THERE WERE TWO cars parked at the entrance to the church. I dialed the garda station again, a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. Silence. Not even a dial tone. I looked at the screen of my phone, the white light ghostly in the dark of the car. Of course, no bloody reception. The road was in a dip – I had only been able to phone from outside the church when we had found the bones, from higher ground.
I looked at the gate. If my suspicions were correct, the last thing I wanted was to be in the same company as the Kellys, Conor Devitt, and a shotgun. But I had no choice: if I drove to get help, by the time I got back it could be too late. At least I had a hope of calling for help up at the church.
The wind battered me as I tried to close the car door; my coat flapped wildly around my legs. The moon was hidden now by black clouds that had moved in front of it, making the light eerie and unpredictable, lightening and darkening with no warning. A storm was coming.
I opened the gate, took a deep breath, and entered the darkened avenue. Bushes and brambles thrashed about like crazed Medusas. I caught sight of the beam of light again for a second, when I emerged into the clearing – a weak flash through the gaps in the walls of the church where the windows had once been. It was a torch, or maybe two. Silently, I ran the rest of the way up the hill and reached the entrance to the church, my lungs burning, my feet wet from the icy grass. I stopped at the huge corrugated-iron door, which was ajar, maybe a foot and a half, a pale shaft of light escaping along the rough ground. I held my breath and peered in as the wind carried the murmur of voices towards me.
I saw two faces, each illuminated by the other’s torch. One transformed utterly from the determined stoic I had encountered the day before, the other calm and controlled, like a mother speaking to a small child.
“Please, Conor, just go,” Alison Kelly said.
“Not unless you come with me.” It was Conor Devitt.
“I can’t.”
“I’m not going to leave you here with him. Not again.” He touched her face. “It was a mistake to leave without you in the first place.”
She removed his hand. “I couldn’t have left without Trevor, you know that. He was only a child.”
“We could have taken him with us.”
Alison shook her head. “I would never have done that. Whatever you think of him, Ray’s still Trevor’s father.”
“I should have stayed then. Whatever it took for us to be together. Anything would be better than the way things are, only seeing each other every few months.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
He flinched. Her tone was sharp.
“I don’t know why you’re here at all,” she went on. “I told you not to come back.”
“There was no reason for me to stay away anymore. Not now that he knows I’m not dead.”
“Surely that’s even more of a reason?”
“I’m not afraid of him, Allie.”
She ran her fingers through her hair. “Well, I am. If he had known I let you out of the crypt that day, he’d have killed you. You knew too much for him to let you go. God knows why you had to confront him in the first place.”
Conor’s expression darkened. “You know why.”
She heaved a sigh. “He had no idea that you were the kid who had seen him all those years ago – until you decided to go and tell him.” She looked skywards. “I still don’t know what the hell you were thinking. And why choose to tell him here, of all places?”
“It had to be here. How he could buy this church after what he did …”
She cut across him, impatient. “That was me – I told you that. I talked him into buying it. He didn’t want to come back at all; he knew what risks he might run. He did it for me.”
“It was time, Allie. I needed to show him what he’d done, the community he’d destroyed.”
“And tell him about us? Even though I didn’t want you to?”
“He needed to know.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“You were afraid of him. It was up to me to tell him.”
“The morning of your own wedding?”
“I couldn’t go through with a wedding to someone else, you know that. Not after I’d found you again.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “I wanted to take care of you. Like I used to. I still do.”
She pulled away. “I’m an adult, Conor. I’m not that fat little kid who needs a friend anymore. I wasn’t then and I’m not now. We could have continued to see each other, but oh no, you had to force my hand. Just like you’re trying to do now. I can’t believe you scared our buyers away like that.”
“I didn’t think I’d need to force your hand. You were supposed to follow me, remember? When Trevor was old enough.”
Conor kicked at a weed growing amidst the rubble. “I should have gone after him, back then when you let me out. I should have gone after him and told him about us and that you were coming with me. Not let you talk me into taking that young lad’s body and putting it in my place.” He stared at the ground, one hand in his pocket. “That was a crazy thing to do.”
