Page 12 of Hidden Daughters (Detective Lottie Parker #15)

Kirby lowered the window, lit his cigar and leaned his elbow out into the warm sunshine.

‘What do you make of it all?’ he asked.

Martina let her own window down, fanning away the smoke. ‘He wants us to concentrate on Noel, but it might be a diversion tactic. He could be hiding something.’

‘Got that impression myself.’ He took a long drag, coughed, doused the cigar between two fingers and slipped it into his shirt pocket. ‘Did you notice anything in his kitchen?’

‘Like what? We weren’t in the kitchen.’

‘No, but I could see into it, the place is so small.’

‘Go on.’

‘There were a few stains at the sink, on the tiles. I thought they looked like blood spatter.’

Martina turned to look at him. ‘You’re joking me. I didn’t notice that.’

‘And I thought there was an underlying earthy odour. I know smoking cigars blunts my sense of smell, but…’ He stopped. ‘Shit, Brennan, it could have been from meat. Human? I don’t know, but I should have inspected it while we were there.’

They drove in silence away from the house.

‘He is a chef after all, but do we get a search warrant for his house?’ Martina asked.

Kirby’s racing imagination had calmed a little as he drove. ‘He might have cut up a side of beef to store in his freezer.’

‘His house is so small. I didn’t notice a freezer.’

‘Might be outside in a shed. Does he even have a shed?’

She shook her head. ‘I have no idea.’

‘I didn’t notice any blood or cuts on Edie’s body, but she was partially submerged in the river. I’ll have to think about how to proceed.’

He indicated to turn off Main Street and drove up towards the station.

At the top of the street, Ragmullin Cathedral stood in all its magnificence, imposing its stature on the town.

So much had happened over recent decades to destroy the power that the Church had held over the people, he thought, and he for one wasn’t sorry about that. Others might not think the same.

‘I wish Inspector Parker was here,’ Martina said. ‘She’d know what to do next.’

‘And I don’t?’ Kirby took the turn into the station yard a bit tight, and Martina squealed.

‘I’m sorry for saying that,’ she said. ‘It was disrespectful to you. You’re doing just fine.’

‘Nah, it’s okay. You’re right. I could do with the boss’s guidance.’

‘Don’t fret. You’ll do what you can.’

‘Let’s see when the post-mortem is scheduled and we can take things forward from there.’ He parked but didn’t switch off the engine. ‘Where did Edie work?’

‘In a hair salon in town. Happy Hair.’

He shook his head. ‘Jesus, who comes up with those names? I’d prefer a Happy Meal or a happy hour myself.’

After making a sharp U-turn in the station yard, Kirby drove back out again. ‘I think we need to have a chat with Noel. I want to get a sense of him as a person.’

‘He’s just a kid.’

‘You call twenty-five a kid?’ He caught her eye. ‘You’re not much older than that yourself, Martina, and I’d never class you as a kid.’

‘I know, but still…’

They drove in silence down Bishop Street and around the back of the town to Miller’s Road, which was located close to the greyhound stadium. The Butlers lived in a duplex apartment, one of sixteen nestled behind an open gate and low wall.

‘You sure he’s here?’ Kirby peered over his hands on the steering wheel as he parked the car.

‘He said he wouldn’t be going back to work when he left the station this morning and he’d be at home if we needed him.’

She walked to number 11 and pressed the doorbell while Kirby eyed the carwash down the road.

He wondered if he should get his car cleaned, but then the door opened and he clapped eyes on Noel Butler for the first time.

Tall and lean, with shining shoulder-length black hair, he wore a faded black T-shirt and denim jeans ripped at the knees.

His skin was clear and, like his hair, smooth and clean.

He invited them into the apartment. It didn’t appear to be much larger than Robert Hayes’s house. Snug and cosy was how Kirby would describe it. When they’d settled onto faux-leather armchairs with Noel sitting on the edge of the two-seater couch, Martina took out her notebook.

‘Thanks for seeing us,’ Kirby said. ‘I want to offer my condolence on the death of your mother.’

‘Her murder, you mean.’

‘Edie’s cause of death has not been confirmed as yet, but foul play has to be a contributing factor.’

‘Of course it’s murder. That prick killed her, dumped her body in the river like she was a piece of trash and then walked away.’

‘And who are you referring to?’

‘Her ex-boyfriend. Robert fucking Hayes. He’s a nutter.’ Noel paused. ‘What do you mean by foul play?’

‘Her death is currently classed as suspicious,’ Kirby said. ‘We need to wait for the post-mortem, but …’ He stopped. The brutality of Noel’s mother’s death was not something he liked sharing.

The lad shook his head. ‘Don’t worry about upsetting me. Social media has already described it in gory detail.’

‘That’s all hearsay. I’d advise you to stay off social media for the time being.’

‘Yeah, right.’

‘Is your brother coming home?’

‘Not yet. I told him to stay there until I know more. I’ll have to organise her funeral, won’t I?

I’ve no money saved and I doubt Mam had either.

I’ll have to get a credit union loan. Mam was a hairdresser and I never saw her with much.

’ He paused and picked at a perfectly manicured cuticle.

‘Then again, she was saving a bit to put Jerry through college, that’s if he did well enough to secure a place.

She did her best for us, she was a good mother and I’m going to miss her so much. ’ He sniffed, but no tears fell.

Martina said softly, ‘It might be better if you had someone here with you. We can appoint a family liaison officer.’

‘Don’t want or need one of those. I’m not a child.’

‘I know, but someone being here could help. Have you any other family? Relations?’

Noel scrunched his eyebrows, thinking for a moment. ‘As far as I know, there’s just me and Jerry now.’

‘What about your dad?’

‘He died. When we were little.’ He tugged at his ear lobe and his eyes seemed to have hardened.

‘And is your dad Jerry’s dad too?’ Kirby butted in.

‘What sort of question is that?’

‘Can you answer it?’

Another ear tug. ‘I can’t remember when Mam was pregnant with Jerry, as I was only a child, but Dad died and then there never seemed to be a man in her life. Not until that prick Hayes muscled in on her.’

‘You really don’t like Robert, do you?’ Kirby said. He caught Martina eyeing him with some sort of veiled message. He had no notion what she was trying to imply.

‘No,’ Noel said.

‘He says you called to his work a couple of weeks ago, shouting at him. Why was that?’

He raised his shoulders as if to deny it, then his body slumped. ‘Because Mam got into real bad form after a phone call. Wouldn’t tell me what was going on, but I knew it had to be something to do with him. Warned him off. That’s all I did. She was too good for the likes of him.’

‘But I thought you said she had stopped drinking, bingeing or whatever, once she met him.’

‘Yeah, okay. Doesn’t mean I have to like him, and I never did. He has this weird smile that kind of says he knows something you don’t. Do you get me?’

‘Like he’s hiding a secret?’ Martina leaned forward. She’d noticed that too.

‘Yeah, exactly.’ He smiled at her. ‘I asked Mam, but she never noticed it. So she said.’

‘He told us he knew her in Galway,’ Kirby said, ‘in the eighties.’

‘What?’ Noel jumped up but sat back down as quickly. ‘He’s a liar. She never said anything about knowing him before.’

‘Okay, that’s grand. Where and when did they meet when she started going out with him?’

‘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.