Page 168 of The Guilty Girl

‘Boyd spoke with him,’ Lottie said. ‘It only confirms Starr was in the McAllisters’ Malaga apartment yesterday.’

‘Leaving the McAllisters aside for the moment,’ Lynch said, ‘Oscar Jones mentioned that his sister Ivy was, quote, “screwing”, unquote, Richie Harrison the night of the party.’

‘And he left her home. Go on,’ Lottie prompted.

‘Sarah told you Ivy was jealous of Lucy.’

‘Not sure I’d believe much of what she said, but continue.’ Lottie wondered where Lynch was going with this.

‘If Terry Starr was involved in the child abuse, and Richie Harrison and Noel Glennon appear in some of the photos I discovered earlier, and Harrison was cheating on his wife with Ivy, is it logical to conclude that the three men and even Ivy are working together in a tight little web?’

‘You can include Sarah Robson too,’ Lottie noted. ‘I found Ivy and Lucy in her photos. They were victims. I also discovered an image of Hannah.’

‘Hannah Byrne? Shit.’ Lynch rubbed her eyes. ‘Maybe Ivy started out as a victim and was later groomed to work for the other side?’

‘What about Sharon Flood?’ Kirby said.

‘She is too young to have been in Sarah’s images, but she appears in a photo on Starr’s fake Instagram thing. Come on, guys, what the hell is going on under our noses?’

McKeown tapped his iPad and paced. ‘We have boxing, athletics, drugs, child pornography. Locations involved are the McAllister house, the boxing club and the army barracks. The girls’ school and the athletic grounds. Plus Malaga.’

Lottie stood and stared at the names on the board. ‘What about Cormac O’Flaherty? He worked at the school and Lucy’s house.’

‘So did Sarah Robson,’ Lynch volunteered.

Lottie nodded. ‘Barney Reynolds trained Jake Flood and he turned up at the army barracks after Oscar assaulted me. Was he there earlier? Could he have attacked Sharon? He’s a link to Jake. We need to formally interview him. Noel Glennon told us he didn’t know Richie Harrison, but both of them work at nightclubs and feature in one of the photos. Those two, plus Terry, are around the same age. Did they know each other years ago? Sarah said she knew Terry as a ten-year-old.’

‘Sharon’s age, the poor little creature,’ Kirby said.

Lottie stopped in front of Sharon’s photo and turned to McKeown. ‘What did you find on Terry’s background check?’

‘He was born in Tullamore, schooled in Ragmullin.’

‘He was an overweight kid. Bullied, according to Sarah, if that’s even true,’ Lottie said.

McKeown continued reading. ‘It’s true. His web page bio says he joined a gym, lost weight and started boxing. Barney Reynolds was his trainer until Barney suffered a head injury in a training session five years ago.’

‘Terry might have known Brontë through Barney before she married Richie Harrison.’

‘Bronte isn’t relevant to this,’ McKeown said.

‘We don’t know what’s relevant or not,’ Lottie said spikily. ‘Boyd told me that his ex, Jackie, was working as a CI for the Spanish police investigating Albert McAllister and Terry Starr in relation to drug smuggling. Albert got a threatening email that sent him to Spain. Did Terry send it to get them out of the way. But why now? What changed?’

‘Why did Terry head off to Malaga?’ Kirby asked.

‘Maybe he killed Lucy, then fled,’ Lottie said. ‘She might have been with him last weekend. She was one of the few followers he allowed on his fake Instagram account. Could she have posted the photo of him with Sharon without his knowledge, hoping someone would see it?’

‘It’s possible, but his Finsta has limited access and she’d need his passwords and stuff,’ McKeown said.

‘But if she did do it, maybe he found out and killed her.’

‘Or Terry could have posted the photo himself,’ Kirby countered. ‘Why didn’t Lucy report it to us, if she knew about it?’

Lottie said, ‘She might have thought her father would be dragged into it as Terry’s agent, and she only wanted to target Terry. That’s if she even posted the photo.’

Lynch said, ‘Ivy must know. We need her to talk.’

‘I think a better bet is Hannah Byrne. She has been traumatised, abused, set up for murder and—’