Page 120 of Three Widows

The sound of her own voice muffled any noise behind her.

She didn’t see the plank of timber coming down on her shoulder.

She just fell to the floor, into a murky swamp of darkness.

* * *

Boyd learned nothing he didn’t already know from Helena’s mother, and was on his second cup of tea when he got Lynch’s text about Amy.

‘Mrs Foley—’

‘Kathleen, please.’

‘Do you know anything about an Amy Corcoran?’

‘Erm, I’m not sure. Maybe. Is she another dead woman? God Almighty, I hope Helena is okay.’

Boyd stared at her, wondering why Amy’s name had caused her to become suddenly flustered.

‘We’re searching for Helena. Now, about Amy. It seems to me that you do know her.’

‘Name rings a bell from somewhere. Does she work with Helena?’

‘She works in Dolan’s supermarket, but she used to be a legal secretary for Bowen Solicitors in town.’

‘I used that firm for my will and to put this house in Helena’s name, though she doesn’t know about that. I couldn’t risk her smothering me with a pillow to get her hands on the house to sell it.’ She laughed, but Boyd could see she was only partly joking.

‘Any solicitor in particular at the firm?’

‘Now that you ask, I think he was called Damien O’Loughlin. Didn’t he die of cancer?’ She slammed a hand to her mouth. ‘Dear God in heaven, was he related to the poor murdered woman, Jennifer?’

‘Her husband.’

‘Detective Boyd, what is going on?’

‘It’s safe to say that we’re finding connections between all the interested parties, and we just need to pin down what it is that ties them together to make them targets for a killer.’

He knew he had gone too far when her face turned ashen and her hand shook so much that she dropped her cup. It shattered on the floor. She jumped up and fetched a mop and hurriedly attempted to clean up the spilled tea and shards of crockery. The smell of the dirty mop filled the air, and he felt it stick to his skin like glue.

‘Here, let me do that. Sit down, Kathleen.’

He took the handle and she grasped his hand tightly.

‘Find her, Detective. Find my girl before she suffers like the others.’

A feathery bundle of sorrow settled in his stomach. He thought of the blood they’d found in her home. Would they find Helena in time?

Before he left, he turned to Kathleen. Her lipstick had faded and he could see where some of it was smudged on her teeth. She leaned against the hall table, knocking a set of keys to the floor. She was a broken woman, he concluded.

‘Kathleen, Amy Corcoran is also missing.’

Instantly, her hand flew to her mouth.

‘Oh no!’ Her voice was a whisper, and she doubled over, convulsed in tears.

76

Kirby loitered behind Lynch as she worked. She had pulled up Amy’s Facebook page.