“It was the only thing to do. You needed to get away.”
He looked up at her and, for the first time, a note of anger entered his voice. “No. I did that for your sake, but it was a mistake. It was a terrible thing to do to my family. I should have come back long ago, but I didn’t – for you. It was only ever a matter of time before that body would be found.”
He took a step towards her again and leaned in close. “It’s time to face things. We can do it now.”
Again, she pulled back. “No. You need to leave. Just go, Conor, please.”
The wind changed direction, and I could no longer hear what they were saying. I peered cautiously around the edge of the door. Suddenly, I heard movement behind me – a footfall, the rustling of grass. I whirled around, my senses on overload. I thought I could make out a form about ten feet away, but when I looked again, it was gone. Had it been a trick of the shadows? The wind was churning the heavy storm clouds, daring them to break.
I’d turned back to face the door, my ears straining to hear what was being said, when I felt warm breath on the back of my neck. My heart jolted as someone grabbed my arm, wrenching it almost out of its socket, then hauled me inside and shoved me roughly between the two people in the church. They drew abruptly apart, and I heard a torch drop onto the ground. The light dimmed immediately. I stumbled forward and put my hands against the wall to stop my fall, scraping them painfully in the process. I managed to regain my footing in time to see Raymond Kelly, looking gray and thin and wretched, walk calmly over to his wife.
“Did you know your show had an audience?” he asked.
Alison’s eyes widened in horror. “Ray. What are you doing here?”
“Your boyfriend called me – didn’t he tell you? We had a nice little chat. Brought back memories of the last rendezvous he and I had up here, on the day of his wedding, no less.” Kelly’s voice was hard. “You’d think I’d learn, really. I only ever get a nasty fucking surprise when I’m summoned up here.”
“Ray, please, I—”
“I’m disappointed you fell for him, sweetheart. It’s me he’s after, not you. He’s only trying to get at me.”
Conor moved towards the far wall. “Not true, Kelly. That’s the way it started, but it hasn’t been that way for a long time.”
Without switching his gaze from Kelly for a second, Conor placed the torch, now the only source of light in the church, onto the window ledge, and picked up what I now saw had been resting against the wall the whole time. I stiffened. I heard Alison’s sharp intake of breath, and instinctively I took a step away from Conor and towards the Kellys.
Conor slowly raised the shotgun in his arms and, feet planted firmly apart, aimed it directly at Kelly. “At first, all I wanted was to destroy you, to make you pay for what you had done, but it’s been more than that for several years now. I love her. We love each other.”
Alison’s eyes darted from one man to the other. “Ray, it’s not like that! Look at him – he’s crazy.”
I stole a glance at Kelly. He was impassive. Not at all the panicker I was used to, despite having a gun pointed at him. Which one was the mask, I wondered.
“No more lying, Allie,” Conor said. “I refuse to walk away again. I need to finish what I started.”
I reached for the phone in the pocket of my coat and felt for the on button, my eyes fixed on Conor. I thought I could remember where the redial button was. My mouth was dry, my throat constricted.
“Come and stand by me,” he said, beckoning to Alison. She shook her head.
I gasped suddenly as Kelly took a swipe at the side of my head, so hard I bit my tongue. The phone shot violently out of my hand and hit a stone, ricocheted, and skittered across the concrete floor well out of reach. For a brief second all three pairs of eyes were on me.
Conor started to laugh – a low, bitter laugh. “You are one nosy solicitor. Everywhere I turn, you’re there.”
I put my hand to the side of my head. I tasted blood in my mouth.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked quietly, my ears still ringing.
“I want him to take responsibility. It is long overdue and I am calling him to account.” He waved the gun in Kelly’s direction. “You see this fine businessman here, this pillar of the community? This man is a murderer: he killed three people and as good as killed my father. Who knows how many others.”
“No,” Kelly said. “It was my first time, and my last.”
“It was your last because you were stupid enough to allow your face to be seen by a wee boy,” Conor spat. “Some brave volunteer you were!”
