Page 107 of The Altar Girls

‘I know that, but I have to consider every scenario.’

‘How would he even move their bodies?’

‘He had help?’ She looked him squarely in the eye, but he didn’t flinch.

‘Possibly. But I don’t think there’s anyone capable of keeping something like that a secret for long.’

‘Unless it was someone he trusted.’

‘His mother?’ He held up both hands as if to ward off the thought. ‘No way. Jacinta is as straight as a poker. She isn’t a serial killer.’ He smiled as if to make a joke of it, but there was nothing funny about his words.

‘Why do you say a serial killer?’

‘Someone cold and calculating planned what they were going to do. The way the bodies were laid out. I saw both of them, remember? Posed. That’s not the work of an eleven-year-old boy.’

‘That’s why I think he had help.’

‘I’m still not buying it.’

She felt her body deflating. ‘Neither am I, to be honest. But Alfie took a little girl from her home today and now he is missing.’

‘A little girl?’ He stood up suddenly. The logs in the fire slipped and crackled. The smell of burning wood surrounded Lottie. ‘Who? Did you find her? Is she okay? Oh God, this is all terrible.’

She was confused by his sudden change in demeanour.

‘We found her. She’s fine. Physically, anyhow. The thing is, we don’t know where Alfie is. I’m fearful for his welfare. He might be in danger or he might be hiding. Either because he did something bad, or because he’s afraid of someone. Do you know where he might hide?’

He leaned on the mantel before shoving his hands into his pockets. ‘Whoever killed those girls has Alfie. I’m sure of it.’

She turned his words over in her head. Did Father Maguire actually have knowledge about all this? ‘Why are you so sure?’

‘Where did you find the child?’

‘In the toilet block behind the cathedral. Close to where Naomi’s body was left.’

‘If Alfie intended to harm her, which I doubt, why would he just leave her there?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You have to believe me when I tell you I fear he is in danger.’

She was thinking the same but asked, ‘Again, why are you so certain?’

He shook his head. ‘I can’t say.’

‘Come on, Father. Those two little girls were murdered on Monday and it’s now Wednesday. Do you want that person to get away with another murder? Alfie took Bethany. He led her through the back streets of the town and left her in those shitty, smelly toilets. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that he is either the killer or working with the killer, or, as you pointed out, that the killer has taken him.’ As she spoke these words, a shiver slithered down from her brain and settled on her shoulder blades like a watery pool icing over. What if Alfie had been trying to protect Bethany by taking her out of her own home?

The priest flung her words back at her. ‘The killer has taken him.’

‘Who am I looking for, then?’

‘I don’t know, but you need to consider who had the means and the opportunity.’

‘Huh? That led me to your door.’

‘I didn’t kill anyone.’

She wasn’t sure she believed him, as he had means and opportunity in spades, but she had to play along. ‘If not you, then who?’

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