Page 40 of The Guilty Girl

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They swung round by the DJ’s house after sourcing Richie Harrison’s address. It was a new-build, semi-detached, located on the upmarket side of town. Lottie marvelled at the comparison with Liz Flood’s house. Richie Harrison’s place was straight out of House and Home magazine.

‘This is like somebody’s wet dream,’ Kirby said.

‘How can he afford it?’

‘Not on his DJ earnings anyhow. The wife must have a good job.’

There was no car or van outside, and no one answered her incessant knocking.

Heading back to the station, Lottie received word that the McAllisters’ plane had landed and they would soon be on their way to Ragmullin under escort. Time to sort out somewhere to break the terrible news. She shivered at the thought of telling them that their only child was dead.

At the station, she learned that the duty doctor had attended Hannah Byrne. He’d taken blood and urine samples to test for the presence of drugs and alcohol in her system. The girl was awaiting the psych evaluation. All time being wasted when Lottie could be taking a statement, though she had to admit Hannah was unwell.

She’d just stowed her bag under her desk and had her purse in her hand to go for food when Garda Martina Brennan arrived.

‘Cormac O’Flaherty, Inspector, I put him in an interview room. He’s being a pain.’

‘He refused to give the samples?’ Lottie asked.

‘Yeah.’

‘Walk with me,’ she said, despairing of getting a bite to eat. ‘I’ll have a word with Cormac. We have a missing boy. Fifteen-year-old Jake Flood. Kirby will fill you in. Check if we have eyes on the mother’s car. The little shit stole it. And get someone to chase up the whereabouts of Richie Harrison, the DJ.’

‘Will do.’

‘While you’re at it, talk to Kirby and see what you can find out about the Goldstars boxing club. Jake’s a member and Lucy’s dad is involved in boxing too. It’s based in the old squash club down in the industrial estate. Find someone who might know where the lad is.’

‘Boxing in a squash club?’

‘And have a chat with Garda Lei. He knows about the lads selling drugs. He might have information about them.’

‘Grand.’

Lottie watched Martina walk down the corridor repeating the instructions to herself. She had no idea what Jake Flood being missing or being a member of a boxing club had to do with anything, but his facilitation of drugs at Lucy’s party bothered her. First, though, she had the Cormac O’Flaherty problem to deal with.

‘I want a solicitor.’ Cormac was leaning against the wall, inhaler in one hand, a bottle of Lucozade Sport in the other. He had scratched his forehead and his spots were raw, one bleeding.

‘Why do you need a solicitor?’

‘I’m here, aren’t I? You want to take samples from me, so I’m thinking you believe I did something wrong. And if that’s the case, then I understand I need representation.’

Representation? He was having a laugh, surely?

‘It’s routine to take samples for elimination purposes. Nothing for you to worry about, unless you think we’re going to match your DNA to samples we get from Lucy’s body?’

He bit down on his lip and sat. She thought he was about to shut up shop like he’d done at his house, but as he traced a line in the condensation on the bottle, he began to speak. His was voice so low, she had to crane her neck towards him to hear his words.

‘I think it might have been Hannah.’

‘What might have been Hannah?’ She dared not take her eyes off him as he continued to fiddle with the bottle.

‘She might have done something to Lucy.’

‘Why do you say that?’ She wondered if this was self-preservation or whether he honestly believed Hannah had committed a murder.

‘The photograph. Hannah was so upset over it, and she was mad at Lucy. They were arguing and it wasn’t cool.’