Chapter 90
Lottie’s heart was in danger of bursting through her ribs.
She was simultaneously hyped and scared.
Among the awful photos found on Cameron’s laptop featuring his own daughter, Freya, were some of Lily Clarke, though none portrayed outright sexual abuse.
Rather they were of a sexual exploitation nature.
Boyd parked haphazardly, and she was running to the door before he had switched off the engine.
‘Lottie, slow down. You can’t just barge in there with accusations.’
‘I’m not accusing Thomas Clarke of anything. I need to know if he knew about it.’
‘Cameron Healy is dead, so you’re going after Thomas. You think he’s involved. I know you, Lottie. Don’t…’
His voice trailed off as she thumped the door. Getting no answer was a feature of her day, so she ran around the back. The grass was trampled, bearing multiple footprints from their earlier searches.
‘There’s no one home,’ Boyd said.
‘His car is here.’ She wasn’t ready to give up. She peered through the kitchen window. Inside looked tidy except for an opened bottle of wine beside a glass on the counter. No sign of a disturbance or a hasty escape.
Turning to leave, she spied the open garage door. The garage had been searched when Lily and Sadie went missing. Still, she raced towards it.
Inside, she couldn’t see anything that might have been disturbed. She tried to recall the inventory from SOCOs. The space was tidy. Thomas Clarke really was a neat freak. Except…
‘Boyd! Over here.’
He trudged up beside her, shaking rain off his shoulders. ‘What am I looking at?’
‘That treadmill has been moved.’
‘I think it was there before.’
‘Yes, it was, but it’s slightly off centre, don’t you think?’ She moved closer and they both stared open-mouthed at the safe cemented into the concrete floor. ‘I can’t believe this was missed.’
‘We were concentrating on a missing child,’ Boyd said, consoling her.
‘Everywhere should have been checked.’
‘I doubt she was stowed in that safe. It’s more like a cash box.’
‘No need to be smart.’ She kneeled down, hoping for a piece of luck, praying it would be unlocked. It was. When she opened it, she could not keep the disappointment from her voice. ‘Empty.’
‘Told you.’
‘Shut up, Boyd. Whatever was here, Thomas took it and fled.’
‘Where, and how? His car is still—’
‘I know his car is here, but there’s such a thing as a taxi. We have to find him.’
With the number of missing people rising, Lottie told Boyd to get McKeown to check with taxis and Ubers in order to locate Thomas Clarke.
She knew of one person who could give her some answers. It was wrong, but fuck it.
She marched down the stairs and along the corridor to the holding cells. She unlocked the door. Scanlan was sitting in the corner, knees to his chest, biting his lip.
‘Stand up.’
He shook his head.
‘Stand the fuck up!’
He did, but then slithered against the wall like a coward. ‘You can’t talk to me. I heard your superintendent say so.’
‘I’m not here at all, Liam. Do you see me? I can’t see you. No one saw me. We are both invisible.’
‘Huh?’
‘This is off the record. For now.’
He shook his head.
Fuck him.
She paced up and down the five-metre-square space. ‘I want answers. And you are going to give them to me.’
‘I think I need a solicitor.’
‘Sure you do, and you can have one at the conclusion of this conversation that no one knows about. Because I am not here.’
‘You’re confusing me now.’
‘Why was Alice Quigley at your apartment three weeks ago? And don’t say you don’t know anything about it, because Clarice Shaw confirmed it.’
‘Who?’
‘Clarice is one of the three young women you stabbed.’
‘I never stabbed three people.’
‘Evidence and eyewitnesses say you did.’
He slumped, defeated.
‘Talk to me, Liam. Otherwise you might mysteriously lose your balls.’
‘I didn’t stab three women!’
‘Let’s park that and you can tell me why was Alice at your apartment.’
‘Alice who?’ He feigned disinterest.
She could see he was nervous by the way he picked at his filthy nails. ‘You know right well who I mean. Caroline Healy’s mother. Alice Quigley.’
‘I don’t know who you’re talking about.’
‘Course you do.’
He kept his lips sealed. She moved on.
‘What did you really talk to Cameron Healy about at his daughter’s birthday party?’
‘I was delivering a message,’ he said, as if this was safer ground.
‘What was the message? And don’t spurt out some hogwash about a disgruntled client wanting to kill him.’
‘That’s the truth.’
‘Which client, then?’
‘I can’t say.’
‘You’re not a fucking priest, Liam. You can tell me. And it’s off the record.’
‘Nothing is off the record. I watch Law & Order. And CSI, so I do.’
‘You and everyone else on the planet. I give you my word. You can make a statement whenever you want, but I need to understand what’s going on. Why little Freya and her parents were killed.’