“I was the fucking lookout, for God’s sake. I was only a kid myself.”
“You were old enough to kill Lisa’s father.”
“If you’re talking about the pilot, I panicked. It was an accident.”
Fury flashed across Conor’s face. “Accident? You shot him in the back of the head as he was running away from you. I saw you do it! I actually grew up thinking it was my fault somehow, because you were looking at me when he made a run for it.”
“It was your fault. You distracted me. What the hell were you doing out that night anyway? Hiding behind the pilot station in your fucking pajamas. Everything went wrong after that. Stupid little fuck.”
“You wouldn’t know what guilt means, would you, what it means to have a conscience,” Conor said disgustedly. “You’d rather blame your actions on an eleven-year-old boy.”
“No one was supposed to die that night. Mistakes were made. Not just by me.”
“That wasn’t much use to the people you killed. Or their families. No one was ever punished for the lives lost or the damage that was done to this community. When I gave you a chance to man up – right here, six years ago – all you could do was knock me out and run. You’re nothing but a pathetic coward, Kelly, and you always will be.”
“So where have you been for the past six years then?” Kelly sneered. “I don’t know how the fuck you got out of that crypt, but if disappearing and letting your family think you’re dead isn’t running away, I don’t know what is.”
Conor’s jaw tightened. “If you really want to know, it was your wife who wanted people to think I was dead. She knew I couldn’t stay here and marry someone else, not when I was in love with her.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Alison said, but Conor ignored her.
“If she hadn’t been so terrified of you, we could have run away together, been happy together.”
Kelly laughed scornfully. “Alison afraid of me? I don’t know what she’s been telling you, son, but you don’t know my wife very well …” He stopped suddenly. Confusion flickered across his features and his face fell. “Oh Christ, it was you. You let him out of the crypt that day, didn’t you? It’s been going on that long.”
Alison looked silently at the ground.
“Looks like you’re the one who doesn’t know your wife very well, Kelly,” Conor gloated as he repositioned the gun. “Now, are you going to let us leave, or do I have to do what I should have done six years ago?”
Kelly faced him. “You wouldn’t have the nerve, son.” His sunken eyes made him look skeletal in the dim torchlight. “It takes a certain type to kill a man, doesn’t it, sweetheart?”
Alison flinched. “How did you know?”
Conor’s eyes darted from Kelly to Alison. “Allie?”
“It didn’t take a genius to work it out when I got the call from your boyfriend tonight. Heading off to collect Trevor at a party on the Malin Road on the same night as the accident, and then leaving him to get home in a taxi? Not like you, babe. Taking the Merc to the garage the next day before I could get a look at it.”
Conor’s face froze. “What is he talking about?”
Kelly ignored him. “What I don’t understand is – why? I thought Danny Devitt was a harmless old eejit. Isn’t that what you called him?”
Alison looked at her husband. “I did it for you.” She touched his sleeve. He recoiled immediately from the contact and her eyes glistened with tears.
“Go on,” he ordered, avoiding her gaze.
“Last week, after he found out the bones weren’t Conor’s, he came looking for you at the bar. He wanted answers. He’d seen you and Conor come up here the morning of the wedding and he saw you leave alone. He found Conor in the crypt.”
“So why the fuck didn’t he let him out?”
“We had a row,” Conor said quietly.
Alison pivoted. “What did you say?”
“He was going to let me out, but I made the mistake of shouting at him. He was upset with me, said he knew about us.”
“What?”
Conor shrugged. “He must have seen us together. He said that I didn’t deserve Lisa. That he was going to make sure I missed the wedding. He left me there.”
Alison’s eyes sparked. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me any of this before we started taking bodies out of coffins to put in your place?”
“I didn’t want to involve my brother.”
“What is wrong with you? He could have told anyone, any time in the last six years.”
“Well, it seems he didn’t, doesn’t it?”
“Or did you hope he would tell, and then you’d have to come back?” she spat. “Was that your plan?”
“Would that have been such a bad thing?”
“Jesus fucking Christ!” Kelly’s roar echoed around the walls of the church. “Am I really expected to listen to this shit?”
