Page 164 of Three Widows

Madelene continued, her voice monotone. ‘And they threatened to blame me for the corruption of others. You were my friend, Kathleen. You fell victim to Damien and Tyler’s greedy plans. Defrauding grieving widows. I promise you, I did not know what was going on, but when Jennifer came to me after Keating disappeared, she told me she had evidence of the scheme and wanted to make amends for her husband’s actions. Silly girl. I panicked at first. Told her to wait, I had to think about it.’

‘What did you do, Madelene?’ Lottie interjected softly.

The woman dragged her eyes away from Kathleen and her black pupils rested on Lottie.

‘I thought Jennifer had seen it my way; obviously I was wrong. I weighed up all my options, and I knew I could not let any of it become known. She wanted to report it. That would have destroyed my firm. People would have put two and two together and made ten.’ She swivelled back to Kathleen. ‘Then I got the photos. Someone knew about us. I suspected that Jennifer had found them among Damien’s belongings. The bastard had been spying. Arming himself for blackmail if I ever discovered his wrongdoing. If those photos went public, people would have known about our relationship. How could I live with the shame of it? I had to consider you too, Kathleen.’

There was that word again. Shame. Ice slithered down Lottie’s spine.

‘How did Jennifer find out about the scheme?’ She kicked herself for not surreptitiously switching on her phone to record.

‘The bitch claimed she’d overheard Tyler discussing it with Frankie Bardon at the clinic. Said she talked to Damien but he denied it all. But then he died and she told Éilis Lawlor. They set up that silly little widows’ group. I suspect they used it to work out how to damage me and my reputation.’

Lottie waited as Madelene drew breath. Was telling her story a delaying tactic? The vicious glint in the woman’s eyes told her something else was going on behind them. But what? She kept one eye glued to the blade and the silence was so long that she asked, ‘What did you do?’

‘Nothing at first. That Tyler creep had disappeared. Not my doing, unfortunately. Then a month ago Jennifer appeared on my doorstep again. Mouthing off about her little group. Saying that Helena was struggling because her mother had sunk money into that damn studio and could no longer fund her shop. I was incensed. You should have told me at the time, Kathleen. I would never have allowed things to get so out of control.’

A sly smirk crossed Madelene’s face as she glanced at Lottie. ‘My dear friend and her daughter had suffered loss after loss. Even before our relationship developed beyond friendship, I owed her, Inspector. I owed her big-time.’

‘Owed her for what?’

‘Sweet little Amy, of course. My firm had dealt with her case. She had suffered a brutal childhood. Abandoned to the care system. Lost and anonymous. I pulled some strings, but I was single and childless, not allowed to foster back then. I desperately wanted to. I talked to Kathleen, and she agreed to foster her. She helped form that child into the woman she became. I secretly funded many placements for Amy over the years and hired her straight out of college, which I had paid for. I loved that girl.’

Madelene didn’t know the meaning of the word, Lottie thought. ‘If you loved her, why did you try to kill her?’

‘She’d resigned her job without explanation. She’d joined that silly group. I feared she could corroborate what Jennifer knew. She never once came to me. I waited. All I got was a stony silence. I would have done anything for that girl, but in the end she let me down.’

Twisted love? Lottie wondered. No, not love, control.

‘You took the eyes from your victims. You broke their bones. You killed them and displayed their bodies in obscure locations. Why did you let Amy live?’

‘I wanted to kill her, but it got complicated.’

I know all about complicated! Lottie thought. Her head was buzzing.

Madelene continued. ‘You arrived.’

‘You assaulted me and a young guard.’

‘I tried to muddy the waters.’

‘Luke Bray?’

‘I had represented him on his assault case when he was eighteen. He got community service, that’s how good a solicitor I am. I saw him smoking outside Dolan’s and paid him to unlock the back door of the shop so that his prints would be on it. In a way, I was glad you got to Amy before I could go back to her.’

‘Is Amy related to you?’

‘God, no. Her parents were crack addicts who used and abused her. I rescued her when she was three. Then she betrayed me when she left without explanation.’

‘Tell me why Owen and Frankie had to die.’

‘Simple. Owen wouldn’t pay back Kathleen’s investment. His state-of-the-art idea was anything but. He squandered the money Kathleen had borrowed at Amy’s insistence. I believe Frankie knew about Tyler and Damien. If he talked, my firm’s reputation would be in ribbons. I would be humiliated. In the end, my loyalty to my firm and to Kathleen outweighed any value their lives might have had. They deserved their fate.’

‘And Tyler? Where is he?’

‘I imagine he’s where people think he is the salt of the earth.’

‘Why all the mythological hints in the places where you left the bodies?’