Page 116 of Final Betrayal

‘Double shit.’ Lottie rubbed her bitten fingernails around her bruised chin. ‘It sounds like a conspiracy theory. Are you trying to tell me that Conor Dowling was innocent and someone else beat up Thompson to silence his protests?’

‘I don’t know,’ Kirby admitted.

‘But how would Gill and Whyte get their daughters to tell such believable lies?’

‘I don’t know that either. The other question is, was Conor Dowling framed for something he didn’t do, or did he do it at the behest of Cyril Gill, who then hung him out to dry?’

‘Dowling never offered an alibi or any sort of defence,’ Boyd said.

‘But,’ McKeown said, ‘in Louise Gill’s notebooks, she mentions a meeting she had with Dowling in prison. She writes that she’s sorry and that she’s going to find out the truth.’

‘The truth about what, though?’ Lottie said. ‘Louise is dead, so we can’t ask her. Amy is dead too. Do their deaths actually relate back to the attack on Bill Thompson? But then we have the murders of their friends, Penny Brogan and Cristina Lee. None of this makes sense.’

‘And Cyril Gill is missing, presumed dead, after the incident at the courthouse,’ Boyd said.

‘Any update on that?’

‘We went down there this morning,’ Kirby said. ‘Gill is listed among the dead.’

‘And Conor Dowling?’ Lottie asked. ‘Any sign of him?’

‘Mrs Dowling rang Conor’s friend Tony Keegan, saying her son wasn’t home.’ Kirby paused, puffing out his chest as he took a deep breath, and Lottie thought his shirt buttons were about to pop. ‘I found another anomaly in the Thompson file.’

‘Dear God,’ Lottie said. ‘Next I’ll have the commissioner breathing down my neck for making a balls-up of that case.’

‘Hold your horses,’ Boyd said. ‘It’s all conjecture at this stage. Isn’t that right, Kirby?’

‘Not really, to be truthful.’ Kirby stood at his desk and turned back a few pages in the file. ‘Tony Keegan was Conor Dowling’s best friend. He was interviewed after Conor’s arrest.’

The hairs stood to attention on Lottie’s neck. ‘You have the file. What does it say?’

‘There’s half a page. A brief interview. Just to confirm that he was not with Conor at the time.’

‘Okay. What are you getting at?’

‘I found out this morning that Tony Keegan was once married to Megan Price.’

‘Who?’

‘Megan Price is the pharmacist at Richard Whyte’s shop, where Amy worked.’

‘I’m not following you, Kirby,’ Lottie said. She really wanted to get on to her daughters’ disappearance. The fear for their safety was all-consuming.

‘Megan Price is mentioned briefly in the file.’

‘In what respect?’

‘She was Bill Thompson’s stepdaughter. Her mother died five years before the attack on Bill.’

Lottie paced a little, then walked into her own office and sat.

‘You okay?’ Boyd said.

‘I’m thinking.’ She didn’t move.

‘You don’t look okay.’

‘Speak for yourself. Close the door. Give me a couple of minutes.’

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