Page 85 of Three Widows

As she settled into her car and turned on the air con, she thought of Jennifer and what had started all this. Had what she overheard really been true? If it had, then Tyler Keating was a worse bastard than she’d suspected.

The woman beside her moaned in her sleep so she started the car and drove off.

54

Mrs Tormey, Bianca’s mum, closed the door behind them as they left her house. Lottie drew a long breath, and blinked tears from her eyes as she headed towards the car.

‘I never want to have to do that again, Boyd. The heartache on the faces of those little kids…’

‘True, but you can’t really be serious about contacting social services about them, can you?’ He unlocked the car and they sat in.

‘I know Mrs Tormey has no objection to Roman and Becky staying with her until Éilis’s sister arrives from Dubai, but I have a duty to inform the state agency.’ She paused and brushed hair from her eyes, stuck there with tears. Only someone with the hardest heart could fail to be moved by the Lawlor children’s fate. ‘Oh, I don’t know what to do.’

‘Let me tell you something.’ He turned to look at her. ‘You’re so busy with two murder investigations, you haven’t time right now for anything else, and you might just forget to make that call. And before you know it, the kids’ aunt will be here.’

She smiled weakly. ‘Maybe you’re right.’ Shrugging one shoulder, she asked, ‘Do you have any cigarettes?’

‘No, and you don’t need one.’

‘Do you think Mrs Tormey should have accepted our offer of a family liaison officer?’

‘Her feeling is that it’s better for the children not to have any more strange faces around. I tend to agree with her. They’ll be going through a tortuous time as it is. They’re lucky in a sense that Éilis had such a good neighbour. I can’t believe there are no other friends crawling out of the woodwork to help the family.’

‘That bothers me too,’ Lottie said. ‘Neither Jennifer nor Éilis seemed to have any close friends.’

‘Éilis worked from home, so I can understand it with her, but what about Jennifer’s colleagues at work? Anyone there admit to being close to her?’

‘Not a one, unless you count Frankie Bardon. He gave the impression that he had her best interests at heart. He advised her to resign. He even went for a walk with her the week before she submitted her resignation.’ She went over the conversation in her mind, but found some gaps in what she could remember. ‘He said something to me that I’m sure is important, but I can’t recall it.’

‘You have your notes from the interview, don’t you?’

‘I went there on my own and scribbled a few things when I got back to the car. I’ll have a look later and see if anything jogs my memory. But I can’t get my head around Helena.’

‘We need to find out more about that group. Are there even other members?’

‘Maybe someone got pissed off with them and left with a grudge?’

‘Do you think Life After Loss is exclusive to females, though?’ Boyd said.

She hadn’t thought of that. ‘Widowers and divorced or separated men? Hmm. I’d assumed it was for women.’

‘You know you should never assume?’

‘Yeah, and we’ve also been assuming the killer is male. It could be a woman.’

‘I agree, except there is one thing to consider. To get the bodies to those two locations, they had to be carried some distance. That makes me believe that we’re looking for a man.’

Lottie sat up straighter. ‘They could have used some sort of trolley. The water around the statue where Éilis was found. What if that was to wash away wheel marks? And Grainne noticed tracks close to Jennifer’s body.’

‘The site at Ballyglass Business Park had a carnival there a week ago, so there was a multitude of tracks and ruts all over the place.’

‘If SOCOs went back to both sites now, knowing what they’re looking for, we might hit lucky.’ She suddenly felt excited.

‘It’s worth a try.’

‘Definitely worth a try.’ She fished her phone out of her bag. ‘I’ll call Grainne, and then we need to find Helena. Alive.’

‘After you talk to Grainne, we should go back to Orla Keating. She needs to be told about her husband’s car being found. Let’s see what her reaction is.’