Page 131 of Final Betrayal

‘I’m going to get in a whole load of trouble for this.’

‘I’m dealing with four murders and now this body. You’re already in a whole load of trouble.’

‘Goddam it,’ he said, and leaned across the table, his expression earnest. ‘Earlier this week, it might have been Wednesday, Bob Cleary, our foreman, came across this brick wall in the tunnel. He’d gone down to assess it to see what we had to do to support the lift shaft, you know.’ Lottie nodded like she understood. ‘He came back up, gathered a crew and brought us down to break through the wall. That’s when I first saw the bones. Cleary was fit to be tied. Made us swear not to say a word until he figured out how to tell the boss.’

‘And did you say a word of this to anyone?’

‘I told Conor. I don’t know if Bob told the boss or not. That’s all I know about the body. I swear to God.’

Lottie wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. But if he had told his friend, then Dowling had lied when he said he hadn’t known about the body before. Or had she asked him that specific question? She’d have to check with Boyd later and read the interview transcript. She ran her hand through her hair. This was going round in circles. And she was still no closer to finding her daughters.

‘Where are Katie and Chloe Parker?’

‘Who?’

‘You heard me.’

‘Don’t know them.’

‘They’re my daughters. And they’re missing.’

‘What’re you doing in here then? If they were my daughters, I’d be out looking for them.’

‘Smart-mouth,’ Boyd said.

Lottie felt her heart miss a beat. Keegan was right. ‘One final question. What does Dowling do in the shed in his garden?’

‘The shed? I don’t know.’

But his facial expression told Lottie he did. ‘What’s in the shed? And don’t tell me to go and look.’

‘Tools mainly. He used to do woodcraft and stuff.’

‘Stuff?’

Keegan blew out a fetid breath. ‘You know, little wooden toys, and then he started making jewellery.’

‘What kind of jewellery?’

‘Just stuff. Ask him about it.’

‘I will.’

She turned to Boyd, asking him with her eyes if he had any further questions.

He said, ‘The coin we showed you earlier. Could Conor have made it?’

Keegan bit his lip. ‘It’s possible, I suppose. Yeah.’

FIFTY-SEVEN

Lottie sat at her desk and checked in with Rose again. Still no news. Sean and Louis were fine. She knew she had to keep busy, while all the time her heart was shredding itself into tiny fragments.

She tried to assess everything she had learned from the two interviews. Both men would have to be released. She had no hard evidence of any wrongdoing on their part. They couldn’t be held on her instinct alone. Was it possible that Dowling had made the coins? How could she obtain a search warrant for his shed? Not a shred of evidence placed him at any of the murder scenes, and gut feeling wouldn’t convince a judge. Unless she returned to soft-soap Vera Dowling. Boyd was good at that kind of thing.

‘Boyd!’

He limped in.

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