Alison ran her hand through her hair, her eyes brimming with tears. When she spoke again, her voice was choked. “The next day, Danny came back to let Conor out of the crypt but all he could see through the gate was a body wearing Conor’s jacket. A body with a head wound.”
“My poor brother.” Conor sounded broken. “He thought it was me. That’s why he didn’t tell anyone. He thought he’d killed me.”
There was a pause. No one spoke for a few seconds. It was starting to rain. I could hear the drops hitting the iron door, just a few at first, big heavy drops, splattering against the metal like the plucking of guitar strings. I imagined I heard an engine on the road. But maybe it was just the wind.
“My mother said he had some kind of a breakdown after I went missing. He must have kept it to himself for years. Thinking that was me in the crypt.” Conor’s voice was shaking.
Kelly applauded with a slow handclap. “Well, if that isn’t fucking hilarious. Your plan worked.”
“Danny couldn’t understand it when the bones turned out not to be Conor,” Alison said. “When he came to the bar last week, he was really drunk. He was all over the place – he could have said anything to anyone.”
“So you killed him,” I said. “Just like that.”
Alison looked at me, confused, as if remembering for the first time that I was there. I hadn’t realized I’d spoken aloud.
“It wasn’t planned. At first I sent him away. I told him to come back the following day. But that night Trevor wanted me to collect him after a party. It was about five o’clock in the morning. I remembered Conor saying how Danny was a night owl, so I drove by his cottage and there was a light on. I called in to see if I could persuade him not to say anything.” Her voice hardened. “He wouldn’t listen. He was talking about going to the guards. I couldn’t let him do that. I told him that if he came back to Buncrana with me that Ray would talk to him and explain everything.”
“And instead you ran him off the road.” I felt sick.
“It was easy. He drove ahead of me. His old banger was no match for the Merc.” Her expression was defiant. “I had no choice. I had to protect Ray.”
“That’s bollocks,” Kelly said. “What you were really afraid of was that he’d tell me about you and lover boy here.”
Alison shook her head. “No.”
“You were afraid you’d lose everything. Just like before.”
“I swear. It was nothing to do with that.”
“Oh come on. Penniless carpenter versus wealthy businessman? Not much competition there. Dying wealthy businessman.” Kelly laughed bitterly. He sounded tired.
Alison looked stricken: it was as if his words had caused her physical pain. “No, that’s not it. I couldn’t let it all come out. I couldn’t let you go to prison, not now.”
“You’re lying, Allie.” Conor waved the gun at Kelly. “He did it. He killed my brother. Why are you trying to protect him?”
Alison looked down, her voice barely audible now against the sound of the rain drumming on the roof and the door, battering the ivy creeping in through the open windows.
“I’m not. I was protecting him when I killed Danny.”
Conor’s eyes widened in horrified comprehension. His features contorted as a whole gamut of emotions crossed his face: rage, anguish, grief, followed by searing, wretched desolation. Slowly, he switched the angle of the gun towards Alison.
Suddenly, I found myself shoved roughly aside as Kelly leaped forward and wrestled Conor for the gun. Alison screamed. Blood pounded in my ears. My thoughts flew in a thousand different directions as I watched the struggle, my body paralyzed by fear. It didn’t last long; there was no contest physically. Weakened by illness, Kelly was no match for a man ten years younger. A shot rang out and Kelly slumped to the ground.
Alison cried out and ran forward. She fell on Kelly and curled herself over him in a fetal position as if trying to cover him with her body. Conor stared at them for a second, confused, as if unsure of what had just happened. His confusion was replaced quickly by understanding, by pain. Slowly he lifted the gun again, eyes only for her. Alison looked up at him, frozen.
I saw her face in the torchlight and heard a click as the trigger was pulled into position again. I saw the dark hair, the dark eyes, a face full of fear. My head started to spin and everything around me receded into nothing … all I could see was the gun. I lunged towards it.
I heard a shot. Was aware of the warmth of blood, a metallic smell. The last thing I remember was a searing pain in my leg – and then nothing.