Page 129 of Hidden Daughters

‘Start at the beginning.’

‘We haven’t time. You need to stop him. Did you look into Assumpta Feeney’s background?’

‘Imelda, if you know something that can prevent more murders you need to talk to the Galway detectives. Detective Sergeant Matt Mooney is a good man. I can bring you to speak to him.’

Imelda’s fingers tightened on Lottie’s arm. ‘No, I can’t do that. I’d be arrested and charged and locked up.’

‘If you’ve done nothing wrong, you won’t be.’ At least not initially, Lottie thought.

‘The thing is… I don’t know if I have or not. What if my documentary caused all this?’

‘How? It hasn’t even aired yet.’

‘That’s because I haven’t finished it. But I asked questions of people and I must have unsettled someone so much that they feared their long-held secret would be outed.’

Lottie had already mulled over this scenario. She had thought Imelda could be the killer. Now she didn’t know what to think. ‘Who did you talk to?’

‘All of them.’

‘All of who? You need to tell me.’ An empty bench was up ahead, so Lottie brought Imelda to it. They sat.

‘The sea can be beautiful but also rough, intimidating,’ Imelda said. ‘Just like my work.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘When I started this project, I was excited, happy even. I was invigorated, but then I felt threatened and that scared me. I should have stopped, but it made me more curious to discover the truth.’

‘The truth about what?’

‘What happened to Gabriel all those years ago.’

Okay, Lottie could understand that. Gabriel was the little girl she’d heard about from Ann Wilson. She turned on the bench to watch Imelda. ‘You investigated Gabriel’s death?’

‘Her murder, you mean. I knew nothing about it when I began my research. But I was told about it and then I felt I had something tangible. I had access to witnesses, those who were around when the horrific event occurred. And as macabre as this seems, it excited me. Does that make me a bad person?’

Lottie reserved her judgement until she knew more. ‘What went wrong?’

‘I talked to the wrong person.’

‘Who?’

‘I don’t know, but one of them had to have been put on alert by my probing. Assumpta was one of the first people I talked to, that’s why she could be the key.’

‘I don’t think she was the first to die, though, and I don’t know if Mooney has found out much about her yet. She was abroad for years, wasn’t she?’

‘She was a novice nun at the Sisters of Forgiveness convent in the eighties before she suddenly left. She then studied to be a nurse.’

‘Did she tell you why she left the convent?’

‘Not in so many words. But I figured it was shortly after the killing of the little girl.’

‘What did she tell you about that?’ Lottie was intrigued to know the version Imelda would relate.

‘Not a lot.’ The woman seemed to retreat into herself.

‘Let’s walk,’ Lottie said, and they stood and set off along the promenade. ‘Did Assumpta tell you who locked the girl in the machine and turned it on?’

‘She mentioned a Robert Hayes.’

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