A Savage Hunger (Paula Maguire 4) (22 page)

Alice

It was a while before I heard about Yvonne. I was already working here when Maureen brought it up. Bloody old gossip.
I don’t know how you can stay alone in here, Alice.

Oh really?
Thinking – shut up, you nosy old bag. Trying to sound light and perky.

Oh aye. Well, you know about the girl who vanished here?
And of course I didn’t and of course she told me every gory detail, ending on:
and they never found her, not even a hair off her head.

Are you saying I’ll vanish too, Maureen?
I said.

You never know
, she said, with that usual vague dread that Irish people seem to like. Then off she pops for an evening at home with her awful husband, leaving me out here all alone in my damp cottage with no lock. Thanks, Maureen! But I maybe I should thank her after all. Maybe that gave me the idea.

I looked Yvonne up, later that night, all alone in my horrible spidery cottage. Anything to take my mind off things. And there was her photo – and it was like looking at myself. As if I’d died and this was my memorial. And I’d never even heard of her.

How awful, to be gone and not be famous. To be missing and the world just keep going on, as if you just slipped out of someone’s pocket and down the back of a sofa. The people who hurt you just carrying on with their lives, as if you didn’t matter. Not being punished. Not being stopped.

It won’t be like that for me. I’m going to make sure of it.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Paula paused with her pass at the door of the station. She couldn’t bear it. She just wanted to get on with work, forget that she’d been up all night again with a sobbing Maggie who wanted to know why Daddy had to go away. Paula had hardly been able to leave her that morning, with a quivering-eyed Pat and silent, miserable PJ. And she hadn’t even thought about the news that Aidan had given her, what she was going to do about that. No sign of Guy, thank God, but she’d encounter him sometime. And then what?

She was walking to her desk through the main office, head ducked down, when someone planted themselves in her way. She looked up, but she’d already recognised the handmade shoes. ‘Sir.’

‘Dr Maguire,’ said Willis Campbell. ‘I’m surprised to see you here.’

‘Why?’ She met his gaze, thinking she really didn’t care any more what Willis Campbell thought of her. There were more important things.

‘You have leave booked, for one thing.’

‘It’s been cancelled.’ She knew it was him who’d authorised Aidan’s arrest, right in the middle of her wedding. It was him who’d ruined everything. But he couldn’t send her home because of it – could he?

She could feel the waves of annoyance roll off him, along with his Aqua di Gio. ‘Are you sure you really want to be here? With everything?’

She looked past him, trying to keep her temper. He was just doing his job. She’d do the same. ‘I think work is the best place for me, sir. Especially with Dermot Healy missing as well.’

‘I hate to say this, Dr Maguire, but you’ve not exactly added much to the investigation up to now. And with your family . . . situation, I’m not sure you should be working here.’

Paula looked him in the eye. She was two inches taller than him. ‘Are you saying you’re suspending me? Because last time I checked I hadn’t done anything wrong.’

‘No, but—’

‘I don’t know what you expected me to add, either. This is a complex case, and no one has any more insight than I do. I’m not a miracle worker.’ She had left out the sir, and God, it felt good. Not to care. Not to worry about what might go wrong, because everything already had.

He seemed to think about it for a moment, almost waiting to see if she’d mention his role in what happened. ‘If you’re absolutely sure your work won’t be affected.’

Paula gave him a tight smile. ‘All I can do is my best.
Sir
.’

He stood back, but she knew he was watching her as she walked off.

Corry was at her desk, and thankfully she didn’t offer any platitudes. ‘Well. I wasn’t sure we’d see you today.’

‘I just need to . . . is there anything?’ The room seemed busier than usual.

‘Still no sign of Dermot or Alice, no. We’re searching everywhere.’

‘Did you get anything off his phone?’

‘Loads. Dermot, Peter, and Katy have been exchanging messages all the way through this.’

‘They’re in it together?’

‘They’re in something. You were right, they’ve been lying to us the whole time.’

‘Can we bring Katy in?’ said Paula. ‘We need to try and catch her out. And now Dermot’s gone, we might have a chance.’

‘Why am I here? Did something happen to Dermot? Did—’

‘Katy, Katy. Please calm yourself.’

Katy was in the interview room at the station. A change of scene. Not her own bedroom, where she felt safe. This room was stark, unforgiving, the dazzle of harsh lights in your eyes. Katy wore her usual misshapen clothes, the black band prominent on her pale arm. Corry said, ‘Your parents are on their way. We’ve recommended they engage a lawyer for you. In the meantime we’ve supplied one. You’ve understood the rights that were explained to you?’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘I didn’t need a lawyer before.’

