Chapter 63
Her phone screen showed Lottie that Chloe was calling. Shit, she’d meant to touch base that morning.
‘Chloe, pet, I’m so sorry I didn’t call you back. It’s hectic here.’ She made her way into her office, noticing McKeown’s raised eyebrows and the flush on his cheeks. What’s his problem? she wondered.
‘Don’t worry, Mam. I understand now that I’m in training how it can take over your life.’
Lottie closed the door and sat behind her desk. ‘No excuse for me. I’ve neglected my family over the years. I have to change my ways.’
Chloe laughed. ‘Please don’t change. We couldn’t stand it if you were at home all day, moping and growling.’
Lottie had to laugh too. ‘Are you getting on well in Templemore?’
Chloe paused. ‘Yeah, it’s grand.’
‘Have you made a heap of friends?’
‘Not really. We’re so busy. But I get on with everyone.’
‘Are you coming home tonight?’
Chloe had thought about it. Shit, it was Friday already, and there was a party in Cafferty’s that she had been intending to go to, but that was before Sam McKeown ruined her life.
There was always the possibility she’d bump into him.
But why should she let him dictate what she did?
And going by the lightness in her mother’s voice, Mooney hadn’t told her about the assault.
‘I’ll let you know if I am, so that you can get in some groceries.’ She grinned as she imagined her mother’s face. ‘Joking.’
‘Boyd is staying with us for a while.’
‘What? You guys back together?’
‘God, no. His apartment got flooded.’
‘Oh, but Mam, it’s an ideal situation for you to mend those broken bridges.’
‘I honestly don’t think that will happen.’
‘Don’t believe you. Listen, the reason I’m ringing is because I was studying some old cases. We’re learning what to do and not to do at crime scenes. And when those murders happened earlier this week in Ragmullin, I remembered one I’d come across.’
‘An unsolved?’
‘Kind of.’ She outlined what she’d found and the similarities between the scenes.
‘Chloe? How do you know so much detail about the Healy murders?’
Shit, shit, shit. She hadn’t thought this through at all. ‘It was on the news. Wasn’t it?’
‘Not the level of detail you are aware of. Who did you talk to?’
‘No one.’
‘I’ll kill him.’
‘Who?’ Chloe could hear the panic in her own voice. If her mother gunned for McKeown, anything was liable to happen.
‘Boyd. He can’t help himself, can he? Why does he continue to go behind my back?’
‘No, Mam, it’s not Boyd. Say nothing to him.’
‘You can try to cover for him all you like, but it’s time I had serious words with him. Look, I have to go now, but I’ll talk to you later. Mind yourself.’
‘Please, no, Mam. Don’t talk to him.’ But Chloe was speaking to static air. Lottie had hung up. ‘Shit and double shit.’
Lottie looked up as Boyd entered her office. ‘Did you give Chloe the details of our murder case?’
He handed her one of the takeout coffees he was holding. ‘No, why?’
She took a long sip of the delicious coffee. She noted the name of a new coffee shop in town printed on the side of the pink cup. ‘Thanks for this, I needed it badly. Someone gave Chloe access to our files.’
‘She’s in training. Perhaps it’s part of her course to look at a live investigation.’
‘She was very cagey.’
‘Shit,’ he said, putting down his coffee.
‘What? Boyd, what do you know?’
‘The other day Martina said in passing about Chloe asking for McKeown’s number. Something to do with an assignment, if I remember correctly. I meant to ask him about it but got sidetracked.’
‘I’ll have a word with him.’
‘Lottie, don’t. We’re too busy and too short-staffed to go annoying him. Leave it for now. What did Chloe have to say?’
‘She sounded delighted with herself. Remembered some old case they’d studied that was a bit similar to the Healy murders.’
‘Why would she be studying old cases?’
‘To learn how to walk through a crime scene. The do’s and don’ts. Good practice and all that.’
‘She must have wanted access to our current case to do a comparison. You think she got that from McKeown?’
‘I do now.’ Lottie felt her blood pressure rise, but she was glad it wasn’t Boyd who’d gone behind her back. Even though she had no proof of any wrongdoing, she wondered about McKeown. Where the hell had he been yesterday?
‘And are there any similarities?’ Boyd asked. She noted that he was still trying to distil her anger.
‘Chloe thinks so. Then again, a lot of cases are similar. I forgot to ask her for the file number, but I’ll check it out later if I can catch a minute. Any word from the hospital about Martina?’
‘I can go over and—’
‘No, I better visit her myself. I’ll check with Kirby to see if there’s an update.’