I LEFT THE office at lunchtime to meet Maeve; we picked up sandwiches and took them to her clinic. I felt a little guilty leaving Leah alone with Susanne, but I thought it was wisest after our earlier exchange. Also, I had a bit of catching-up to do with Maeve. Though I had spoken to her on the phone, I hadn’t seen her since New Year’s Eve.
Being back in her clinic reminded me of Guinness’s near escape and all the unpleasant things that had happened since then, not just major ones but the minor ones too. Was it possible they could all be connected? While Maeve made coffee, having shooed the practice dogs outside so we could eat without soft reproachful eyes following our every bite, I told her about Luke’s return and that I’d given Susanne a job. Her response was similar to Phyllis’s.
“God, are you sure about that?” When I didn’t respond, she gave me a half-smile. “Is she any use?”
“Not much, judging by this morning.”
“And what about him?” She handed me a mug. “Jesus, Ben, I know the man has to live somewhere, but really, does it have to be here?”
“I don’t think they’ll be around for very long. I hope they won’t be around for very long,” I corrected myself, remembering Luke’s words on the street.
Maeve perched on the counter, legs swinging, mug in hand. “There’s a right age difference between them, isn’t there?”
I nodded. I was tempted to ask if Maeve had heard any rumors about Susanne and George, but didn’t.
“How long have they been together?” she asked.
“It can’t be very long. A few months at the most. Which is quick work even for a rake like Luke Kirby.”
She smiled. “And what about your own relationship? How’s it going with the handsome sergeant?”
I felt a pang. Despite the two messages, Molloy hadn’t rung back. “I’m not sure, to be honest. I don’t think he’s too happy about my giving Susanne a job, even though it’s only for a week or two. He thinks I’m inviting Kirby back into my life.”
“He might have a point,” Maeve said seriously. “I’m sure that’s not your intention, but surely you’re as well keeping as far away from him as possible.”
I decided not to share my plan to get Susanne away from Luke. I knew what Maeve’s reaction would be – the same as Molloy’s.
She raised her mug in a mock toast. “Well, I hope it works out with Molloy. You deserve a bit of happiness.”
“Thanks, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen until this whole mess is cleared up.”
“Carole and the Oak?”
“And Stan. It’s all pressure.”
Maeve sighed. “Poor Stan. I saw him earlier and he’s looking very shaky on the old pins. That attack really took it out of him.” I remembered Stan sitting by Róisín’s fire, trying his best to be his usual arch self, and had a sudden flashback of driving to the McCanns’ house with the snowy summit of Sliabh Sneacht in view.
“How would you have driven to Pete Stoop’s place when you were his vet?” I asked.
Maeve thought about it for a second. “Up the Derry road and turn right – it’s overgrown now, but that’s the way I’d have gone back then. It wasn’t great, but you could get through it with a jeep. I doubt you could do that now. It only leads up to the cottage, so no one else would be using it.”
I realized that must be the route I’d seen marked on Pat the Stoop’s map. Maeve picked up her sandwich and undid the cellophane with an odd expression on her face.
“What?” I asked.
“I’ve just remembered, I saw Carole heading up there once.”
My eyes widened and she quickly added, “Not recently. Years ago, when you could still walk up that way.”
“After Dominic was gone?”
“Oh aye, years after. She was back from England. I think she was even married to George. The cottage would have been empty. It’s a bit creepy, though, the idea of her heading up there on her own when you think what happened to her years later.”
I couldn’t disagree. “I wonder what she was doing?”
“Maybe she was curious to see where Dominic had grown up?”
“But she was with George at that point.”
Maeve smiled. “I know, but people can be funny about their exes, can’t they? Maybe there were times when she wondered if she’d made the wrong choice.”
The afternoon was long and tedious. Leah and Susanne left together at five, with Susanne studiously avoiding my eye, although she looked suitably dusty so at least she’d spent the afternoon where she was supposed to be, in the attic. I left at six, avoided the temptation to call into the Garda station and drove back to Malin.
Dinner was a tin of soup, bread and cheese and a big glass of wine with a cat on my knee. There was no response from Molloy all evening. I couldn’t blame him. I suspected he’d seen a side of me he didn’t like very much. I wondered what the future held for us.
The book on holy sites that Phyllis had loaned me was on the coffee table, and when I’d cleared away the remains of my food, I poured myself another glass of wine and picked it up. The photographs of the Well of the Eyes made me think back to Christmas morning before we found Carole’s body. It sounds maudlin, but it felt to me now like the last time I’d been happy. I took out my phone to have a look at the photographs I had taken that morning and scrolled through. There were images of the cairn at the top, the holy well, Fred. None of Molloy, I noticed. Maybe that was prophetic.
