from work on Friday, were there any signs she’d left in a hurry?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Maybe a cup of tea left on the table? An upturned chair? Clothes dragged from her wardrobe?’

‘She didn’t even bring her jacket or handbag. Doesn’t that tell you she left in a hurry?’

‘Where is her handbag now?’ Martina asked.

‘In the kitchen. Will I get it?’

‘Did you move it?’

‘Of course I moved it. It was in the middle of the…’ Noel paused, tugged at his ear lobe again. ‘Look, it was on the hall floor. Like she had put it down for some reason and then went off without it.’

He left the room, followed by Martina.

Kirby rubbed his back, took in the sad little room. Its sparseness and old furniture was a mirror of Robert’s room. He felt a deep sorrow for Edie, a woman he’d never known. It was like she’d done her best for her boys but had somehow put herself in danger.

When they returned, Martina held a black, possibly fake-leather handbag in her gloved hands. ‘We will have to send SOCOs in. Just to see if there’s anything amiss. And Noel, we need your fingerprints and DNA.’

‘Yeah, well surprise, surprise, that will be all over the house.’

Kirby didn’t enlighten Noel that he wanted to see if his DNA and fingerprints were all over the area where his mother was found.

What had happened to Edie Butler on Friday evening? And where had she been until her body was discovered almost three days later? He scratched his head, unable to fathom it. He really missed having Lottie Parker around.

12

‘So what did you make of him?’ Martina asked Kirby as she put Edie’s handbag into an evidence bag and locked it in the boot.

Kirby leaned against the car, inhaling the freshly lit stub of a cigar. ‘He never shed a tear while we were there with him.’

‘Neither did Robert. Are all the men in Edie’s life cold and heartless?’

‘That’s a very hasty observation to make, but thing is, I agree with you in regard to Robert. There’s something we’re missing. As for Noel, he’s in a state of shock.’

Martina thought for a moment. ‘He’s a mechanic, isn’t he? So why is he so bloody clean? I mean, I like clean, but he had been at work this morning before the news broke. There wasn’t a speck of grease or oil on him. Even his nails were spotless. The grooves around his nails and whorls of his fingers would have some trace, wouldn’t they?’

‘I get it, but he probably had a shower before we arrived. He may just be very conscientious about his appearance.’

‘Or he was washing away all traces of murdering his mother.’

‘God Almighty, Brennan, you are leaping so far in the air on this your name should be Mondo Duplantis.’

‘Who?’