Page 124 of The Altar Girls

Kirby stood. ‘Am I not enough for you now?’

‘Sure, but… feck’s sake, Kirby, we have two child murders and a missing boy who may or may not have been involved in their deaths, and this place is like a morgue this morning.’

‘McKeown rang to say he’ll be late. Apparently his wife took him back. Silly woman, if you want my opinion. He’s driving over from Athlone. Boyd is still not answering my calls.’

‘Nor mine.’

‘I followed up with that Detective Duncan in Ballina,’ Kirby said. ‘He told me Boyd is in Enniscrone with some reporter, convinced that Sergio is in the caravan park there. Duncan is sending out uniforms to help them search it this morning.’

The glorious feeling of securing the warrant faded. ‘I desperately want Sergio found, but Boyd could at least have let me know what he was doing.’

Kirby grimaced but had the sense to remain silent.

‘Is Garda Lei or Brennan around?’ Lottie barked.

‘Lei is still at the Devine house. He’ll need to be relieved, boss. That lad has put in serious hours. And I haven’t seen Martina this morning.’

Detective Maria Lynch appeared at the door and looked around the sparsely populated room. ‘Did I walk in on a wake?’

‘No, but you’ll have to hold the fort while Kirby and I head to the funeral home. We have to execute this warrant,’ Lottie said. ‘When we get back, I’ll need you to relieve Garda Lei at Zara Devine’s.’

‘Ah boss, I’ve had my fill of that house. All that healthy stuff she eats. And her constant hoovering and cleaning wrecks my head.’

‘Zara needs our support and to be kept updated, not that we have a whole lot to update her with yet. How do you think she’s holding up?’

‘A bit erratic, which is to be expected. She goes from low to high in the space of minutes. I feel sorry for poor Harper. Her silence is disturbing.’

‘She’ll speak in her own good time. I’m sure Lei can stay there another while.’ Lottie looked around for her jacket and realised she hadn’t even taken it off. ‘Kirby, rustle up a few uniforms for the search and alert Grainne. We might need SOCOs on hand too. Let’s rock.’

78

As they approached the main door to Connolly’s Funeral Home, Lottie’s phone rang. The state pathologist.

‘Hi, Jane. Got something positive for me?’

‘Yes, and positive is the word. I put a rush on the toxicology screens for the two girls. An interesting fact emerged. Willow Devine had traces of benzodiazepine in her system.’

‘What? She was drugged with Xanax?’ Lottie asked incredulously, cringing as she remembered her own struggle with the narcotic.

‘By contrast, there was no trace of it in Naomi’s bloodstream.’

‘Interesting.’

‘When I have more information, I’ll call you.’ Jane rang off.

‘The kids were drugged?’ Kirby asked.

‘One of them. Willow. We’ll have to leave it for now.’ Lottie went to knock on the door. It swung inwards. ‘An invitation if ever I saw one.’

She led Kirby down the corridor to Connolly’s office beside the chapel of rest.

‘Mr Connolly? Maurice? Are you there?’ Silence. She glanced into the office without entering. Empty.

‘I can phone him to see if it rings somewhere.’

‘Don’t.’ She waved the warrant. ‘We have the licence to snoop. Let’s try the embalming room.’

The walls were chilly to touch as she passed them. The cold came up through the runner carpet from the original granite floor. She shuddered with thoughts of the boys who’d run up and down the corridor in the past, and the many coffins that had been wheeled along it in recent times.

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