Chapter 26
‘Such a lovely garden,’ Lottie said. ‘How does she keep it so bright and lush despite the cold weather and this incessant rain?’
‘Don’t ask me.’ Kirby pulled the hood of his jacket up over his unruly hair. He pressed a finger on the doorbell and they both sheltered under the tiny awning above the door. ‘Wait till you see inside.’
It was an age before Alice Quigley came to the door and welcomed them in. Lottie was struck by how similar in looks the older woman was to her dead daughter, though her eyes were bloodshot and dark-ringed, and she was hunched over with grief.
They hung their coats on the stair post, which was overflowing with coats and jackets.
‘Do you want us to take off our wet shoes?’ Lottie asked. She didn’t fancy walking on the stained floor in her stockinged feet.
‘There was a time when I’d have made you leave your shoes outside, but I don’t care any more. Freya and Caroline always took theirs off. Cam refused. Prick.’
Kirby nudged Lottie in the ribs as they entered the kitchen, and she caught his widening eyes and figured Alice had little time for Cameron Healy.
‘Tea?’ Alice said, but made no move to the kettle.
‘No, but thanks.’ Lottie wondered how she could even find the kettle, such was the mess. And all the chairs had something on them or hanging off the backs. ‘Can we sit?’
‘Please.’ Alice indicated the chairs at the round table.
Lottie took a basket of wet laundry off one chair and Kirby moved a cat litter tray from another, wrinkling his nose as he placed it on the floor.
Alice said, ‘Have you news for me?’
‘I’m sorry, no,’ Lottie said. ‘How are you holding up?’
‘How do you think? My whole family has been wiped out and I’m expected to just go on. I can’t do it. It’s unbearable.’
‘You have a gorgeous garden.’ Lottie was trying to calm the woman, but it had the opposite effect.
‘What’s the garden got to do with anything?’
‘I’m just thinking gardening is a good way to help you escape the horrors invading your head.’
Alice snorted derisively. ‘Do you garden?’
Lottie knew she’d walked herself into a wall. ‘No.’
‘Then don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing.
My heart is broken. I don’t know which way to turn.
Having no answers to any of my questions is destroying me from the inside out.
Unless you can tell me what happened to Caroline and my beautiful granddaughter, and why, you’re not welcome in my home. ’
Lottie figured the woman had to lash out at someone. She knew what grief could do to you. She had suffered badly after Adam died and she’d taken it out on those she loved, those who loved her. Her family. Her colleagues. Alice Quigley had every right to vent.
‘I’m sorry for your loss and I apologise if I sounded condescending. I meant no harm. I’ve been through grief myself and I sympathise.’
Alice stared hard at her before lowering her head.
‘Caroline was all I had. Her daddy died when she was young, so it was just me and her. We didn’t have it easy.
Lived in Dublin before we moved here. A city full of people, but she had few friends.
My little girl was a loner. A beautiful lost soul.
Now she’s gone. My granddaughter is gone.
So ask your questions and be done with me. ’
Witnessing such grief, Lottie felt bad about putting the distressed woman through the additional anguish of answering her questions. But it had to be done. She needed something to help the investigation, though she wasn’t at all sure what that might be.
‘Alice, did Caroline confide in you?’
‘About what?’
‘Her marriage.’
‘You think Cameron murdered his family, my family?’
‘To be honest, that’s what we suspected at first; however, the evidence suggests otherwise.’
Alice looked up sharply. ‘But… it was suggested on the news that it was a murder-suicide. Is that not so?’
‘It’s currently one line of enquiry.’
‘God, I’ve been sitting here blaming him. Cursing him. Wishing I could have stopped him before he killed them. And now you’re telling me it wasn’t him?’
‘We don’t know, but I can’t go into the details, not until I learn more.’
‘If it wasn’t Cameron, then who?’
‘That’s our job, to find out. It’s the reason I’m asking if Caroline said anything that you might think as being odd, in hindsight. Or suspicious.’
