Chapter 61
Lottie woke to darkness and silence. She felt a little brighter after her midnight chat with herself while willing the ceiling not to burst with the rain seeping in through the roof.
Maybe today would be a good day. Maybe today she would find Lily and Sadie and Liam Scanlan.
She had to catch him, the prime suspect for the murders after his attack on Martina Brennan.
Maybe all her hopes would come to pass. If only she could muster a positive manifestation, like the influencers on Instagram that Katie constantly talked about.
‘Let’s see what the day brings,’ she told the natural environment.
All her bonhomie and lightness of spirit died in her chest with the first person she met on arriving at the office.
‘Detective McKeown, I’m delighted you decided to grace us with your presence today.’ She didn’t care that it was passive-aggressive. He was the master of passive-aggressiveness himself, though more often just plain aggressive.
‘Huh?’ He looked sheepish, unusual for such an arrogant dick.
‘You disappeared yesterday afternoon. Why was that?’
‘I was working.’
‘You didn’t check in.’
‘I was busy.’
‘Busy doing what?’
With each question she asked, his shaved head reddened a deeper hue.
‘Eh, following up leads.’ He twisted his hands into each other as if he was kneading dough.
‘What leads?’
‘You know. CCTV footage and stuff.’ He was definitely on edge, and Lottie wondered what was going on with the usually snide yet unflappable detective.
‘I didn’t think there was any viable CCTV at the Healy or Clarke houses.’
‘Got some from the roads leading out that way.’
‘What did you find on said footage?’
‘Nothing yet,’ his voice a whiny drone. ‘I’m still making my way through it.’
‘I heard you went to the Healy crime scene. Why was that?’
‘Oh yes. I forgot about that. I found a short video on Freya’s iPad. She must have snapped it by accident. It’s at an angle and it seems to be of someone looking in her bedroom window.’
‘Her bedroom is on the first floor. How could someone be looking in?’
‘That’s what I wanted to know. There’s a tree beyond the garden fence and it’s possible someone climbed it. If they did, they could see straight in. Why was someone spying on a twelve-year-old kid? It sickened me.’
‘What did you do with the video?’ Lottie couldn’t believe she was only hearing this now.
‘I took screen-shots but I sent everything to tech to be enhanced. Unfortunately, I don’t think it can be made much clearer.’ He showed her the copy he’d made on his iPad. It was definitely some sort of shape, but it was difficult to make it into a human form.
‘Did you send SOCOs out to examine the tree?’
‘Yes. But with all the rain I doubt they’ll find anything.’
‘Let me know if the tech crew make something of it. I asked you to look into Sadie and Caroline’s past. How did that turn out?’
‘Ehm, I’ll get to it today.’
‘And what about the background checks, in particular for Liam Scanlan, Christy Kearney and Dermot Macken?’
‘Martina was helping me on that. I’ll get her to give me a hand now.’
‘You don’t know, do you?’
‘Know what?’ He looked genuinely puzzled.
‘Sam, where the hell were you yesterday?’
‘I told you. Following up for more CCTV.’
‘Well while you were off doing whatever the hell you were doing, Martina was attacked and stabbed.’
‘What?’ He blanched. ‘Is she all right?’
‘She’s had surgery and blood transfusions.’
‘Shit. Who did it?’
‘We believe it was Liam Scanlan and he’s in the wind. So, Detective McKeown, it’s time for the truth from you. Where exactly did you go to yesterday when we needed all hands on deck?’
He looked sheepish, but she couldn’t help feeling it was fake.
‘It was a family matter. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to annoy you with it. I knew we were to the pin of our collar with multiple investigations, but I had to deal with the situation. My wife was losing her shit over the kids. Don’t worry, I’ll punch in the extra hours today.’
She didn’t believe a word of it but hadn’t time for his domestic woes.
‘I want all the CCTV from the Canal Bar pub, inside and outside, and whatever you can source from around Scanlan’s apartment. Analyse it. Follow his trail. We have to find him. Then get the historical information for Sadie and Caroline. I need it to understand their relationship.’
‘On it.’
‘And let me know if anything comes from that video.’
‘Video?’
‘McKeown, wake up. The video on Freya’s iPad.’
‘Sure thing. Will do.’ He made his way to his desk.
Lottie had never seen him so disconcerted. She’d get to the bottom of it. When she had time. Which was not now.
So much for positive manifestations.