The Game Changer (41 page)

She created another map with the PIU victim in the centre, then another, this time writing the name ‘Saka’. Could the identity of the sender be in front of her? The abuse victim was now a grown woman. Why had she come forward only recently? Kate knew there could be any number of reasons, but as she was thinking this, she reread the copy of the latest note.

‘What are you seeing, Kate,’ she said aloud, ‘that you can’t put your finger on?’

ADAM WASN’T HAPPY ABOUT LEAVING KATE ALONE, but he had his own reasons for asking Fitzsimons to get additional information on the portfolio of properties. He was angry that he hadn’t made the connection before, but now that his suspicions were raised, if he was correct, the new information would implicate Malcolm Madden even more.

Scanning down the various addresses, it didn’t take him long to find the range of properties listed as sites 5–14, all located in the lower Rathmines area, each with a unique folio number. Fitzsimons had done as Adam had requested, and beside the folio references, the individual house numbers and street addresses were now transcribed. Seeing Kate’s old house on the list didn’t prove anything, other than that it was yet another prime investment site, but comparing his house-to-house notes against the full list, particularly the two witness statements, confirming rumours about Kate’s father, he found what he was looking for. Both statements alluding to the rumours had come from two of the portfolio properties, one being Kate’s old home. He’d be talking to Malcolm Madden again. The question was whether or not he would wait until Fisher arrived. He’d also get Fitzsimons to find out whatever he could on the two individuals who had given him the information.

Adam had already allocated four members of his team to the task of re-interviewing Amanda Doyle’s and Robert Cotter’s family and friends. He had also dropped off the note with Forensics. There wouldn’t be anything back on it for a few hours, or possibly not until the next morning.

The team had been re-interviewing the family and friends for a couple of hours but, so far, nothing fresh was coming in. Something had to break soon.

It was too late to phone Madden’s office, and his private number went to voicemail. On the second attempt he left a message. Tomorrow morning, if he had to, he would sit outside the guy’s house and stalk him. Within twenty minutes, Madden’s PA phoned back, saying Madden would see him at his home at noon the following day.

‘There will be two of us,’ he told the girl. ‘I’ll be accompanied by Detective Lee Fisher of the NYPD.’

That, Adam thought, should give the smarmy bastard something to think about.

Someone – or a number of people – was holding back information. It was late, and he didn’t like the idea of leaving Kate alone in the apartment any longer. Tomorrow would have to take care of itself. Right now, someone needed him more than his job did.

WATCHING THE BLACK SMOKE AND FLAMES POURING from the buildings, Addy pulled out his mobile phone, already knowing he wouldn’t get a signal.

‘I didn’t know you had a phone,’ Donal said, sounding disappointed that Addy hadn’t mentioned it.

‘There’s no coverage.’

‘You should have told me.’

‘Donal, we’re going to have to go back. They might need our help.’

‘It could be a trap. There are bars on the windows at that end. They’re probably all dead by now.’

Addy wanted to tell him to stop being so bloody melodramatic, but what was the point? If anything, it confirmed his suspicions that Donal was inclined to think in a fantastical way, being barely an eleven-year-old. ‘It’s almost dark,’ was all he said in reply. They didn’t have any torches, and even though the mobile phone was useless, Addy couldn’t risk running down the battery using it for light. ‘Which is closer,’ he asked, ‘the commune or your hideout?’

They both heard the commune bell ring out.

‘That’s the special code, Addy.’

‘What code? Is it a warning about the fire?’

‘It could be, but they also use it for the drill.’

‘What drill?’

‘When Saka thinks it’s time.’

‘Time for what?’

‘He calls it the eternity bell.’

KATE DIDN’T TURN ON THE LIGHTS. THE SEMI-darkness seemed to calm her thoughts.

When the doorbell rang, she wasn’t sure what to do. Everything felt like a threat now. In the hall, she pressed the intercom, asking, ‘Who is it?’ Nobody answered. She tried again. Still no response. Rushing to the living-room window, she looked out on to the front steps, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever had been at the door, again feeling like a prisoner in her own home.

She hadn’t realised how late it was. The streetlights were already on. When she pressed her face to the glass, the only person she saw was a male cyclist, the same man who had cycled past the apartment before. As the window fogged, she told herself someone could have rung the intercom by accident, but when she heard the key turn in the front door, panic set in.

How someone had managed to get inside the communal hallway didn’t matter, or how they had got hold of a key. The only thing that mattered was that they were close. She was glad she hadn’t turned on the lights. The darkness would give her time. She had to think fast. They would be inside in the next couple of seconds.

Her legs felt wobbly, her head hot and sweaty, and as multiple thoughts rammed through her mind at the same time, she put most of her bodily reaction down to fear, until her eyes began to black out, and her limbs turned to jelly, and she collapsed in a heap on the floor.

