Page 78 of The Altar Girls

‘You can’t paint all priests with the same brush.’

‘Maguire had means and opportunity. It stinks to high heaven. I wouldn’t let my kids be alone with one of them.’

‘That attitude is not helping us, McKeown.’

He nodded and zipped his mouth.

‘Considering what you have on the CCTV,’ she said, ‘do we think the girls were just wandering around, or did they know where they were going?’

Boyd turned from studying the stills from the CCTV footage pinned to the board. ‘It’s likely they decided between them not to go home straight away. But it’s not clear if they wandered or were intent on their destination.’

‘Have we found out anything else about the undertaker?’

Silence.

‘Maurice Connolly claims he was in the basement embalming a body from eight that morning. He was alone, so there’s no one to alibi him. Who’s been digging into his life?’

‘He lives in Barrack Row,’ Kirby said. ‘Not far from Mrs Coyne on John’s Terrace, actually, but that’s neither here nor there.’

‘Come on. What else can you tell me about him?’

‘Not much. I had a chat with him and he says he was at work until four, when he had to transport the body to Gaddstown for the wake. Then he came back to do some more embalming. He was alone because his employee, Jasper Crowe, was snowbound. I’ve checked that out. Crowe was at home all day. Later Connolly went home to check the heating, then returned to continue working.’

‘We can agree he doesn’t have an alibi.’

‘Correct. He says he’s self-employed and does everything himself even when Crowe is around.’

‘Does he have a car we can trace?’

‘Yes,’ McKeown piped up. ‘A Honda CRV. It seems to have been parked close to the funeral home all day. The hearse was used to transport the coffin to the wake. The CCTV camera at the doctor’s across the road caught that, and then it shows his car leaving at five after six. The snow was bad at that time and I lost it for half an hour, but I caught it on Main Street at eight oh five.’

‘So he could have been at his home between six and eight. But is that enough time to dump the bodies of two little girls?’

‘Yes.’

‘Pull what you can on all routes between the cathedral and St Patrick’s.’

‘We had a whiteout, boss,’ McKeown complained.

‘I know, but we might get lucky and catch something useful. Connolly claimed not to know Zara Devine, but she says he worked on her mother’s funeral some years ago.’

‘I’d say he can’t remember every funeral he conducts.’

‘But there was a dispute over a coffin. Surely that would stand out? I’ll have to talk to him again and he can check his records.’

‘Zara Devine is married,’ McKeown said, ‘so her mother would be under a different name in his records.’

‘True.’ Lottie wandered up and down to silence from her team. They were nowhere close to finding who had killed the girls.

‘I still put my money on Maguire,’ Kirby said.

‘Gambling again, are you?’ McKeown quipped.

‘Enough!’ Lottie snapped. ‘Two children are dead, and you have time for backbiting? Give it a rest, for God’s sake.’

‘Sorry, boss,’ Kirby said.

McKeown remained mute.

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