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‘Yes, but it wouldn’t be any use. She died earlier this year. But she’d stopped working for Kate some time before that. Kate said she was going to teach Sabrina herself.’
‘What was she doing for money, if she was no longer working full-time?’
‘Some online tutoring. But mostly office cleaning. She could do that in the evenings.’
I never thought I’d feel sorry for Kate Madigan, but I do now.
‘Her neighbours seem to think she had a boyfriend. Kate, I mean.’
She smiles. ‘About time too. I used to tell her she needed to get out there, meet someone, but there was always some excuse. Usually to do with Sabrina, of course. Finn was the first person she’d dated in years –’
‘Finn? You met him?’
She nods. ‘By accident. I was shopping and they were coming out of a pizza place. She introduced us – but then again, she didn’t really have much choice.’
‘What can you tell us about him?’
‘Another teacher. Supply, I think. Seemed OK. A bit boring, if you really want to know. He had one of those really loud laughs. You could tell he couldn’t believe his luck that he’d bagged someone like Kate – she waswayout of his league.’
Quinn’s noting all this down. ‘You don’t know anything more about him? Surname? Where he worked?’
‘Sorry, no. And Kate and I weren’t really in touch by then – like I said, she left St Columba’s a while ago.’
‘What did he look like, this Finn?’
She shrugs. ‘About five foot seven. A bit, you know, chunky. But weedy at the same time, if that makes any sense. Wispy beard, brown hair. He didn’t really stand out.’
‘You think they could have met through her work – him being a teacher?’
She shrugs. ‘Maybe. Though I reckon a dating app’s a lot more likely, wouldn’t you?’
‘One more thing – do either Kate or Daisy have pierced ears?’ I see her smile. ‘What?’
‘It’s just that there was such a hoo-hah about it. Kate has pierced ears but she didn’t want Sabrina to have hers done until she was eighteen. But Sabrina being Sabrina –’
I show her the image on my phone. ‘Does this look familiar?’
She frowns. ‘Maybe. Kate usually wore really plain ones like that – she always said big earrings were a bit trashy. I thinkshe gave Sabrina some studs like that too, when she had her ears done. But like I said, I only saw Sabrina the once.’
Five minutes later I’m saying goodbye at the door, while Quinn is by the lift on the phone to Baxter.
I reach to shake Reynolds’s hand and see her hesitating.
‘What is it?’
She makes a rueful face. ‘It may be nothing …’
‘If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all these years doing this job, it’s that when someone starts a sentence that way, it’s almost always “something”.’
A weak smile now. ‘OK. Fair enough.’ She takes a deep breath. ‘It’s about the woman who was tutoring Sabrina.’
‘Oh yes?’
‘And why she’d stopped doing it.’
‘Well, you said she was retired – it must have been quite demanding work for someone her age –’
She shakes her head. ‘That’s not what I meant. Look, I don’t know exactly what happened, but like I said, my gran used to live in that area and my mum still has friends there.’ She sighs. ‘I just picked up some hints that there might have been some trouble, and that was why the whole thing came to a halt. I don’t know what it was,’ she says quickly, seeing my face, ‘but I think it had something to do with Sabrina.’