Page 90 of Hidden Daughters

‘Someone you met recently. Maybe yesterday.’

‘You’re the only one I met yesterday…’ Then her heart dropped in her chest as she remembered. ‘Please no. Don’t tell me it’s Brigid Kelly. Please don’t…’

‘I’m sorry. She was murdered in her bath.’ He shook his head wearily. ‘Probably scalded. The kettle from the kitchen was on the bathroom floor.’

‘This is so terrible. Why, though?’ Lottie felt a deep sense of regret and sorrow over the death of the little housekeeper. ‘Why pick on her? She was such a nice woman. She was no threat to anyone. This is awful, Mooney. Can I visit the scene? See her body?’ Her words ran into each other as she tried to get her head around the senseless act.

‘No, you cannot. And I want to know why you visited her yesterday. I found your card on her kitchen table.’

‘Did I draw the killer to her door? Was I being followed, do you think?’

‘I don’t know what to think, but I do need to know why you were there.’

‘I wanted information about Robert Hayes. It was his old Galway address. Seems he used to be a priest. Your own people had already visited Brigid enquiring about him.’

‘Oh, I’d forgotten about him. Shite.’

‘Shite is right. Edie Butler, the Ragmullin victim, was scalded too, as far as I know. Her body dumped in a river. This is a mess, Mooney.’

‘A mess? A right fuck-up, I’d call it. I better see which guards spoke with the housekeeper and what they found out.’

‘They probably didn’t get much from her. She was a spiky person. A lovely woman behind it all, though. I was with her for ages. God, when did she die?’

‘We think sometime yesterday evening. We’ll know more after the post-mortem.’

‘I was likely one of the last people to see her.’

He leaned heavily on the dry-stone wall. ‘What did you talk about?’

She paused, thinking before she spoke. ‘I peeled potatoes and cooked a lamb chop for her. She was so grateful to have someone to talk to and to wait on her. I don’t think she had many friends or visitors. She mentioned that the parish priest was in Lourdes but due home. Have you contacted him?’

‘Father Lyons. Yes. He found her body.’

‘Oh. Do you think he could have…?’

‘No, we checked his story. He didn’t fly in until this morning.’ He paused, gathering his thoughts. ‘I need to know what she toldyou and I want to know more about Robert Hayes. He is now my number one suspect.’

‘And rightly so. I told you to talk to my colleague Kirby. Hayes is his suspect too. According to Brigid, he was a bastard – not her exact word, but you get the picture. He was chaplain at the convent, and Edie Butler was also there at one stage.’ She was more certain than ever that the motive for all the killings would be found rooted in the past. ‘The murders have to be linked, and we need to figure out who is next.’

‘My bet is Imelda Conroy. That’s if she’s not the murderer. But if I can’t locate her, then he might not be able to find her either.’

‘Were there security cameras at the priest’s house?’

‘No, but there are some cameras around the church. I’m having them checked.’ Mooney turned to look directly at her and she tried not to flinch. ‘I need to know where Bryan O’Shaughnessy was yesterday afternoon and evening and last night.’

‘He was in custody until you released him. He was here when I returned home and didn’t leave the house afterwards. Didn’t even go out to tend his sheep. Grace and Boyd did that with Tess. Tess is the dog, before you ask. You can scratch Bryan off your list.’

‘You know I have to ask the hard questions.’

‘Yes, but it wasn’t him.’ She pondered the dilemma Mooney was in. ‘He told me about the DNA match you have.’

‘It’s undergoing further analysis, but it seems he is in some way related to Imelda Conroy. Do you know what that relationship could be?’

‘I’m not sure, but it’s possible she could be his daughter. You see, he asked me to find a girl he knew at one time who was pregnant and ended up in the convent. But everything is hearsay until you get the final analysis on the DNA and find Imelda.’

‘One of my priorities.’

‘Your main priority has to be to find Robert Hayes. The murder in Ragmullin is too similar to what’s gone on here.’

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