Page 102 of Three Widows

‘So?’

‘Jennifer said the last time she met Tyler was three or four weeks prior to his disappearance.’

‘She was a dental nurse, not a solicitor. Why did she meet him if her husband was already dead? Was it on a personal basis?’

‘He was commissioning her to do a painting,’ Lynch said.

Lottie bit her lip, thinking. ‘Didn’t Damien do work on Tyler’s house purchase?’

‘Yes. There’s a copy of the contract in the box of files that was found in Jennifer’s lock-up.’

‘We need to figure out why those files were in the lock-up, along with Tyler’s car.’ Lottie tapped her pen idly on the desk. ‘When we find Orla, I’ll ask her. See if Éilis Lawlor or Helena McCaul had a link to Tyler Keating other than his wife being in the Life After Loss group. We need to get to the bottom of the real reason why it was set up.’

‘Do you think it’s more than just grieving widows meeting to have a drink?’

‘I do, actually. But how can I prove it, with the women being murdered or missing?’

Passing over a printout of Jennifer’s statement, Lynch said, ‘Orla Keating was interviewed seven times in relation to her husband’s disappearance. She had no clear alibi, but nothing was found to point to her being involved.’

‘Okay, thanks. Where has Boyd got to?’

‘He was on his phone, then he rushed out. Said it was an emergency.’

‘And we haven’t got an emergency here?’ Then she realised it might have to do with Jackie. ‘Fuck, I hope she hasn’t taken Sergio.’

‘Who?’

‘Boyd’s ex is back on the scene.’

‘Is there anything I can do to help?’

‘It’s best to let him sort it out himself.’

‘Don’t you think you should follow him? He might need moral support.’

‘I should, but I don’t think he’d thank me for interfering. Lynch, we haven’t one suspect for either murder. It’s unacceptable.’

‘I agree.’

‘I want you to nail down the connection between the women, Éilis, Jennifer, Orla, Helena, even Amy. It must be more than their widows’ social group. Is it Tyler Keating?’ She waved the statement in her hand. ‘I don’t want to imagine what will happen if we don’t find the missing women.’

‘Jennifer was the first to die,’ Lynch said. ‘She hadn’t been seen for a month before her body was found. Why? Had she been abducted, or was she with the killer voluntarily? Did something shift in his mindset that he killed her?’

‘The post-mortem points to her having been kept in a cold-storage room, because of the frostbite. With her broken bones, I believe she had been tortured. Did someone think she might know what had happened to Tyler Keating?’

Lynch raised her hands, animated. ‘He could be the key. I’ll start there.’

‘Notify me as soon as you find anything else. We need something, before another body turns up.’

67

Before he dug into Amy’s past, Kirby keyed Luke Bray’s name into PULSE, the garda database. Bingo. Bray had been previously arrested for assault, and at the district court he’d been sentenced to community service. He had to talk to him again.

Maybe he should have taken someone with him to keep his temper in check, but it was too late now. Kirby huffed through the supermarket doors for the second time that morning, blowing beads of perspiration from his top lip. He flashed his ID badge as he passed the security guard, and before anyone realised what he was doing, he had grabbed Bray by the collar of his T-shirt and dragged him from behind the checkout. He was barely aware of the queue of open-mouthed customers behind them.

‘This is garda brutality,’ Luke yelled as Kirby tightened his grip on the collar. Anything to shut up the whining little bollix.

Outside on the footpath, he shoved Bray up against the wall, pressing his arm across his throat. Before he could react, Luke had him on the ground in one swift movement.