Page 9 of Hidden Daughters

‘Why do you say that?’ Kirby moved forward to study the images.

She turned to him. ‘If it was spur-of-the-moment, whoever did this would not have taken the time to strip her naked.’

‘True.’

‘And she isn’t wearing any of her jewellery. In each of the photos her son supplied, Edie has the same silver stud earrings, a thin silver bracelet on her right arm, a similar chain with a small cross around her neck, and a watch on her left arm. She is wearing none of those in death.’

‘Good point,’ Kirby conceded. ‘So the killer took them as trophies?’

‘Or to muddy identification? Maybe to send us down the wrong track.’

‘We haven’t gotanytrack to follow yet.’

‘I know.’ Martina could feel his desperation. ‘But it’s obvious she was burned, maybe scalded with boiling water going by the type of blisters on her skin. I believe someone wanted her to suffer.’

‘That’s a bit above my pay grade.’

They were standing side by side staring at the photos, and Martina felt heat rise in her cheeks.

‘I’m currently taking an online course. The psychology of murder.’

‘Wow. That sounds deadly.’

She laughed. He did too, and it relieved some of the tension in her shoulders. She watched him drag forward two chairs, their legs scraping the floor.

‘Sit, please,’ he said, in a nice way, not the way McKeown spoke to her. ‘Let’s talk this through.’

Gratefully she accepted the offer.

They sat in silence, searching for answers while staring at the images of Edie Butler in life and then in death.

Noel Butler knew he had to contact his brother, Jerry, who was abroad with a gang of lads, celebrating their end-of-school exams. He needed to tell him before he saw it on Facebook, or before some goon posted it to TikTok.

His head was fried. He needed a drink. After leaving the garda station he hurried along Main Street then turned down Gaol Street to Cafferty’s. He sat alone at the bar and messaged his girlfriend but knew she wouldn’t reply. She was teaching until three.

With the phone still in his hand, he scrolled through his photos trying to find a better image of his mother than the ones he had given to the guards. He noticed his nails were embedded with grease and oil from being at work that morning before he’d hightailed it to the guards. He felt an urge to dunk his hands into hot water to scrub them clean. He couldn’t stand being dirty. His mother had instilled this need for cleanliness in him and his brother.

‘Another half one, Noel?’ Darren asked.

‘Go ahead then,’ he told the barman. He hadn’t realised he’d already drained his first drink. He must be careful. His mother always warned him of the dangers of alcohol, a disease she had worked on controlling.

He had very few recent photos of her. The camera roll was full of selfies taken with his girlfriend all around the country. They went away most weekends. Both lived at their respective parental homes and worked in town, and weekends away offered them an escape.

Darren put a whiskey on the counter in front of Noel. ‘Sorry for your troubles, man. Knew your mother. Kind lady. Sort of sad in herself, wasn’t she?’

‘She was always sad.’ Noel swirled the whiskey in the glass. ‘How did you know it was my mother they found dead?’

The barman blushed. ‘Someone posted about it on Facebook. About a body being found tied up. In the river, you know. Then they… there was a comment saying it was Edie Butler.’

Scrunching his eyebrows together, Noel shook his head. ‘The guards never said she was tied up. Jesus, how are people allowed to get away with that shite? Her death was only confirmed to me by the guards not five minutes ago. And I still have to tell my brother, who is abroad, and I’ve to formally identify my mam’s body.’

‘It’s a hard world out there. Keyboard warriors make it worse.’

Darren went out to the lounge, leaving Noel alone with his thoughts about his mother. They were mainly good thoughts, even though they’d had it tough. He did not want to dwell on those days. For a few months this year things hadn’t been too bad. His mother had found a boyfriend, a prick Noel didn’t like, but she’d been more settled within herself for the first time in a long, long while. Until she wasn’t.

Her latest disappearance had been unusual only in so far as it was the first in over a year. Noel felt the anger swell inside him again, even though she was now dead.

He hadn’t been worried initially on Friday evening when he’d arrived home for his tea and she hadn’t been there. It must have been around 6.30. He never minded rustling up food for himself, but he had a niggle of unease because recently she was always home in the evenings. Then he’d become angry when her ex-boyfriend, Robert, called to take her out. He didn’t like him, but the thing was, she still wasn’t home. Most of all Noel wasfurious because he believed his mother had slipped back into her old ways. When she’d disappear for days and then come home dishevelled, disorientated and silent.

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