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‘It’s thunderous.’

‘Not the sea.’ She turned around and hurried back across the field towards the dirt track they’d walked from Bryan’s house. ‘I hear sirens.’

She broke into a run.

‘Hey, Lottie, slow down. Whatever it is, it’s nothing to do with you.’

She didn’t answer. Just climbed over the fence and jumped out onto the narrow road with grass and weeds growing along the centre. Shading her eyes, she squinted. Down the hill from the house she saw them. Blue strobe lights, flashing.

‘I have to see for myself.’

He reached her side, breathless. ‘Bryan will know what it’s about. Let’s find him.’

‘You can talk to him. I’m heading down there.’

‘It has to be a good mile away, maybe even more.’

‘What’s there anyhow?’

‘Holiday cottages, I think.’

‘Something bad happened,’ she said. ‘I feel it in my bones.’

‘Someone probably had a heart attack. Or something like that.’

They walked in sync.

‘All those vehicles arrived simultaneously,’ she said. ‘That tells me there’s a death, and not from a heart attack.’

‘All that’s wrong with you is that you’re missing the job and wishing for a murder.’

She looked over at him. ‘I would never wish that on anyone.’ She thought for a moment and grinned. ‘Maybe on McKeown.’

‘You’re evil, Lottie Parker.’

‘I’m honest.’ She paused at a fork on the narrow road. From where they now stood, she couldn’t see the strobe lights or any activity. ‘Go talk to Bryan. I’m heading down to the holiday cottages.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘See if I can help.’

‘Even if it’s something suspicious, it’s not our jurisdiction.’

‘Okay, then I’m just being nosy,’ she said. ‘Find out what you can, and if you want, you can meet me there.’

‘You’re the boss,’ he sighed, repeating his earlier words as he slouched off.

As Lottie walked along the road that sloped downwards, she could feel a knot tightening in the pit of her stomach.

Something awful awaited her at the foot of the hill. She knew it as if she was already there.

19

The wind shifted. It was as if the three cottages commanded stillness. Everything stood inert, while at the same time everything moved. An uncanny phenomenon that Lottie experienced whenever she walked onto a crime scene.

Was this a crime scene? It must be, she thought, holding her hand to her stomach, where her gut emitted warning signals.

Surrounded by trees, the cottages were lined up side by side with a small front lawn bordered by pebbles and stones. Wooden fences separated them. Each had a gate with a cobbled path leading to the door. Two patrol cars and an ambulance were parked out on the narrow road beneath the trees. A uniformed garda in shirtsleeves and a hi-vis vest complete with radio stood guard at the gate, clipboard in hand.