Chapter 70
‘Why are you going in there?’ she asked.
‘I need a coffee.’
‘Get me a Diet Coke and a croissant.’
‘We will sit down and eat something proper.’ His tone suggested there was to be no argument.
Inside, it was busy. Boyd ordered coffee and sandwiches and Lottie found a vacant table by the window.
‘Great view,’ he said as he sat.
‘It’s a garage forecourt.’
‘Duh.’ He put the tray down and dished out their food and drinks. ‘Do you want to talk about old man Tormey?’
Lottie took the empty tray from him and placed it by the leg of the table. ‘He’s not that old, just looks it.’
‘I felt sorry for him.’
‘I didn’t.’ She removed her jacket and folded it on her knee. ‘He was a drunkard and must have been a tyrant for his wife to kick him out. He left her all alone with two young children.’
‘What went wrong then? After he left?’
She took a slug of coffee. ‘I think it’s possible that Sadie killed her mother and sister.’
‘Never proven.’ He shook his head and took a bite of his chicken and stuffing sandwich.
‘I’m going to see if the 999 recording has survived.
DNA testing and forensics are more advanced now.
The DNA on that lace collar we found in Sadie’s house is a match to DNA found at her mother’s murder scene twenty years ago, though it’s not a match for Sadie herself.
I have no idea what motive she would have had if she did in fact kill her family, but with regard to the Healys…
I don’t know. Maybe Caroline found out about the old murders, threatened Sadie with exposure. ’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Don’t talk with your mouth full.’
‘Sorry,’ he said, pulling a crumb of stuffing from his lips. ‘Going with your hypothesis, what did Caroline find out, and how?’
‘If we’re to believe Alice Quigley, Sadie originally met Caroline in the Oak House detention centre.
According to Eugene, this was maybe a year before the murders, though we need to verify it.
It’s possible that Sadie may have at some stage, accidentally or otherwise, told Caroline about the crime, perhaps long before they met again a couple of years ago. ’
‘Do you think Caroline orchestrated that meeting?’
‘Don’t know. But if the relationship had recently soured, it could be that Caroline was about to spill the beans on Sadie’s past.’
‘You have no proof of any of that.’
‘Like you said, it’s hypothesis.’ Lottie ate some of her cheese and tuna sandwich, glad of the food whatever about its nourishment value. ‘The Tormey murder file is slim. Either there was nothing to find, or the investigators didn’t waste time on a destitute family’s misfortune.’
‘That’s hard.’
‘But we know it happens.’
‘Okay. Where does Liam Scanlan fit into the puzzle?’
‘We can be certain he stabbed Martina and I like him for the attack on Clarice too. But how he fits into the bigger picture, I have no idea.’
‘You don’t think he killed the Healys?’
She took another bite of her sandwich before continuing. ‘If it was him, we have no motive, unless it was over money.’ She picked up her mug and looked out the window at the busy forecourt. The coffee was like a third cousin of the real deal she’d had at Thomas Clarke’s house that morning.
‘We have no hard evidence, just supposition,’ Boyd said.
‘That’s not good enough this many days after a triple murder. I can feel the heat of Superintendent Farrell’s anger coming at me down the motorway, and I don’t blame her. I’m mad too.’
‘What about Christy Kearney and Dermot Macken? Either or both of them might have been involved.’
‘No matter which way I look at it, I can’t come up with a motive for them either. But they’re still in the mix.’
‘We should interview them again.’
‘I’m not sitting in the same room as Dermot Macken.’ Lottie rubbed her nose. ‘I can still smell the chicken shit.’
A few heads turned in their direction. Boyd said, ‘Not so loud. They think we’re talking about the food.’
Lottie sipped her coffee. It had gone cold. ‘Both of those men were at Healy’s on that Sunday afternoon. Could there be a connection other than balloons and a bouncy castle?’
‘Wouldn’t we have found it by now?’
She wrinkled her nose. ‘If McKeown would knuckle down and do what I asked him, we might have a better picture.’
Boyd made a face at his own coffee. ‘Want a fresh one?’
‘No, I’m fine, thanks. It’s like dishwater.’
‘Oh, you’ve tasted dishwater?’ His lip curled in a grin.
‘Stop, Boyd. What else do we need to put on the table for this discussion?’
‘The person who apparently climbed up a tree to spy on Freya Healy.’
‘I wonder did Freya take the video by accident or did she see someone out there?’
‘Tech hasn’t been able to make any headway on the image.’
‘Feck it. We’re going round in circles, Boyd.’
‘If we could get a look at the Oak House records, we could find out who was there at the same time as Sadie and Caroline.’
‘Need a court order for that.’
‘It’s time we got it.’
Lottie stared at him. ‘You’re right, but I don’t hold out much hope. And another thing. I want a look at the post-mortem results for the Tormey family.’
Jane Dore had taken a call from Lottie asking her to pull the post-mortem results for Denise and Poppy Tormey from the archives. She was relieved to find that the file was in a digital archive and not buried in the separate archive building.
She split the screen and loaded both files.
The Tormeys, then the Healys. She scrolled down to locate the toxicology report for the two Tormey victims. Both had been sedated with high doses of benzodiazepine.
Denise Tormey had been strangled to death.
Her daughter, like Freya Healy, had been dead from the drugs before being strangled.
A belt was missing from a dressing gown, and in its absence this was deemed to be the likely murder weapon.
She let her eyes lead her between both reports and wondered about the likely murder weapon for Caroline and Freya.
It hadn’t been found, but was it something as innocuous as a belt from a robe?
Something that might still be at the scene.
But still she vacillated. It was too neat a presumption to make.
And then there was Cameron Healy. He had not been strangled.
And there was no male victim in the Tormey murders.
But the lace collar found in Sadie Clarke’s house had DNA matching the old case. What was that all about? Not having logical answers annoyed Jane.
She needed to talk to Lottie.