Page 125 of Final Betrayal

‘True.’

‘You stay away from my mother, you hear me?’ He thumped the table.

‘Are you threatening me, Mr Dowling?’

‘Don’t you mister me.’

Now that she had irritated him, Lottie changed direction. ‘Katie and Chloe. Do you know them?’

‘Who the hell are they?’

‘My daughters.’

‘God help them then.’

Boyd nudged Lottie’s ankle. She paid no attention to him. She was not going to rise to Dowling’s provocation. ‘My daughters have been abducted. I know you couldn’t have personally taken them, but maybe you know who might have.’

‘I don’t know a fucking thing about your daughters. You going to pin every crime that happens in this town on me now? You know what? I want my solicitor. Now. Right this fucking minute. I know my rights.’

‘I’m sure you do, having spent ten years in prison.’

‘For a crime I didn’t commit.’

‘You were tried and convicted.’

‘Doesn’t mean anything in this crooked country. You fitted me up then like you’re trying to do now. I don’t know where your poxy daughters are, but if you were my mother, I’d make sure I was never found.’

She warned herself not to let him spike her temper again. ‘You never offered an alibi for the Thompson assault and robbery. Why was that?’

‘No comment.’

‘You’re not going to start that, are you?’

‘No comment.’

A white lie never hurt anyone, so she decided to go for it. ‘I had a snoop around the shed in your mother’s back garden.’

The change in his demeanour was instantaneous. He leaped out of his chair, lunged across the table and grabbed Lottie’s hair. She screamed, more from shock than pain. Boyd jumped up and seized Dowling’s wrist, and together he and Lottie subdued the younger man.

‘You’re a sneaky bitch,’ Dowling spat. ‘I did ten years because of your incompetence, and I can guarantee you, I won’t do another second behind bars. The justice system in this country sucks. Sucks, do you hear me?’

‘Assault of a garda officer is a serious offence,’ Boyd said. ‘Sit down.’

Lottie was speechless. Her head throbbed and she noticed strands of her hair stuck between Dowling’s fingers.

After a few deep breaths, he seemed to realise the enormity of what he’d done, because he said, ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.’

Lottie swallowed what she really wanted to say. ‘I’ll consider your apology when you give us some information.’

He nodded, his shaven head gleaming with beads of perspiration.

She leaned over and whispered to Boyd to get the file on Amy Whyte. While they awaited his return, she continued to stare at Dowling’s bowed head. She recalled the young man in court, eyes wide with disbelief when he was convicted. Back then she’d felt a moment of panic. Had she got the right man? And now she felt the exact same thing. Forensics ten years ago were not what they were today. They had no physical evidence to link him to the assault and robbery, only two eyewitnesses who’d said they’d seen him rushing from the area. Corrigan had been an inspector then, and SIO. Had he led Lottie in a direction he wanted her to go? For an early resolution of the case? To detract from something more ominous? Maybe she needed to review that case. Once she had her daughters home.

The thought of Katie and Chloe being held against their will, or even worse, catapulted her back to reality. Boyd returned with the file. Opening it, Lottie slid a piece of paper across the table.

‘Look at this, Conor. I showed it to you before and you denied all knowledge of having sent it to Amy Whyte. Do you want to change that story?’

He read aloud. ‘“I am watching you.”’

---