Page 11 of Charlie
“Hi. I’m Kit. I assume ye’re Charlotte?”
“Yes, but you can call me Liv.”
“All right.” She smiled but then her face fell. “What’s wrong?”
“Eh, I’m sorry, but are you K.C. O’Rourke?”
“I am. My full name is Kathy Christiana O’Rourke, but I’ve been Kit since I was a wee lass.” Her Irish accent was charming, but she was nothing like I would have imagined from the report she had prepared. It had been so sharp and precise that in my mind I had imagined a former military man was behind it.
“It’s just that after reading the report, I had this image in my head of you being a gruff former policeman or a retired military sergeant with battle scars.”
She grinned and began dragging her leg. “I can fake a limp for ye, if that helps, and I could make up a brutal story of being shot by a target that I was surveilling.”
I grinned back and instantly liked her humor. “You’re fine, don’t worry about it.”
“Good, but we actually have one of those men in the family. My dad started O’Rourke Investigations. He’s been in the industry for over forty years and the shite he’s seen has made him battle-scarred in here.” She touched her chest.
“You work with your father then?”
“I do, but my brother Tommy and I are in the process of taking over. My younger brother is in the gardaí. He just joined the ERU.” There was such pride in her voice that I had to ask:
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. Did you say that your brother joined the guard? Do you mean the coast guard?”
She smiled. “No. Our police force is called the garda síochánana hÉireann. It means guardians of the peace of Ireland but we just call them guards or garda.”
“Oh, all right and you said he joined the RU, what is that?”
“I said, the ERU. It stands for Emergency Response Unit. It’s like yer SWAT team. They’re legit badasses with their helmets and big guns, blowing doors off their hinges and taking down armed criminals. It’s been Damian’s dream ever since he was a wee fella. He only just turned twenty-seven last month and that makes him one of the youngest to ever make the unit.” She squared her shoulders. “Ninety-five percent don’t even make it through the first two hell weeks. Ninety-five! Can ye imagine how tough ye’d have to be?”
“Wow, that’s impressive. A whole family of crime fighters. How come you didn’t join the police?”
She flashed her teeth. “Because the pay is rubbish. I can make more as a private detective. Now tell me, how was yer journey?”
“It was fine, thank you.”
“Good. I hope ye’re not too jetlagged ’cause we have a lot of work to do.”
The cat was still trying to get my attention and it followed us when we began walking the way Kit had come.
“Do you think it’s hungry?”
“Nah, it looks overweight, so someone is feeding it. About that, did ye eat breakfast?”
I nodded.
“Good. I parked my car around the corner. I’m takin’ ye to meet one of the survivors who lives outside of Derry. That’s why we’re meeting here, up North. I thought about booking ye a hotel in Derry but my da suggested we should expose ye to a bit of the Irish country side. Isn’t it lovely?”
“Yes. It’s very peaceful.”
“I’m glad ye like it. Later today, I’ll take ye down to Dublin. It’s a four-hour drive so that should give ye time to read my report, in case ye didn’t already?”
“I did, and I have questions.” Droplets of rain began falling again but this was October and I’d brought my rain jacket. “You said that there’s been some mysterious deaths.”
Kit walked over to a Toyota and we both got in before she answered, “Aye, there are five children living in the house and I’ve been trackin’ down the mother of one of them. Turns out she’s dead.” Kit started the car and didn’t wait for me to bugle up before we sped off.
“But her child is there?” I said and hurried to secure the seatbelt.
“Aye. It’s a boy, and I only know about it because one of the survivors told me about him.”
