Page 83 of Three Widows

‘Right,’ Lottie said. ‘Boyd, arrange a few uniforms to quietly canvas the pubs. I’m worried for her safety.’

‘That’s ridiculous,’ McKeown muttered.

‘There must be at least thirty-two pubs in town,’ Kirby said.

‘Counted them on a pub crawl, have you?’ McKeown shot back.

Lottie despaired of the two men ever seeing eye to eye. McKeown had to be transferred back to Athlone.

As if he’d seen whatever had flashed across her face, he donned a serious expression. ‘I agree with what Kirby said earlier. Helena might have been taken by the killer.’

He’d voiced the concern swirling around in the pit of Lottie’s empty stomach.

‘I hope not, but we can’t rule it out. We need to track her movements since we spoke with her earlier today.’

‘Maybe she just slipped out of her shop for a carton of milk and is already back there,’ Boyd said, taking out his phone.

After a few moments of unanswered ringing, he said, ‘I’ll try her mobile.’

Same result, which meant no result. Lottie couldn’t remember Helena giving Boyd her number.

‘Try Orla Keating. Both women are in that widows’ group.’

‘I’ll call her,’ Kirby offered. After a moment, he said, ‘No answer.’

‘It’s too soon to get a warrant on Helena’s phone, but I’m extremely worried for her safety and her mental health.’ Lottie brought the team up to speed on what Kathleen Foley had told them about her daughter’s delusions.

‘A pathological liar?’ McKeown scratched his head. ‘Are we sure she isn’t our killer?’

‘The only thing I’m sure of at present is that two women are dead, so let’s talk about the murders.’ She pointed to the notes on the whiteboard. ‘I’m confused about the choice of location. He’s chosen waste ground and a wooded area of the lake. Why these random sites? Are they important to him, or is he playing games with us?’

‘Are you certain it’s the same killer?’ Lynch asked.

‘Jane hasn’t yet commenced the post-mortem, but Éilis has broken limbs, similar wounds to Jennifer.’

‘Éilis wasn’t shot,’ Lynch insisted.

‘Agreed, but both victims had their eyes removed.’

‘Shit,’ Lynch exclaimed. The others gasped.

‘Why take the eyes?’ Kirby said, nervously twirling the butt of a cigar around his fingers. ‘It’s—’

‘Why break their bones?’ McKeown cut in.

‘The killer is telling us something,’ Boyd said. ‘I think we could do with a psychological profiler.’

‘And which budget should I raid for that?’ Lottie paced up and down in front of the board. ‘We need to use our heads on this one. The victims might lead us to the killer. Lynch, tell us what we have on Jennifer O’Loughlin.’

Lynch consulted the copious notes she had collated from the interviews to date.

‘Jennifer worked at Smile Brighter Dental Clinic up until a month ago, when she posted in her resignation. After she joined the Life After Loss group, her boss, Frankie Bardon, said her timekeeping became an issue and he had to juggle her roster.’

Lottie nodded. ‘He told me he encouraged her to leave. We know she did yoga at that SunUp place. The head guru there, Owen Dalton, made me feel uneasy, and I left feeling I had missed something. Did anything turn up on the other yoga instructors?’

‘None live in Ragmullin, and they can all account for their whereabouts over the last few days, but until we know exactly when she was murdered, we can’t pin down alibis.’

‘True. And until Éilis’s post-mortem is conducted, we won’t have her time of death. We know she was last seen alive by her babysitter, Bianca Tormey, on Thursday evening. And her little girl claims she woke up to see her mum during the night, but that’s unreliable. She might have been dreaming. Éilis lived in a fairly upmarket area; did you get any security footage from the surrounding houses, McKeown?’