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‘That assumes she knew where Daisy had gone –’ begins Ev.
‘Knew,’ says Stillwell with a heavy look, ‘or just guessed.’
***
Phone interview with Inspector Patrick Halloran, Garda Síochána, Galway
26/07/2024, 3.40 p.m.
On the call, Acting DI G. Quinn
GQ:Inspector Halloran? DI Gareth Quinn, thanks for taking my call.
PH:No problem, happy to help. One of my officers has done some digging for you and we may have something of use. Seems your Miss Madigan definitely did live hereabouts, at least for a while.
GQ:We believe her family were from Galway.
PH:You have it right – her parents, Brenda and Liam Madigan, came from Barna, just up the coast from here, and were living there until late in 2015 when the old boy died. Brenda moved into a care home soon after – she’d have been in her seventies by then and, according to what I have here, was suffering from Alzheimer’s.
GQ:Did they have other children?
PH:Just your Katherine, and it looks like she came along pretty late in the day too. She went to the local High School in Barna, and then University College Cork. After that, it was teacher training, and I guess the rest you know.
GQ:Is her mother still alive?
PH:Afraid not. Passed away in September 2016.
GQ:So have you been able to find out whether Madigan went back to live in Galway after she left the UK?
PH:Now that’s where it gets a bit murky. We’ve been looking – employment records and the like – but we haven’t anything definite for you as yet. Though there is one thing I suspectwillinterest you. Katherine – she had a child.
GQ:Don’t tell me – a daughter.
PH:Spot on. Sabrina Aoife, born July 18th 2007. Katherine was only sixteen at the time, and unmarried, of course, so it must have been quite the scandal. Though she obviously didn’t see a future with the father – his name isn’t even on the birth certificate.
GQ:But she decided to keep the baby? She didn’t feel pressured to give it up?
PH:[laughs grimly]
We hadjustabout moved on from Magdalene Laundries by that time, Inspector. Yes, she kept the baby, but it died. Leukaemia. The wee mite was barely three years old.
GQ:Must have been tough.
PH:I can only imagine. But it did mean, of course, that she had a birth certificate in the child’s name, as well as a PPS number – what you’d call National Insurance on your side of the water. So that when the time came –
GQ:She had everything she needed to give Daisy Mason a whole new identity.
***
And now everyone’s packing up, and none of them have anything to show for it.
‘Quinn just called,’ says Fawley as the three of them walk back to their cars. ‘Kate Madigan took Daisy with her to Dublin on 17th August 2016. She must have kept her hidden for the best part of a month while we were all chasing our tails.’ He frowns. ‘And that’s on me. We never searched Madigan’s home back then, and we should have. None of this would have happened.’
Bradley suppresses a sigh. There but for the grace of God go them all.
Fawley takes a breath. ‘And what wealsoknow now, andshould have found out eight years ago, is that Madigan had a daughter who would have been almost exactly Daisy’s age, but died of leukaemia when she was three. Daisy travelled to Dublin as her – as “Sabrina Madigan”.’
‘I see,’ says Asante slowly. ‘So Madigan replaced a daughter she couldn’t save with one she thought she could? Talk about White Knight Syndrome. I bet Bryan Gow can’t wait to get his hands on that one.’