Page 130 of The Guilty Girl

‘I’ll keep at her. Boss, there’s something else I want—’

‘Let me finish before I lose my train of thought. I’ll come back to you.’ Lottie checked her notes, already floundering under the amount of disparate information giving her no clear direction to advance either case.

‘I want to talk more about Jake Flood. At his home this morning, under the floorboards of his bedroom, I found a bag of vials containing a bluish liquid. The vials are with the lab, but I believe the liquid is GHB.’

‘The little shite,’ McKeown said.

‘Was Jake killed over drugs he was siphoning off from his supplier? Did he owe money? Was he involved in Lucy’s murder? It’s imperative that we establish the sequence of events now that we have a definite time frame for when the girl died.’

She paused, thinking about Sean. He’d seen the Fiat Punto as he walked towards Lucy’s house around four a.m. Jake was still alive then, according to the pathologist, so had he been driving the car or had it been driven by someone else? If so, who? She didn’t dare voice her thoughts. There was enough muddy water to traverse as it was. ‘Any word on the movements of the car?’

‘I’m working through traffic cams and whatever CCTV we can get our hands on, which isn’t much,’ McKeown said. ‘So far, no luck.

‘Another piece of the puzzle has been lobbed into the pot by Albert McAllister.’ Lottie filled them in on the threat Lucy’s father had received. ‘Whoever sent the email said they would expose his clients for substance abuse and accused Albert of fight fixing. They demanded five hundred thousand euros and threatened to ruin his business, if it wasn’t paid. The email is now with our technical department, and Gary tells me it’s as sophisticated as Lucy’s. Both email addresses were encrypted. Nothing to indicate they were sent by the same person, but it remains a possibility. Albert tells me the email was the reason they went to Malaga, because most of his business associates are located in Spain.’

‘I can’t understand why he’d leave his daughter at home with no protection,’ Lynch said, ‘after he received a threat like that.’

‘Maybe he didn’t see it as a threat against her, just against his business.’

‘Or maybe he’s just a greedy bollix,’ McKeown said, ‘who put his work before his family.’

‘From what I’ve learned so far,’ Lottie said, ‘Albert adored his daughter, so to leave her at home like that, he must have been certain the threat was only against his business.’

‘Terry Starr is his main client. What about him?’ McKeown said.

‘We need to trace his movements from the night of the murder until he got on his flight to Malaga. He most likely had nothing to do with the murder, but we need to eliminate him. Why did he go to Spain? Why did he come back? Where is he now? This all brings me to the boxing club where Jake trained.

‘Ragmullin Goldstars is funded by Lucy’s dad and Terry Starr. The coach is Barney Reynolds. He is Brontë Harrison’s father. Brontë is married to Richie Harrison, the DJ.’

A few intakes of breath around the room.

Kirby said, ‘Interesting connection.’

‘Indeed. I want Barney Reynolds and the club investigated. Detective McKeown, please update us on the background checks on Noel Glennon, Richie Harrison, Cormac O’Flaherty and the cleaner, Sarah Robson.’ Lottie tapped her finger on the desk.

‘Erm, I’m working on them. I’ll have a report to you later.’

‘Sooner than that. I need to know more about Noel Glennon and the Harrisons in particular.’

‘I also have to look at the traffic cams, shitty CCTV and dash-cam footage for Flood’s car, but I’ll do my best.’

‘Do you want a medal?’ Kirby said.

Lottie said, ‘I need those background checks, yesterday.’

As the team dispersed, armed with their instructions, she wondered what could be the thread to link everything together. She glanced at the incident board. It was there in the midst of it all. She just had to find the thread and pull hard.

As Lynch approached her, Lottie’s phone vibrated, skidding across the table.

Chloe.

‘Boss,’ Lynch said, ‘I found a disturbing photo and I—’

‘Let me take this, Maria. Bring in Ivy Jones and question her about Lucy’s tattoo and the weekend away. Find Terry Starr. We need to know the reason for his quick trip over to Spain. I have to take this call.’

62

‘What’s up?’ Lottie said to her daughter.