Alice shook her head slowly. ‘I can’t believe this.’
‘Can you think back over conversations you had with your daughter?’
‘It’s all I’ve been doing since I got the awful news.’ Alice’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, her tears no longer visible. She looked more together than she had a few minutes previously. ‘Is there something in particular you’re after?’
‘Can I be blunt?’
‘Nothing shocks me after what I’ve gone through.’
‘Could Caroline have been having an affair?’ Lottie sat back, expecting an outburst, but it didn’t come.
Alice seemed to digest this before nodding, a hint of tears in her eyes.
‘I think so, though she didn’t say it in so many words.
Like I told your colleague there, Caroline was always compliant around Cam, but recently she’d begun to stand up to him.
I thought it odd. I asked her what was going on.
She said she was fed up being a doormat and it couldn’t go on much longer. ’
‘What do you think she meant by that?’
‘I thought she was going to leave him.’
‘Did Cameron abuse her?’
‘Do you mean verbally?’ Alice eyed Lottie carefully. ‘Surely you can’t mean… did he hit her?’
‘There was evidence on Caroline’s body that someone had been violent with her.’
‘The bastard who killed her, who killed her family, that’s who.’
‘These were older bruises. Not from the night she died.’ Lottie let that sit for a second. ‘Alice, did Caroline mention anything like that?’
‘No, never. I can’t believe she wouldn’t tell me if someone had… God, what my poor girl went through.’
‘I’d like to go back to your suspicion that she was having an affair.’
‘You said it, not me.’
‘But you suspected it. Tell me what you know.’
Alice stood up. Peered out the kitchen window at the rain thundering against the pane. Then sat again.
‘She was different recently. I told you that. But the thing, is when she was here, she wasn’t really here.
Always on her phone. Texting. Whenever she called over to me, she acted distracted.
I asked her once who she was texting and she said it was to do with Freya, that some kids were bullying her at school and she was trying to sort it out. She looked troubled.’
‘And did you press her on it?’
‘I tried, but she shut me out. The next time Freya was here, I asked her if anyone was giving her a hard time and she was shocked. She said, “God, no, Gran, I love my friends and they love me. We have great fun together.” That’s what she told me and that’s why I figured Caroline was up to no good.
She rarely lied to me, but she did that time. ’
‘And you have no idea who it might have been? This person she was texting.’
‘I checked her phone once when she left it on the table, which was odd because it was usually attached to her hand like an IV drip. There was a text to someone she referred to as T.’
‘Who could that be?’
‘My money would be on Thomas Clarke, the husband of her friend Sadie. Oh God, did he kill my daughter?’
Lottie ignored the question. ‘Did you read the whole text?’
‘Didn’t get a chance. She was back in a flash and whipped up the phone. Threw me a dagger stare but said nothing.’
‘Okay.’ Based on the transcripts Lottie had seen, she was glad Alice hadn’t read the text.
The older woman wrung her hands with intensity.
‘When I heard what had happened, I was sure Cam had found out she’d been having an affair and that he’d killed her and Freya and then himself.
But now I think it could have been this mysterious man she was texting.
Or maybe his wife found out.’ Red-hot anger flashed in her eyes. ‘Maybe Sadie Clarke killed them.’
‘Let’s not jump to rash conclusions. We will get to the bottom of it.’ Lottie stood, glad to get off the chair, which felt damp beneath her. ‘One other thing. We haven’t located Freya’s birthday gifts or cards. Do you have any idea where Caroline might have stored them?’
‘Her gifts?’ Alice appeared flustered at Lottie’s change of direction. ‘They were all over the sitting room when I left after the party. Did you look in Freya’s room?’
‘We did. Leave it with us, and thanks for your time. I’m so sorry to have put you through this.’
Alice halted her with a raised hand. ‘There was one thing Caroline said recently. About Sadie.’
‘What was that?’
‘It was probably Caroline imagining things, but she said she thought Sadie was stealing from her.’
‘Stealing what?’
‘Her clothes.’