Page 179 of The Guilty Girl

‘I never raped her.’

Lottie quelled the urge to punch him in the face. ‘We fast-tracked your DNA, Terry, and it’s a match for that found on Lucy’s defence wounds and for semen found on her body. Do you know what happens to rapists in prison?’

‘I wore a condom, and anyhow, she was with me last weekend in my apartment. She didn’t say no then.’

‘She said no to you on Friday night, though, didn’t she?’

‘The bitch threatened me.’

‘And you chased after her with a knife and didn’t stop until she took her last breath.’

‘She had it coming.’ His smugness was so irritating, Lottie fought to control her disgust.

‘Why do you think she was with you last weekend?’

‘She wanted me. Plain and simple. But I knew something had changed with her, and I needed to keep her close. Thought I’d find out by having her in my nest … my home. But now I suspect she either stole something from my computer or planted something on it.’

Lottie showed him the photo of Sharon sitting on his knee. ‘This was on your fake Instagram account.’

‘I never … What is this?’ His eyes narrowed, scrunching his face into an ugly scowl.

‘It was posted to your account last Monday at four a.m.’

‘Fucking Lucy!’

‘Clever girl,’ Lottie said, feeling a growing admiration for the teenager, who’d acted bravely even though she was too scared to go to the authorities. ‘Why did you attack Sharon Flood?’

‘I had to scare her. I wanted her for myself, though I knew she’d be good for business … I mean …’ He paused, eyes closed.

Lottie forced down her abhorrence. ‘You were grooming her, like so many others before her. A little girl who hadn’t even a shoelace for her runners. You killed her. Why?’

He shrugged. ‘She wouldn’t stop going on about paying me back what her thieving brother owed me. As if a couple of euros from her fucking money box could ever account for the value of the drugs Jake stole. She got what she deserved.’

‘She was ten years old!’

‘Not my fault.’

Christ, but he was a narcissist of the highest order. ‘How did you come to target her?’

‘She was at the gym with Jake one day. Barney rang me to come have a look at her. Scared as a rabbit she was, but I recognised her potential. Innocence and fear are good at online auctions.’

Inspector Reilly, of the online child exploitation unit, had mentioned these auctions. They hadn’t discovered any images of Sharon online or on the dark web. That was something to be thankful for, she supposed.

‘Tell me about Hannah Byrne.’

‘Ah, sweet Hannah. She looks younger than she is. She can pass for thirteen. And those legs go on forever.’ His expression turned salacious.

‘You instructed Jake to drug her. Why?’

He laughed. ‘Drug Hannah? No, he was supposed to slip it into Lucy’s drink. The little prick couldn’t even get that right. But it worked out okay for a while. You had her as your prime suspect.’

‘You wanted Lucy drugged with GHB so you could do what you liked with her. Am I correct?’

‘No comment.’ He smirked.

‘How many defenceless girls have you raped after slipping them GHB?’

‘You’re sick,’ he said slyly.