‘No. This is a bit different. Katy – I have to tell you that we’ve seen the messages.’

Katy looked blank. Almost bovine. ‘What messages?’

‘On WhatsApp. From you to Dermot and Peter. You see, Dermot left his phone behind when he went.’

Still the blank look. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Come on. I’m telling you, we have them.’

‘Er, I don’t even use WhatsApp. I had it once, like, ages ago, but I couldn’t figure it out.’

‘Katy. I must ask you to tell us the truth. We’ve seen your messages. Talking about what happened. Saying you needed to tell the police about it?’

‘What?’ She looked at her lawyer, puzzled. ‘I honestly don’t know what they’re on about. I don’t have it. It was on my old phone, I think, maybe, but I don’t use it.’

Corry stopped. ‘Your
old
phone?’

‘Well, yeah, I had a smartphone, but I lost it a while back. I just have an old crap one now, a Nokia.’

‘But Katy, we’ve seen messages that come from your number. It’s registered to you.’

She just stared at them, slack-jawed. ‘My
old
number. It must have been, my phone can’t even . . . Honest, I don’t know where that one is. I lost it. So I just got a pay as you go one, till my contract runs out and I can get a new phone. It was Alice’s idea.’

‘What?’

‘I didn’t want to tell my mum I lost it – she’d have killed me, the phone cost a fortune. So I just got a new SIM. It was a real hassle to tell everyone, such a pain.’

‘Alice told you not to cancel your old number?’

‘That’s right. She said the phone might turn up and then my mum wouldn’t need to find out.’

‘Katy, when was this?’

She screwed up her eyes, remembering. ‘Um, I guess it was like, a month ago? Two months?’

‘Before Alice went missing.’

‘Yes, right after—’ Katy stopped, bit her lip. For a moment Paula, watching, felt a surge of annoyance. How could she be so stupid, so slow, and yet still run rings around them? What were they missing?

Corry leaned in. ‘Katy. In these messages, which purport to be from you, there’s a lot of references to “what happened”. Something that involved you, and Alice, and the boys. They seemed to know what it was. There are references to drugs. Now I need you to tell me, do you know what that was?’

Katy looked all around the room. At the video recorder, at the blank walls. At Corry. At her lawyer, who was just as puzzled as anyone. She seemed to be weighing up her odds. Then she let out a small noise, like a child about to have a tantrum, and burst into tears.

‘Katy would like to make a statement,’ said her lawyer, a while later.

Katy was red-eyed, shredding a tissue onto the table. ‘I want to tell you what happened,’ she said. ‘I should have before, but – I was afraid. I thought maybe they would hurt me.’

‘Who would, Katy?’ asked Corry. She sounded tired. In the interview room, the recorder was running.

‘Peter. And Dermot too. It was them, you see.’ Katy spoke formally, as if she’d rehearsed it in advance. ‘They raped Alice. They gave her drugs – MDMA, I think. I didn’t want to take any, but I think they put it in my drink because everything went all funny that night.’

‘When was this?’

‘About, I don’t know, two months, maybe. At the end of term. We used to go to the boathouse, the four of us. Just to hang out, talk. Peter has a key, you see, he’s the rowing captain. But that night . . . I don’t know. He was weird. He kept trying to kiss Alice, touch her. Even though she was really out of it. I don’t know what happened. I must have passed out. Everything was sort of blurry. Then I woke up at one point and—’ She shuddered. ‘Alice’s clothes were half-off. She had her top on but her jeans were . . . round her ankles. And he was on her. He was . . . raping her.’

‘Peter?’ Corry spoke gently.

Katy shook her head. ‘No. Dermot.’

‘Dermot raped Alice?’

‘Yeah. Peter had already . . . done it.’ She shuddered again. ‘I didn’t remember properly for ages. When they realised what they’d done they carried us back to our room. I could hardly walk. Then the next day Alice woke up and she didn’t know what had happened . . . but she was bleeding. I said she should go to the nurse, or the police, but she said they wouldn’t believe her. I think she told the principal, though.’

‘Why didn’t you tell us this before?’

‘I – I wasn’t sure what I remembered. And Alice wouldn’t have wanted me to tell you. She was ashamed.’

‘Do you think that’s why she ran away?’

‘Yes,’ said Katy promptly. ‘I thought she would come back again, see. Once she’d got her head straight.’

‘You should have told us sooner, Katy.’

‘I know.’ She lowered her head. ‘I was just trying to help my friend.’

‘Peter?’

‘No! Alice, I mean. I was trying to help Alice.’

‘But you said Peter spent the night with you before Alice disappeared.’

‘I know, I . . . I was just trying to help. Honestly, I thought she just wanted some time away.’

