Page 20 of Her Last Walk Home

Kirby stood. ‘She worked in Lidl. I had a chat with her manager on the phone. Laura was well liked. A good worker. Punctual and friendly. I’ll call over there later to see if I can discover anything else.’

‘We need to identify who she was out with last night. Her mother, Diana, seemed to think she was meeting a friend,possibly for dinner, but then she said Laura had no friends. She gave me Laura’s phone number. Where’s McKeown?’

‘Late again,’ Kirby said.

The door opened behind him. McKeown came in and sat at his desk.

‘The very man.’ Lottie laid a sheet of paper in front of him. ‘This is Laura Nolan’s phone number. See if you can find where and when it was last used. And anything else that might help us. We need to track her movements last night.’

‘Will do.’

‘Kirby, you go chat with her workmates and manager. Then see if the bank will release her card activity. If not, prepare a warrant.’

‘Sure thing, boss.’

‘Someone must know where she was. Someone knows how she got to where her body was found. Did this mysterious dinner date, if there was one, drag her there and kill her? Or was she attacked while walking home? We need all the CCTV you can get, McKeown.’

‘It would help if we had some idea of where she was last seen.’

‘I agree, that’s why you all need to work quickly on this. How did she get to the retail and cinema complex? Did she walk? Who was she with? I want to know.’

‘That’s quite a walk from her home, or from town for that matter,’ Boyd said.

‘I’m brainstorming here. Have you any bright ideas?’

‘No, sorry. She could have been killed anywhere and her body dumped there.’

‘It was a vicious attack,’ Kirby said. ‘Could have been personal, the way she was stabbed. Someone she knew?’

‘Personal or random, we haven’t one clue to go on yet.’ Lottie turned back to McKeown. ‘Check all available CCTV around that area for last night until we can trace her movements prior toher body being found, and pinpoint any other relevant security cameras. If you find anything or anyone suspicious on the footage, work backwards from there. It will help us to track her.’

‘I’ll do my best,’ McKeown said.

‘Has Shane Santos been interviewed yet?’

‘Yes,’ Kirby said, ‘and I’ve checked his alibi. He’s in the clear.’

‘Thanks. I’ll ask the super to put out an appeal for those who attended the late-night cinema showing to come forward. In the meantime, interview everyone who was working there and whoever locked the barrier.’

‘That’s a tall order,’ McKeown said, running a hand over his shaved head. ‘We don’t even have a time of death.’

‘I’ll contact Jane and see when she’s scheduled the post-mortem.’ She turned to Kirby. ‘Has she arrived at the scene yet?’ Although Lottie didn’t get on well with a lot of people, she admired Jane Dore, the state pathologist.

‘She wasn’t there when I was leaving, but she had been summoned.’

‘I’ll follow up with her. It might be no harm seeing if we can find out who the father of Laura’s son is. Diana claimed she had no idea and I didn’t think it was appropriate to press her. Garda Brennan, you might be able determine if she was being truthful. You’re more diplomatic, more subtle than I am.’

‘Sure.’ But Martina didn’t sound sure at all.

20

The shed was his refuge within the fortress she’d made of their home. His escape from reality. With only himself and his plants for company.

He loved to pot seeds and watch them sprout and grow. Potatoes were his favourite. He had two shelves of seed potatoes. Once he was sure there’d be no more frost, usually in March, he would bring them out to the field that backed onto their property and sow them. If she allowed him.

The flowerpot beneath him was eating into his skinny arse. He eyed the fold-up chair in the corner. It was covered in cobwebs, so he wasn’t going to sit on that. He’d sprayed the shed to get rid of the little buggers, but they seemed to materialise like ghosts to taunt him.

‘That’s what I’ll do,’ he said aloud. ‘You won’t get away from me again.’

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