WHEN KATE WOKE, IT WAS EARLY MORNING. SHE looked around her, composed at first, realising she was at home, then remembered her fear from the previous night and her blackout. She heard movements in the kitchen. She told herself it was Adam, that it must have been a bad dream. Looking down at her body, she realised she was in her pyjamas. She couldn’t remember getting into bed. Had someone undressed her? What time was it? Reaching out for her mobile phone, she saw it was coming close to nine o’clock. Adam always left for work before eight. Whoever was outside was putting on the radio. The volume was loud. If it was Adam, he wouldn’t have it on that high. Would he?

Her legs felt like lead as she tried to get out of the bed, then her head did that thing again, and the room began to spin. She was going to be sick. Running into the bathroom, she pulled up the toilet seat, going down on her hunkers to throw up. Whoever was in the kitchen, would they have heard her? She ran the cold tap at a trickle, putting the hand towel under it. It felt cool against her forehead. She started to feel better. It was then that she heard the footsteps. The bedroom door opened. She leaned back against the wall, as far from the door as she could, even though she knew it was pointless.

It was only when she saw his face, realising with relief that it was Adam, that she allowed her body to give up and she collapsed on to the floor.

‘Jesus, Kate,’ she heard him say, ‘what’s wrong with you?’

The next time she came to, she was back in bed. Adam was standing over it. When he realised she was awake, he told her that
Sophie, Charlie’s childminder, would be there in a few minutes, and that he had called the doctor. It would be a couple of hours before he arrived, but in the meantime, she was to keep taking as much fluid as she could.

‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘I don’t need a doctor. It will pass.’ She hadn’t the energy to say any more.

Then she heard him say he needed to pick up Lee Fisher from the airport. He would check in on her later. That she wasn’t to fret. That everything would be okay. All she had to do was get some rest, and he repeated, ‘Keep taking fluids.’ Her head felt heavy on the pillow. She closed her eyes again, and then she heard Sophie’s voice. She was talking to Adam. After that, she heard the apartment door close. It will pass, she told herself. Get some rest, and everything will be okay.

THE NIGHT IN THE BOATHOUSE, OR HIDEOUT, AS Donal liked to call it, gave Addy plenty of time to mull things over. The so-called burial ground would have to wait, and whether Donal liked it or not, they were going back to the commune. Addy needed him to get around the place via the pipe chambers. He had been missing for far too long for others not to ask awkward questions. If something bad was going down, Chloë and Aoife were the priorities – it was that simple.

When Donal woke, he didn’t argue about going back, and Addy wondered if he had spent a pensive night too. For the first time, he really thought about how the boy must feel, knowing his mother was in the commune but that he couldn’t be around her. Beside that, Addy’s issues about Adam paled into insignificance.

In the daylight, it didn’t take them long to retrace their steps, but by the time they reached the commune buildings, the fire had long gone out. They kept their distance, but they were close enough to see some of the senior members by the burned-out quarters talking to each other.

‘We need to hear what they’re saying,’ Addy whispered to Donal.

‘What are you going to do?’

‘Get closer.’

‘It’s not safe.’

‘We can’t stay here,’ Addy said, almost as if he was thinking out loud. ‘I need to find out what’s happened, and you’re going to help me.’

‘I’m scared.’

‘Donal, don’t worry, it’ll be okay.’

‘You don’t know that.’

‘Listen, if something bad is about to happen, we need to find your mother too.’

‘She doesn’t care about me, not any more.’

Addy wasn’t sure what to say next, so he said nothing, as they watched the members walk away from the burned-out shell. He sensed this was their chance.

‘Donal,’ he whispered, ‘tell me again about that bell ringing last night. What exactly does it mean?’

‘It can mean different things, but the main one is the calling.’

‘Calling?’

‘It’s a sort of dying.’

‘You can’t have a sort of dying.’

‘People die, but then they come back to life.’

Addy remembered the speech he had eavesdropped on in the main hall, the one about changing form. ‘Do you mean like a resurrection?’

‘I don’t know, but yeah. Sometimes they talk all messed up. I don’t know what they mean.’

‘Donal, I have a friend in there. Her name is Aoife, and we have to find Chloë too. We need to make sure they’re okay, so we have to go inside.’

Addy looked at the commune building, thinking about the day he had arrived, travelling over with Sarah on the boat. ‘Donal?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Do you know a woman called Sarah? She isn’t well. She thinks a doll is her baby.’

‘I know her.’

There was something about the way Donal answered that made Addy suspicious. ‘Are you holding something back?’

‘That woman.’

‘What about her?’

‘She’s with Chloë.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘They’re both in the infirmary.’

‘Why didn’t you say so before? Why didn’t you say you knew where Chloë was?’

‘I thought if you knew where she was, you’d leave me, and I’d be on my own again.’

‘Donal, you’re going to show me the way into the pipe chambers. Do you hear me?’

‘I know where you can get a phone signal too.’

Addy wanted to throttle him, and the boy must have seen it in his face because he started to plead: ‘I would have told you, Addy, honest, I swear.’

‘Why didn’t you?’