‘And did he? Spend the night with you?’

Katy seemed to weigh this up for a long time. What would best serve her need. To be important. To matter. Then she said, ‘No. No, he wasn’t. I just said that.’

‘You lied.’

Her lawyer muttered something. Katy shied in annoyance. ‘Yes, but I – I thought I was helping Al, you see. I thought she wanted—’

‘Headspace,’ said Corry, with irony. ‘Tell me this, Katy. When did you actually see Alice last? I mean see her with your own two eyes?’

Katy thought about it. ‘I don’t know. I was sure I’d seen her a lot . . . but when I think about it, I guess it was mostly online. I saw her in the library about a month ago. I suppose that was the last time.’

‘And how did she look? What was she doing?’

‘She was looking at some books. She had on like a big jumper, and a hat, I think, even though it was hot, I remember thinking that was weird . . . I called out to her and she looked round, but she just went out. She said afterwards that she didn’t see me.’

‘You saw her face?’

‘Yeah, it was her. But she looked funny, I guess.’

‘Funny how?’

‘I don’t know. Puffy. Like she wasn’t well or something.’

‘All right. We’re going to need your phone, Katy. Your current phone, that is.’

‘There’s nothing. Just texts. I don’t . . . I didn’t send them, I swear. The WhatsApps and that. I don’t know how. I swear.’

‘One more thing. Where do you think Dermot is?’

‘I think—’ Her lip trembled. ‘Now that I think about it, maybe he went to get her. To make her shut up about it. About what happened.’

‘To hurt her, you mean?’

‘Yes.’ Katy blinked. ‘Please find them. Please don’t let him hurt her.’

‘She’s lying,’ said Corry. ‘Not about the rape. I think that took place, but I think she knew more about it than she’s saying. I want to keep her in custody, if we can. We can charge her with obstruction if nothing else.’

Paula was thinking it through. ‘She was trying to protect Peter at first, saying he was her boyfriend, but now he’s not interested – he’s going after Avril – and she’s ready to drop him in it. She’s smarter than we thought.’

‘Not that smart – she may have taken away his alibi, but that’s her own gone as well. I think she may be right about one thing, though. We need to find Dermot Healy, and fast, before he hurts someone.’

‘And who’s got her old phone? Someone was sending those messages.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Corry, frustrated. ‘I don’t understand how it works. We’d need to ask Trevor the teenager again.’

Paula said, ideas forming in her mind –
puffy,
Katy had said,
great big jumper
, Mrs O’Neill said, the food buried near the cottage. ‘Um—’

‘What is it?’ Corry saw her expression. ‘Are you having one of these famous insights? Should I get Willis?’

‘Well, you know, I might just be . . . We need to speak to someone who actually
saw
Alice before she went. Not Garrett. The volunteer. The one who found the church open that morning. What’s her name again? Maureen? Do we have a number?’

‘In the file,’ said Corry. ‘But . . .’

Too impatient to explain, Paula rifled through the file and punched in a number. It being Ireland, people still answered their landlines. ‘Ballyterrin 64578,’ came the crisp tones.

‘Hello, Mrs Mackin? This is Dr Maguire from the PSNI. I’m sorry to bother you, I just had to ask a quick question about Alice Morgan, if you don’t mind.’

‘Well, I suppose so, but what—’

‘What did she look like?’

‘
Look
like?’ The woman sounded impatient. ‘But surely you’ve her picture, I saw it in the paper.’

‘Yes, I know it sounds daft, but what did she look like when you saw her last? What dress size was she, for example?’ Paula was aware of Corry staring at her. ‘I know it might seem like a silly question, but please.’

‘Well, she . . . I suppose she’d be a size twelve, something like that?’

Corry was making ‘what are you doing?’ gestures. Paula ignored her. ‘You’re sure about that? A twelve?’ In her selfies, Alice would barely have been a size eight.

‘Aye, I take my granddaughter shopping and she’d be about the same, though she’ll be a fourteen soon if she doesn’t stop with the chips after school.’

‘Was Alice the same size when she first started working there?’

Maureen Mackin said, ‘No, she put on a powerful amount of weight in a wee while. They say they do, students. All the chips and pints of beer, like navvies they are. In my day we just stuck to a small sherry.’

‘Thank you,’ said Paula. ‘I’m afraid I need to run on now, but that’s very helpful.’ She hung up, but not fast enough to miss the tut of disapproval at her lack of phone manners.

Corry was looking at her. Half-exasperated, half-pleased. ‘Well?’

Paula said, ‘She’d started eating again. She looks different from what we thought. We’ve been sending out the wrong description.’