Page 173 of The Guilty Girl

‘I didn’t know Lucy was going to send around that photo. I thought she was after lying to me and making fun of me. I lost my head and attacked her. But now I think I know why she did it.’

‘Why?’

‘To get attention. To make a fuss so people would ask questions. But I went for her and made it worse. And then … someone killed her.’

‘Why didn’t she come to us?’

‘She didn’t know who she could trust. She said she was hoping to make it public.’

Lottie digested Hannah’s words, then turned towards Cormac. ‘You didn’t know Hannah before the party, did you?’

‘No, but Lucy had mentioned her. I wanted to look out for her. We, me and Lucy, we never thought for a minute that anyone would get killed.’

‘She got her publicity in the end but paid with her life,’ Hannah said, sniffing back her sorrow. ‘Why was I drugged?’

‘I’m not sure. Do you think Jake knew what was going on?’ Lottie wondered if Jake had been threatened and forced to drug Hannah. But why? She couldn’t figure it out. She needed to find Terry fucking Starr.

The girl was shaking her head.

‘Hannah, I’ve issued an arrest warrant for Noel Glennon and Terry Starr. Do you know where they would go to hide out?’

‘No.’

‘You could try the old army barracks,’ Cormac said. ‘That’s where Sharon was killed, wasn’t it?’

‘Thanks, Cormac. I’ll have it checked. You need to tell me who it was that Lucy was so scared of.’

He shook his head. ‘I told you, I don’t know.’

‘Even after Hannah has bared her soul, you still refuse?’

Silence.

Lottie smiled sadly. ‘As soon as you feel okay, you can both leave. Have a long, hard think, Cormac, because I need that name.’

She left them there, in each other’s arms.

78

Garda Lei had fallen asleep, his head resting on his folded hands at the kitchen table. A scream woke him up sharply.

Rita ran into the room. ‘Ivy’s gone. I can’t find her. You’re useless, the lot of you. Where is she?’

Lei raced around the house. He found Oscar asleep in bed, shaking like a leaf. Withdrawal from whatever shit he’d taken, maybe. The boy groaned as he tugged at him. Lost cause.

Outside, he talked to the two guards in the squad car. They hadn’t seen anyone leave. Around the back of the house he noticed a gate in the rear wall swinging open in the morning breeze. Beyond it a narrow lane. At the end of the lane, the main road. Easy for someone to pull up in a car and collect her. Shit!

He shook as he called it in. He knew Inspector Parker would be angry. And that was an understatement.

* * *

Lottie swore like a trooper after receiving Garda Lei’s phone call. Bloody hell! One step forward and ten backwards. She rounded up the team in the incident room and reported on her interview with Hannah and Cormac.

‘Do you believe them?’ Kirby asked.

‘For the moment, yes. Ivy Jones is missing from her home.’

‘What?’ Lynch exclaimed. ‘Did Lei fall asleep on the job or what? Did the pair in the car not see anything?’

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