Page 48 of Three Widows

‘Rubberneckers are not unheard of.’

‘I am well aware of that.’

She felt a chill on her neck as he pulled away.

‘It’s too pixelated to identify anyone.’

‘But they look out of place just standing there staring.’

‘I beg to differ, but I’m too tired to argue.’ He winked and rubbed her shoulder.

‘Feck off, Boyd,’ she said with a smile, glad of his touch. ‘You know what that does to me. Before you leave, call the showroom and find out who was there this morning.’

‘McKeown’s got all the security footage from those garages. He found nothing unusual on them.’

‘He was checking for someone dumping the body, not someone looking at us doing our job.’

‘It’ll have to be tomorrow. I have to go pick up Sergio, and it’s time you went home too.’

‘What are you now, my mother?’

‘No need to be a pain in the arse. I’ll tell McKeown to contact the garage in the morning.’ He turned her towards him and kissed her on the lips.

She extracted herself from his embrace and glanced out the open door to make sure they were alone. ‘Why not call the garage now?’

‘Because it’s seven p.m. and they’ll be closed.’

‘Is that the time? Shit.’

She found she was talking to a void. Boyd was already making his way out of the outer office.

Maybe it was time to leave. She needed to check on her mother. It wasn’t fair leaving her kids to look after a woman the doctor had recently diagnosed as suffering from the start of dementia.

She forwarded the video to Gary in the tech team, with a request to enhance the specified image as best he could. Enough for one day. Hopefully tomorrow would bring some answers.

30

‘You aren’t as feisty as Jennifer was at the beginning. Pity. I like a bit of fight, you know.’

‘Wh-what about Jennifer? D-did you take her?’ The stench of the room was overpowering now. It smelled like a butcher’s abattoir. Surely not. She banished the thought and tried to concentrate on getting the hell out of this situation. She struggled against her restraints, uselessly.

‘Ah, now you fight back.’ The figure moved around the room clutching the timber.

‘Tell me what you want. I’ll do anything. Just let me go. I won’t tell anyone.’

‘Too late for that. You and those other interfering biddies. Thought you were hiding your secrets. But it turns out you weren’t hiding them well enough. One of you talked out of turn.’

Shit, she thought. ‘I… I h-have no idea what you m-mean.’

The crack of the timber smashing against her leg caused the most excruciating pain she had ever experienced, and the sound of her scream echoed like thunder in the room. Her mind blanked with savage agony before the haze lifted, and in a moment of lucidity, she wondered if this was all down to what Jennifer had discovered. The reason they had set up the group, to have a mask over the reality of that secret. Was that why she was here? Was the explanation that simple?

Her abductor left the room, and Éilis tried to recall through the pain that conversation from two years earlier.

‘Can you believe it?’ Jennifer had said.

‘No, not really.’ Éilis had tried to concentrate on the measurements. ‘I think shutter blinds would work well in this space.’

‘But if it’s true, what should I do?’