I discovered that one of the pictures was actually a video. I must have been trying to take a photograph of the holy well and pressed video by mistake. I played it. It was short, about thirty seconds long, the camera fixed on the well throughout. But there was sound: wind, laughter from Molloy when I stepped in the wet, all before Fred disappeared. Then something else. I tried to make it out. It was so faint that I wondered if I was mistaken, so I turned the sound up and replayed it. There it was again: a whistle, way in the distance, long and low, with six short blasts.
When I arrived at the office the following morning, Leah was alone.
“Where is your able assistant this morning?” I asked, dumping my bag on the reception desk.
Leah looked at her watch. “No sign of her. Day two and she’s late. Doesn’t exactly bode well, does it?”
I wondered if our chat the day before was the reason for her absence. I could have kicked myself for weighing in too soon. The last thing I’d wanted was to scare her away.
“Maybe she’s decided all that dust wasn’t for her,” Leah grinned.
I climbed the stairs and opened a file, but couldn’t concentrate on work. Where the hell was Susanne? My stomach lurched when I realized she had probably told Luke what I’d said. But why shouldn’t I have said what I did? Luke claimed he had been honest with her, so I shouldn’t have been telling her anything she didn’t already know.
I needed some fresh air.
“I’ll be back in ten,” I called to Leah as I headed out the door. The morning was grey, overcast and cold. Unwisely, I’d gone out without a coat and was hunched over crossing the street when I ran into Stan. He was standing outside his salon watching Róisín climb into a car with her mother in the passenger seat.
“Are you back to work?” I asked in surprise.
“One foot in, one foot out. Short-staffed.” He looked pale and spoke softly, not like him. And he didn’t seem to want to chat. Before I could ask him anything more, he turned to go back inside.
I called after him. “Stan. Are you okay?”
He turned reluctantly, his face pinched, eyes wary.
“You still don’t look well. Are you sure you should be back at work? Are you sure you should even be out of hospital?”
He looked down. “I’m fine.”
With a jolt I realized that he was afraid. I don’t know why I was so surprised; the man had recently been attacked. I knew I should let him go back into the safety of his salon, but I had an uneasy feeling that I might not get the chance to ask him again. “Stan, the man Carole was with in Derry, that night before the fire. Are you sure you didn’t recognize him?”
His eyes widened and he looked around him fearfully. Róisín and her mother drove by; he gave them a small wave, then suddenly his expression changed. He clenched his fists and seemed to come to a decision. “It was Susanne Craig’s new boyfriend.”
A chill ran down my spine.
Stan avoided my gaze. “It was true that I didn’t recognize him at the time, but I’ve seen him since. I didn’t say anything because I realized it was nothing to worry about. I assumed they’d met through Tony or Susanne.”
The final two sentences sounded rehearsed. Stan didn’t believe there was nothing to worry about any more than I did. The reason he hadn’t said anything was because he was afraid. But why was he telling me now? Before I could ask him, he turned to go. I pulled on his sleeve as he walked away, but he refused to say anything more.
Blood pounding in my ears, I raced back to the office to ring Molloy. Luke had been with Carole the night before the fire, probably the night before she was killed. They knew each other. This was the connection he had been looking for.
Leah was on the phone when I arrived in. She was chalk white. She put her hand over the receiver. “It’s Susanne,” she whispered. “She sounds very strange.”
I took the phone from her. “Susanne, is everything okay?”
The voice on the other end sounded slurred. “Don’t switch on the kettle.”
“What?”
“Don’t switch on the kettle. There’s a device in the socket … switching on the kettle will activate it.”
I felt my heart rate speed up. “A device? What do you mean, a device?”
A note of urgency entered her voice. “This wasn’t my idea … I swear to God, I didn’t know. Those explosives were for—” The phone was snatched away from her and the line was cut.
I put down the handset.
“We need to leave,” I said, as calmly as I could.
“What?” Leah said, her eyes wide with fear, a tear welling in the corner of one of them.
“Now,” I shouted. “There’s some kind of device. Explosives. I don’t know. Come on!”
I ran upstairs to grab my keys, and we raced out onto the street, startling a couple of schoolkids on their way to the dentist and ordering them to come with us. I called Molloy as I ran.
An hour later, we stood on the footpath of the Malin road on the outskirts of town. The entire square had been evacuated within minutes of Susanne’s call, and Molloy had immediately contacted the Defense Forces. The decision had been made to treat the threat as real because of the trace of explosives discovered in the pub, but so far nothing had been found. Temporary barricades had been set up at various points along the road and people stood about in groups of twos and threes, some talking, others just staring at the building on the other side. Our building. Our office. Over the time we had been standing there, shock had faded to boredom, frustration, and cold. It was raining, stinging, icy rain. And the army’s bomb disposal experts remained in our office.