‘I don’t know why.’
‘Did you kill them?’
‘God, no! I couldn’t do that.’
‘You were able to stab three people for no apparent reason,’ she said, watching him carefully. His face struggled with emotion as he realised the hole he’d walked himself into.
‘I… I was in a state of panic when that happened. I’m not a killer.’
She let that weak explanation ride. ‘If it wasn’t you, you must know who did kill them.’
‘No.’
‘I haven’t got all day, Liam. I’m already angry, and you don’t want to see me when I get furious. I’ve known of men who were castrated in places like this. In this very cell, if I’m being brutally honest.’
‘You can’t do that.’ He was sweating now. Large beads of perspiration lined his brow. His lip was bleeding, he was chewing it so hard.
‘Try me.’
He started to cry.
‘Oh for pity’s sake, will you shut up. You make me sick.’
‘None of it was my fault,’ he blubbered. ‘I got caught in the middle.’
Now they were getting somewhere. ‘The middle of what?’
‘Everything.’ He sniffed and ran his hand under his nose.
‘I’m fast losing patience.’ She wanted to blurt out what she thought she knew, but she needed him to confess even though it would be inadmissible. She’d get it legally later, but she had to act fast and this was the best way.
‘It wasn’t me.’
‘Holy God, you’re the proverbial fucking broken record!’
He cowered as if that would shield him from her voice. ‘The money was there in the account and then it wasn’t there,’ he whimpered.
‘What money?’
‘Caroline took it. I think she was going to run away with her daughter, but I don’t know. All I know is that one day it was there and the next it was gone.’
‘Business money?’ It must be, she thought. ‘Did Cameron find out it was gone?’
‘I don’t believe he had any idea at first, but I could be wrong. He was a bully and maybe even a wife-beater. I don’t know how, but Caroline found out about the account and drained it.’
Lottie was trying to maintain her focus. ‘Go on, I’m listening.’
‘Will this help me?’
‘It depends what you can tell me.’
He stopped whining, sat up straighter, still pathetic. She leaned forward, anxious to learn what he might reveal.
‘Goods were sold,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what, because I never saw anything change hands.
I set up the account and watched it grow.
Then it was to be moved offshore. Tax avoidance, as if anyone could explain to the taxman where that money came from.
Caroline must have found out. She must have forged nomination papers and emptied the account. All cash.’
‘What goods are you talking about?’ Lottie hoped she’d been wrong and they were just talking about PlayStations and tech equipment. ‘And don’t tell me you don’t know.’
‘Okay, okay. Photos and videos. I’ve no idea what was on them, but I can guess.’
Dear Jesus. ‘Who set up the account?’
He stayed silent.
‘You’ve come this far, Liam, you might as well tell me.
‘Alice Quigley.’
Bingo. ‘And Cameron was involved?’
‘He might have been. I don’t know.’
‘Who took the photos and videos?’
‘Probably Alice.’
‘When did she find out the money was gone?’
‘Around the time she called to my apartment. She’d been on the phone roaring at me.
I let her rant away and said nothing. Eventually she hung up.
I thought she’d screamed it out of herself, but then she arrived right after that crazy barmaid had left.
I told her she should talk to Caroline and then she left too. ’
‘Go on.’
‘When that guard came into the pub looking for me, I panicked. I didn’t know why the guards were after me, and even though I’d done nothing wrong, I knew I’d get blamed. I picked up a knife before I knew what I was doing. I never meant to hurt her.’
‘If you didn’t mean it, why did you go after Clarice?’
‘I guessed she’d seen Alice arriving at mine. I had to shut her up. I panicked.’
‘You panic a lot, Liam. Did you also panic when you attacked the third girl?’
‘What? No! I swear I never hurt anyone else. Your superintendent gave me a hard time on that, but I didn’t do it.’
‘You see my problem, Liam?’
‘No.’
‘You’ve been lying to me from day one, and that makes it hard for me to believe a word out of your mouth. It’s all hearsay about Alice Quigley. You have no proof that it wasn’t you.’
‘Actually, I do. I kept copies.’
‘Of the photos and videos?’
‘No, no, no. Not that. I have copies of the transactions on the account. I have everything on a USB.’
‘Where is it?’
He tried to look smug, but gave off an air of desperation. Despicable. ‘When can I do a deal? Then I’ll tell you everything.’
She heard footsteps coming down the stairs then along the corridor outside the door.
‘We’re not finished, Liam.’
Before she left, Lottie moved closer to him and kneed him in the balls. ‘That’s for my daughter, you heartless prick.’