Page 11 of Hidden Daughters (Detective Lottie Parker #15)

RAGMULLIN

Kirby shook his head and looked at Martina. ‘Some mess, isn’t it?’

He noted the front gate hanging off its rusted hinges, paint peeling with more rust beneath.

The iron bars in the fence were corroded, bent and twisted, some even missing.

He walked up the short cracked-concrete path to find the bottom panel of the PVC door patched up with cardboard.

Might have been kicked in. Recent, he thought.

Robert opened the door and led them straight into what looked like a cramped living room. There was no hallway. With the three of them standing in the space, it seemed even smaller.

‘Welcome to my humble abode,’ he said, picking up two empty wine bottles from the floor beside a chair. ‘Sorry about the mess. I didn’t get a chance to do my recycling yet.’

‘Do you actually recycle or dump them in the river?’ Kirby asked, as if it was an innocent question, though his interest was piqued because of the bottles he’d seen caught in the reeds.

‘Ah, you’re clever. I see what you’re after doing there.

’ Robert walked to the galley kitchen that led off the living room.

From where he stood, inside the front door, Kirby could see into the tiny area.

Something caught his eye, and he made a mental note to find an opportunity to explore it further.

Robert continued, ‘You’re trying to tie me to the body found this morning.’

‘She had a name,’ Martina said. ‘Edie Butler.’

Kirby threw her a look, then concentrated on Hayes. ‘As we explained earlier, we want to talk to you about Edie.’

‘It’s shocking. Will ye sit down?’ Robert pointed to the two hard-backed dining chairs at the table under the window while he settled himself in the only armchair.

It sported faded floral polyester, worn away at the arms, and was situated beside a stove that appeared well past its best too. Ashes lined the floor in front of it.

He looked weary without his chef’s regalia.

He’d untied his hair and it hung loose around his shoulders.

The open collar of his checked shirt revealed a scrawny wrinkled neck.

His trousers were stiff dark-indigo denim, cheap, and on his feet he wore fake Ugg slippers.

Kirby thought Amy had a pair just like them. He recoiled at this comparison.

The room emitted an unusual smell. Not from cooking, nothing stale really, but Kirby couldn’t put his finger on it. Possibly incense of some sort, though he couldn’t see anything like that, no candles or diffusers. He’d ask Martina later.

‘How long had you known Edie Butler?’ he asked.

‘Known her? Or how long did I go out with her?’ Robert’s brown eyes had a glint, and the corner of his mouth turned up as if to say, I know something you don’t .

Kirby sat back on the uncomfortable chair, his buttocks flopping over the edge. ‘Now isn’t the time for playing silly buggers. A woman is dead, a woman you knew, so I’d appreciate it if you could answer the questions in a straightforward manner.’

‘If you asked your questions in such a manner, then I might be able to answer them.’

‘Go on then. When did you first meet Edie Butler?’

‘Might have been sometime around the early to mid eighties.’

‘That’s a long time ago,’ Kirby exclaimed.

‘You do the maths, I can’t be bothered.’

‘Yeah, and you don’t seem particularly bothered about her death.’

‘I was fond of Edie, but she was her own worst enemy. A lovely woman, who drank. A lot. She was probably on one of her binges and fell into the river. Are you sure it’s not a suicide?’

‘Certain.’ Kirby knew he was pre-empting the pathologist’s findings, but Hayes was making his skin crawl just a little bit too much for comfort.

‘May God have mercy on her soul.’ Robert blessed himself.

‘Do you believe this was an accident?’ Kirby probed.

‘Wasn’t it?’ A raised eyebrow.

‘She was badly burned. Looks like she was scalded. Perhaps intentionally.’ He wanted to shock the man but decided he’d said too much. ‘We have to wait for the post-mortem to confirm cause of death.’

The eyebrow dropped as Robert leaned forward, his hands dangling between his legs. ‘Are you saying she was murdered?’

‘It’s early in our investigation. Nothing has been confirmed as yet.’

‘How long was she in the river? I can’t get my head around this at all.’

