Page 124 of Her Last Walk Home

‘Brigette,’ Lottie said calmly, ‘your husband can explain but I am up against a killer’s clock. So I need answers, not questions.’

‘A killer? Is Rex in danger? Oh my God.’

‘No, he’s not. But it might be no harm keeping his knowledge under wraps for now.’

‘What the fuck?’ Brigette flipped. ‘Rex knows something about a killer? Is that what you’re telling me? And you say he’snot in danger? For God’s sake…’ She swung around the room looking for something to punch, Lottie surmised. The woman picked up a cushion and flung it back on the couch. ‘It’s a fucking nightmare.’ She levelled a pointed finger at her husband. ‘Everything has been a nightmare since you made us move here.’

‘I’ve a final question,’ Lottie said, not wanting to get caught up in their row. ‘Rex mentioned something in passing. It could be construed that he didn’t like this house. You said you’re only living here five years.’

‘I didn’t hear him say that,’ Benny said.

‘It was earlier, when my colleague was here.’ She glanced at Lei.

Brigette sank onto the couch. ‘You were here earlier too? Why didn’t anyone contact us?’

‘We didn’t want to spook you,’ Lei said.

‘You’re doing a fine job of that right now.’

‘This other house,’ Lottie said. ‘Tell me about it.’

‘We moved here before Rex was three,’ Benny said. ‘He loved our old house, but it was too far outside Ragmullin for schools and our jobs. I was working in town then. So we moved when this house came on the market.’

‘Biggest mistake of our lives. That Gordon Collins should be behind bars.’ Brigette clutched the cushion tight to her chest.

‘Rex misses the countryside and our old garden,’ Benny said.

Satisfied, Lottie moved to the door. ‘I’ll leave you for now. I want you to put proper childcare in place or I’ll have to report you to child services. And please keep an eye on Rex. He may have bad dreams about his experience. He needs your support.’

‘I’ll have bad dreams about this too.’ Brigette got up, flung down the cushion again and bundled out of the room past Lottie.

‘I apologise for my wife,’ Benny said. ‘We are under huge financial strain. If we can help you in any way, let me know.’

‘Thank you, and give Rex a hug from me.’

‘I will.’

She followed Lei out the door. She realised the sadness she’d felt in the house was emanating from a financially stretched and worried family. But it did not excuse their actions. No one should leave a seven-year-old to fend for himself.

86

The team gathered in the incident room when Garda Lei and Lottie returned from the McGovern house. She knew she should report them to child services, but she had enough on her plate as it was. Hopefully they’d learned their lesson. She’d get Lei to keep an eye on them.

She outlined her visit before barking out orders.

‘Garda Lei and Detective Kirby, contact every taxi firm in town. I want to know which firms were working on Thursday night, plus the names of their drivers. I also want their clock-in and out times.’

Boyd said, ‘Maybe it was a cab customer, not a driver, that the boy saw carrying the body.’

‘Didn’t think of that. That could be problematic, but see if we can get details of taxis that took that route on Thursday night.’

McKeown entered the fray with his tuppence worth. ‘Do we even know for sure it was a taxi that the boy saw?’

Lottie thought about that for a moment. ‘He seemed to be certain it was, because a girl, Maggie something, gets dropped to school in one every day.’

‘Some kids have the life of Riley,’ Kirby said.

Boyd checked his phone. ‘Time’s getting on and I should go pick up Sergio.’

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