Page 134 of The Altar Girls

‘I’ll go up there myself.’ She paused as a thought struck her. ‘I’ve just been with the Kiernans and I should have asked about the priest. They used to live in Sligo, and he told me he worked in the north-west before he was moved to Ragmullin. He may have known them. If he is the murderer, he might have targeted Naomi as far back as then.’

‘Whoa, boss. That’s a huge leap just there.’

‘Maybe, but if it’s not Connolly, which it might still be, everything is leading us back to a Church connection. The rosary beads bug me.’

‘But why would Maguire kill Naomi and Willow?’

‘I don’t know. Though—’ Before she could finish her sentence, her phone rang. It was Garda Lei.

‘Thanks. I’ll be right there.’ She hung up and turned to Kirby. ‘You go back and talk to Father Pearse. I’m going over to Zara Devine’s. I’ll have a look round St Patrick’s on my way back.’

83

‘I think we need to take Harper away from Zara,’ Garda Lei whispered breathlessly when he opened the door to Lottie.

‘What’s going on? Is Zara here?’

‘No, she asked me to watch Harper and went off in a huff. She said she’s stressed over money and needs to fulfil orders. Boss, I feel a bit out of my depth with all this.’

‘You’re doing great.’

‘I should have called it in sooner, but I wasn’t sure—’

‘Where is Harper?’

‘Watching telly in the sitting room. I have to show you something.’

He closed the front door and climbed the stairs. Lottie glanced towards the room where she’d broken the news to Zara. Then, Harper had been sitting on the stairs staring through the wooden railing. Lost. Poor little thing.

On the small landing, Lei stood back and pointed to two doors. Both had keys in the outside locks. She raised an eyebrow. ‘What does this mean? She locked her kids in their rooms?’

‘Something like that. Zara’s explanation is that she feared they’d sleepwalk and leave the house and she’d never find them. But I don’t know… It doesn’t sit right with me.’

‘Nor me.’

She glanced into Willow’s room, but didn’t see anything to cause her concern. She checked Harper’s too. All seemed to be okay. But why lock the doors?

‘What sort of mother would do this?’

‘A concerned mother,’ came a sharp voice behind her, and a breath of air feathered the back of her neck. She hadn’t heard Zara return. ‘And I want both of you to leave my home. Now!’

The landing was too crowded for the three of them. ‘We can talk downstairs,’ Lottie said.

Zara shrugged and made her way back down.

Lottie tugged Lei’s sleeve, drawing him close, and whispered, ‘You watch Harper while I talk to her mother.’

In the kitchen, Zara didn’t offer tea but sat and sipped from a takeout cup. The aroma of coffee wafted towards Lottie, and she wondered why and when Zara had changed her stance on caffeine. That was the least of the questions she wanted to pose.

‘Care to explain why you feel the need to lock your children in their rooms?’

‘You make it sound like something it’s not.’ Another sip. Zara’s brown eyes looked almost black in the midday light as they darted around the room, and her chiffon kimono-type top fluttered with the movement of her arm.

‘Help me understand what it is.’

‘My girls are… Harper is a nervous little thing and Willow is… was a live-wire. She’d climb out the window given half a chance; I had to install child locks to stop her. I tried to protect her, but I failed, didn’t I? I didn’t protect her enough.’ Her words were staccato.

‘What happened to Willow is not your fault.’