‘She was reported missing on Saturday afternoon by her son. Last he saw her was Friday morning. He said you called to the house Friday evening looking for her. Why was that?’

‘After we’d been meeting for a few months, she suddenly ghosted me. That was the situation until last week.’

‘What do you mean?’ Kirby hadn’t a clue what the man was on about. He patted his shirt pocket for the reassurance that he had a cigar for later.

‘She didn’t answer my calls or texts. She blocked my number.’

‘Why did she do that?’

‘Why did Edie do anything? She was a complicated soul.’

‘Aren’t we all,’ Kirby said. ‘What did you do when you were, eh, ghosted?’

‘I let her be. You see, Edie has… had a lot of demons, alcohol being only one of them. As I said, I left her alone. But she rang me last week out of the blue. Said she’d love to go out Friday night.

That’s why I called to her house. That idiot son of hers said she wasn’t home.

I thought he was just being pig-headed. He never liked me.

Possessive of his mother, you know. Anyhow, I was in no mood for a row, so I left. ’

‘Tell me when you were actually with Edie last.’

‘Must be a month or more. We went to Rosco’s for a meal and drinks afterwards in Cafferty’s.’

‘Did you speak with her by phone or text after that?’

‘No. She ghosted me, I told you.’

‘Did you have a row that night?’

‘No, everything was grand. We got a taxi and I left her to her door. I was rarely invited in, especially if the Noel lad was home.’

‘Did you ever bring her here?’ Kirby couldn’t imagine a romantic tryst occurring in Robert’s dingy abode. ‘To your home.’

‘No, never.’

‘So it wasn’t a sexual relationship?’

‘It was more… companionship, I suppose you’d call it.’

‘Who kicked your door in?’

Robert’s face darkened. ‘The Noel idiot. Yesterday morning. Shouting and ranting for his mother. He went off with himself when I didn’t answer the door. She wasn’t here anyhow, never has been. And that’s the truth.’

Kirby wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. He tried to think of further questions. ‘Why do you call Noel an idiot?’

‘That boy is too old to be living with his mother, having her wait on him hand and foot. I know I said Edie was a bit soft, but she should have been able to stand up to him.’

‘You never said she was soft.’

‘Well, she was. She was too nice. She liked to take care of people, that was her nature. Because of that, she’d sometimes let them walk all over her. Noel was protective of her, but she did too bloody much for both those boys.’

‘Did you have a run-in with Noel other than the front door yesterday?’

Robert said, ‘He came into my place of work two weeks ago, shouting and roaring to stay away from his mother. It was embarrassing. He wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to tell him I hadn’t seen her. He’s a psycho, so he is.’

Kirby ignored Robert’s slur on Edie’s son. ‘Did he give any reason as to why he was verbally attacking you?’

‘He did not. You better ask him yourself, because I won’t risk going anywhere near him now that his poor mother is dead.’

‘You said earlier that you first met Edie in the eighties. Where was that?’

‘Galway.’

‘You from there?’

‘No. She was, but I was just working there.’

‘What were the circumstances of that meeting?’

‘It isn’t relevant.’

‘Let us determine if it is or not.’

Robert looked uncomfortable. He stood, opened the stove door, then shut it again before sitting back down.

‘It was a long time ago. We were young and foolish. I hadn’t seen her in decades, but then she walked into Danny’s one lunchtime about six months ago and smiled at me, and I felt the time was right for us. Back then, it wasn’t right. But of course, with Edie, no time was ever right.’

Kirby scratched his head. ‘Can you be more specific?’

‘I think I was a little bit in love with her years ago. But she didn’t want to know me. And even when we met up again, she was distant. But I was smitten and ignored the warning signs.’

‘What signs?’

‘I don’t want to speak ill of the dead.’

‘She can’t hear you.’

‘No, but if her son ever got wind of anyone saying a bad word about her, life would not be worth living. Anyway, I had a feeling that she was just using me. For what or why, I don’t know.’

‘Do you think Noel is dangerous?’

‘That’s a mild way of putting it. I think he’s a bloody lunatic.’