Page 75 of Three Widows

‘You really are stupid for a woman who is meant to be intelligent.’

‘I suppose I am.’

‘No supposing about it.’

‘But we’re not short of money. There really isn’t a need to skimp on food.’

He’d slammed his hand against the fridge door, causing two ceramic magnets to fall off and smash on the floor.

‘Who said anything about skimping? I merely pointed out there is no need to waste money when there are perfectly suitable alternatives. Compounds my theory about your stupidity.’

Time for appeasement. Swallowing her pride, she said, ‘You’re right, Tyler. Sometimes I can be so stupid. I’m lucky to have you to point it out to me.’

Stepping closer, his spittle landing on her face, he snarled, ‘Are you mocking me? Yes, you are stupid. You need to know your place in our marriage.’

‘I do. Honestly, I do.’

She’d tried not to cower away from him, knowing it gave him fuel to torment her. And she had to hold her tongue. She couldn’t incite him further or she might blurt out what she had learned about him. If she did that, it would surely result in a burst lip, or even worse. One of the reasons he had insisted she work from home was to conceal the bruises he regularly meted out. They were becoming more vicious and more frequent. But that was only one reason. The other was more deadly.

The knowledge she had would land him in jail for a very long time. But she had to bide her time before she took action.

She drew herself back to the present with a shudder of her shoulders. Even though he’d been gone a year, she felt him stalk her like a shadow; his voice a whisper in her ear she couldn’t dislodge. It would take more time, but she didn’t have the luxury of time. With Jennifer and Éilis dead, there were few left who knew the truth. She was one of them. Helena thought she knew too, but Orla knew different. Helena! Shit!

She rushed back outside to the car.

48

Helena McCaul’s shop was closed, the door locked.

‘Do you have her home address handy?’ Lottie asked. She needed to take the woman to identify Éilis’s body, and then she could start seriously questioning her.

‘Sure,’ Boyd said.

They drove on, silence shrouding the atmosphere in the car. He pulled up outside a large detached house on a relatively new estate. ‘No sign of a car. It looks deserted.’

Lottie went to the door and lifted the chrome knocker, letting it fall back with a clunk. When no one answered, she opened the side gate and went around the back. The garden was a little overgrown, but it had the trappings associated with a child. A small Spider-Man bicycle lying against a play sandpit.

She hammered the back door before looking in through the window. No sign of life.

‘Didn’t she say something about her mother minding her son?’

‘Yeah,’ Boyd said.

‘Maybe Helena is with her, but we don’t have the mother’s name to look up her address.’

Back in the car, Boyd got on the radio and made enquiries. ‘Think this is her. Kathleen Foley. She lives in Ballinisky.’

Lottie watched him scribble down the address. ‘Why were you late today?’

Pulling out of the estate, he said, ‘Your mother and Chloe were in the middle of a row when I arrived.’

‘Oh shit.’ Lottie closed her eyes, trying to block out the image. ‘I’m so sorry you had to witness that. Christ, what am I going to do, Boyd?’

‘It’s a tough one. But you need to be patient. It isn’t Rose’s fault.’

She twisted in the seat and looked at him earnestly as he drove. ‘I know that, but she is so different from the woman I knew. Her body is even shrinking as well as her mind. It’s so sad.’

‘It’s called ageing.’