Page 178 of The Guilty Girl

Lottie found it a surprisingly subdued capture and arrest. It was like they knew the game was up. Brontë seemed delirious, going on about her baby. Barney Reynolds tended to his daughter, while Noel Glennon seemed relieved that the truth was out. Richie Harrison twisted his necklace into knots until it broke and coloured beads skittered across the floor. He was the only one who appeared mystified.

They found Ivy in an upstairs bedroom in floods of tears.

‘I wanted him to save me. To go away with me.’

‘Who?’

‘Richie. I had it all planned out for him to leave her. When I ran from home this morning, I came straight here, but his bitch wife opened the door.’

‘It’s okay, Ivy. You’ll have your chance to tell your story. But you need to go home to your mother.’ Lottie didn’t think there was anything to charge the girl with at the moment, and her evidence would prove crucial in the trial.

‘I’m so stupid,’ Ivy said.

‘You were taken advantage of. What they did to you is abuse, from the first illicit photograph back when you were twelve or thirteen. You’ll need therapy.’

‘I’d do anything to remove this shit from my head.’ She burst into tears. ‘I should have helped Lucy, but I don’t think she trusted me the last few months. I was always jealous of her. I was a bad friend.’

‘No, you weren’t.’

Ivy sobbed. ‘I honestly thought Richie could take away my pain. Is this agony I feel because of what those bastards did to me?’

‘Probably.’ Lottie thought that if Rita Jones had given as much attention to her kids as she did to her sports, then maybe her daughter and son might have been spared their anguish. ‘Did you know what Oscar was into?’

‘It was easier to turn a blind eye to him and his friends. I was in self-preservation mode and it was difficult to admit my brother was taking drugs and messing around with the wrong crowd. I never guessed Terry had Oscar in his claws as well as me.’

Lottie arranged for Ivy to be brought home, then turned her attention to Terry Starr. His attitude was in stark contrast to his evil associates. He was belligerent, prancing around like a turkey cock.

When Garda Lei snapped handcuffs on his wrists, Terry shouted, ‘I am the magpie! I can plunder your nests. You’d better be careful, because I am watching you all. I will come for you.’

Two hours later, sitting with Kirby opposite Terry Starr, who was arrogant enough to believe he didn’t need a solicitor, Lottie observed the boxer closely. Beneath his sleeked-back hair his eyes flashed with anger.

‘You know who I am?’ he said, his baritone voice making him sound a lot older than his thirty years.

‘You are a murderer.’

‘I’m the magpie. The glorious wings and—’

Enough of this shit, Lottie thought as she interrupted his flow. ‘A witness places you at Lucy’s house after her party. He saw you attack her.’

‘Huh? No way he’d tell you anything.’ A smirk streaked across his face. ‘I found him hiding under a table. Gave him a good thump and landed him into next week.’

‘You’re talking about Jake Flood. The boy you put through a glass door?’

‘He couldn’t tell you anything because—’ He slammed his lips shut, realising he’d walked himself into a trap.

Lottie smiled coldly. ‘My witness is someone else. They saw what you did to Lucy. They saw you assault Jake then put him in the boot of his own car and drive off.’

Terry looked at her incredulously. ‘If not Jake, then who?’

‘You don’t need to know.’

‘Barney? He owes me too much to rat me out.’

‘Enough to kill his most promising young boxer and dump his body in the canal?’

‘If so, none of it was my doing.’

‘I’ll get back to Barney Reynolds but I want to know why you raped and murdered a seventeen-year-old girl?’