Page 38 of Final Betrayal

‘It’s possible.’

‘Am I in danger?’ Mrs Loughlin’s eyes were sharp.

‘No, not at all,’ Lottie hurriedly assured her. ‘Uniformed officers will be guarding the area for the next few days, or at least until we finish our examination and searches.’ The dampness was catching at the back of her throat, and she wondered how the woman survived in such an environment.

‘I’ll see you out.’

‘Thank you for all your help,’ Boyd said, and shook Mrs Loughlin’s hand.

‘You’re a nice boy. Very mannerly.’

Lottie caught Boyd’s wink as he walked past her.

They got nothing out of Freddie Nealon or Brian McGrath at the hospital. The lads’ last memory was of hearing a sound upstairs in the old house, and then they’d been knocked out.

Lottie sat at her desk with Boyd opposite. He began tidying up her workspace. She shot out her hand towards him.

‘Stop.’

‘What?’ he said.

She stood up and paced the small enclosure. ‘If the girls were killed on Saturday night, who was it in the house last night?’

‘The two boys.’

‘Yeah, I know that. But according to Jim McGlynn, the girls were killed where their bodies were found and had been dead for at least two days. So they were already dead when Freddie and Brian stumbled into the house last night. The lads were attacked by someone who came from upstairs. So who was it?’

‘The killer? Maybe he came back for something he’d dropped.’

‘Or to leave something. The coins?’

‘We have to get an exact time of death and then try to map out a timeline.’

‘First we need those nightclub tapes and any other footage we can lay our hands on.’ She stood with her hands on her hips. ‘I seem to be repeating myself an awful lot and not getting anywhere.’

‘I’ll check with Kirby to see what he’s found.’

When Boyd left the office, Lottie slumped into her chair. If Freddie and Brian hadn’t meandered into the derelict house, how long would the bodies have lain undiscovered? And who was the mysterious person the two young men had disturbed?

TWENTY

Lottie found it a pain in the butt having to drive all the way to Tullamore for post-mortems, but she knew it was handier than navigating her way into Dublin city centre.

She took off her damp jacket, robed up in protective clothing and followed the pathologist into the morgue.

‘I haven’t started properly yet,’ Jane said, as she assembled various pieces of equipment so that she could cut and slice and record. Her assistant was busily lining up instruments on a steel tray.

‘I figured that. But I need something to guide my investigation.’ Lottie dabbed VapoRub beneath her nose and pulled the face mask loops around her ears.

‘Well, let’s see if I can help, though I can’t tell you anything officially until I’ve completed my work.’

The bodies of the young women were laid out side by side on two tables. Jane walked around them. ‘You know who they are?’

‘This is Amy Whyte.’ Lottie pointed to the first table. ‘And that’s Penny Brogan.’

‘Ages?’

Lottie exhaled loudly. The two girls reminded her so much of her own daughters. ‘Twenty-five.’

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