Page 9 of Three Widows

He had only been gone two minutes, but she was dressed, sitting on the edge of the bed, tying up her hair.

‘Don’t leave yet,’ he said. ‘We can go somewhere for breakfast. Would you like that?’ Feck the job.

‘I’ve to get to work, and if your phone is anything to go by, you have somewhere to be too.’

He felt the blood drain from his face. Had she been snooping? Not that he had anything to hide, but all the same, he liked to be able to trust people.

‘And I didn’t check it, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s vibrating like a clucking hen somewhere under the bed.’

‘God, no, I didn’t think that at all. Head’s just a bit woozy.’ The phone could wait. He didn’t trust himself to be able to stand back up if he stooped to retrieve it.

‘It’s okay, Larry. It was good to meet you.’ She held out her hand.

For a minute he thought she was asking for money. He hadn’t been that stupid, had he? Then she moved towards him, wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned up to kiss his chin. God, she was tiny. No wonder she needed the stilettos he’d seen on the floor.

‘Where are my shoes?’

He pointed, then blushed seeing her bra on the floor beside them. She picked it up and bunched it into a tiny handbag that was lying beside the leg of the bed.

‘Will I see you again?’ he asked.

She shouldered her handbag and slipped her feet into the shoes. ‘You invited me out to dinner, Saturday night. Remember?’

‘Actually…’

‘Don’t worry. We were both pretty wasted. I have your number.’

‘How?’

‘You forced me to put it in my phone last night. I hope it’s the right one; I’ll feel a proper tit if I phone some other guy.’

He grinned. ‘Did you give me yours?’

‘Yes. I’ll text you later today.’ She moved to the door. ‘In case you’ve forgotten, I’m Amy.’

Kirby sat on the edge of the bed for a good five minutes after she’d left, trying to dredge up some memory of the evening. Flashes came and went. Fallon’s bar, Danny’s and Cafferty’s. Then the Brook Hotel. Dancing. Drinking. So much drinking. On a Thursday night, too! He’d be skint for a week. After that, it was an alcoholic blank. Definitely time to ditch drinking whiskey.

The state of the sheets told him there was yet more to remember, but he needed to check his phone and get to work.

‘What time is it anyway?’ he mumbled, holding his head and dragging the phone from under the bed. ‘Jesus Christ!’

Seventeen missed calls and nine text messages.

He was in the shit now.

But then he smiled. He could handle anything that was thrown at him today.

He lay back down on the bed, made his pillow comfortable and closed his eyes. For the first time in ages, maybe since his girlfriend Gilly had been murdered, Kirby was close to what he’d call happy. And all due to this little whisper of a woman named Amy.

6

Ballyglass Business Park was home to glass-plated car showrooms, fitness gyms and the largest supermarket retail distribution depot in the country. To the right, as you looked in, there was a patch of wasteland caught up in a planning dispute. This was the designated location for circuses and carnivals when they came to entertain the citizens of Ragmullin.

The rain was easing, but Lottie felt her boots sinking in the churned-up earth. Then she spied the stepping plates placed by the SOCOs and quickly jumped onto them before anyone noticed her mistake.

Grainne Nixon was in charge of the SOCOs. Struggling under the weight of a steel case containing her forensic tools, she walked up behind Lottie.

‘Morning, Inspector.’