I used the time, shivering by the roadside, to tell Leah about Luke, the whole story from beginning to end. When I had finished, she was trembling with cold and shock.
“He went to the bathroom,” she said quietly.
“What?” I asked.
“Susanne’s boyfriend. When he was here earlier in the week, he went to the bathroom. He must have planted something then. We were there all day yesterday with something in the office that could have blown us up.” She wrung her hands. “I turned on that kettle umpteen times.”
I touched her arm. “I really think it must be a hoax. They’d have found whatever it was by now.”
She glared at me.
“But you’re right,” I said hurriedly. “It doesn’t change the fact that I should have told you who Luke Kirby was as soon as he appeared in the office.”
“Yes, you should have,” she said, and turned away.
I felt a twist in my gut as I realized that Leah had every reason to be annoyed with me. Whether or not this was a hoax, I had put her and everyone who came into the office at risk by not disclosing what I knew.
Molloy emerged from the crowd, looking drawn. “They haven’t found anything yet. Tell me about that call again. Exactly what was said, word for word.”
I did. “It’s Kirby. I know it is. He’s got Susanne somewhere, against her will. We need to find her.”
He frowned. “Are you sure they’re not in this together?”
I shook my head. “She was frightened. I could hear it in her voice. Where could he have taken her?”
“That house in Derry,” Molloy said urgently. He ran towards the squad car, calling back to me. “I’ll contact the PSNI on the way. Stay here and I’ll let you know what happens.”
I watched him leave, shifting from one foot to the other. It was freezing and we had come out without coats. Leah wasn’t speaking to me, and I didn’t feel like speaking to anyone else, despite the fact that I knew most of the people in the crowd. I felt as if I had brought all of this down on my friends and neighbors. I felt useless and responsible, a lousy combination.
My phone buzzed in the pocket of my suit. I jumped, thinking it was Molloy.
Drive out the Derry road. I’ll let her live if you come.
The words swam in front of my eyes. Luke, I thought. How had he got my number? It must have been written somewhere in my wallet. I tapped Leah on the shoulder and showed her the text.
She looked horrified. “You’re not thinking of responding, are you?”
“I have to. What if he has Susanne hostage and there’s something I can do? I’d never forgive myself if …”
“Ben …”
I typed a response, hands trembling: Okay.
Avoiding the blocked-off square, I took a route through a network of muddy back roads before ending up on the Derry road just as it began to rain again. The Mini’s wipers screeched like nails on a blackboard and the road was a mire, strewn with branches and mulch, Sliabh Sneacht in the distance, a brooding presence against the stormy sky. My head was spinning. I tried to figure out what I would do once I found Luke. I knew it was a trap. But I couldn’t let what had happened to Faye happen to someone else.
A figure stood at the side of the road just ahead. I swallowed. Luke, I thought. But when the windscreen cleared briefly, I saw that it was a woman – a slight woman in a long waterproof coat. She was standing under a tree outside the McCanns’ farm. It was Róisín, hitching a lift. Things were beginning to make a sickening sort of sense. She waved me to a stop. I pulled in and rolled down the window. The collie I had seen when I had called to the house was crouched at her feet, as soaked as she was.
She pushed back her hood. “Are you heading to Derry?”
I struggled to come up with an excuse and failed.
“Can I have a lift? Please. I’m a bit stuck. Eddie was meant to drive me, but—”
“Go on. Get in.” I bowed to the inevitable.
She took a bag from beneath the tree and climbed into the car, pushing the bag through the gap between the front seats. Before she closed the door, she sent the dog back into the yard. “Go on, Jessie. Stay inside in the dry.”
Jessie. Of course.
As I pulled away, my phone buzzed on the dashboard. I picked it up. A text from Molloy, two words: Flat empty.
“Is everything okay?” Róisín asked.
“You heard what happened in town?”
She nodded. “I presume it’s a hoax?”
“We don’t know yet.” I turned onto the shore road towards Derry. “Where do you want to go?”
“Culdaff.”
“I thought you were going to Derry?” I felt something cold on the back of my neck.
“I’ve changed my mind. Now turn the car around and head back towards Culdaff.”
With horror, I realized that the object at my neck was a gun. I stopped to turn and a tractor approached, puffing out smoke, with a line of cars behind. I waited, heart racing, for the traffic to pass, the sea beyond a muddy brown, the sky grey and threatening. Part of me wished for a collision, anything to stop what was about to happen. But when Róisín took my phone from the dashboard, switched it off, and put it in the pocket of her coat, I knew I could no longer be traced.