Blinding Lies Read online

  “But our only suspect might have fled the city by then, maybe even the country!”

  “There are many people who had reason to shoot Gallagher. I agree it looks bad for the Crowley girl, it being in her house. But for all we know she’s dead too!”

  “That’s why I need more bodies in the Mad Hatter Saturday night – if whoever is looking to buy a passport isn’t her, then fair enough. But, if it is, she can give us some answers. And we should try to bring in the seller too.”

  “I’m sorry, Detective, I really am. Connors and Moore are all you’re getting.”

  Elise would have gone to the club herself but for her fear of spooking Kate. They had met many times in the last two years. Kate had reported David Gallagher’s abuse of her sister to Elise on numerous occasions. Elise remembered her as tearful and angry, disgusted at what her sister was suffering – but murderous? Elise didn’t think so. Vengeful? She certainly had motive enough to kill the man, especially after Gallagher had threatened her nieces.

  Elise screwed up a sheet of paper into a ball and threw it at the bin, her frustration mounting. She checked her mobile again – still no message from the undercovers.

  She pulled her notes toward her and reread the pieces of this puzzle one more time. Kate Crowley was seen by a neighbour at the scene. She was the current tenant at the property where Gallagher’s body was found. Her prints were on the gun. But it was clear she had fled and leaving a packed suitcase and passport behind certainly didn’t paint the scene of a premeditated murder. If she was a victim of an assault, and his shooting was done in self-defence, then why didn’t she act like a victim and wait for the Gardaí? Why did she act guilty and run?

  Where was she?

  Elise needed answers. She needed to find Kate Crowley.

  Suddenly the door to her open-plan floor opened and she was momentarily startled. She half rose from her seat, then her heart rate returned to normal when she recognised Anna Clarke from the clerical crew downstairs, and a detective from Dublin with her.

  Anna looked flushed, her nose and cheeks red from the cold.

  “Detective Taylor, I’m glad you’re here! I was hoping to find you, or at least get your number. I left your card on my desk yesterday.”

  “What is it?” Elise’s sharp tone betrayed her frustration.

  Anna and Myles had stopped in front of her; both seemed out of breath.

  “What happened?”

  “We were in the Mad Hatter and –”

  “What? Why were you there?” Why was this girl meddling in the case, just because she had known the suspect? “I told you not to get involved!”

  Anna reddened.

  “We went to watch a band,” her companion explained, his hand resting on Anna’s back. His brown eyes observed Elise, his tone a warning to take it easy. She ignored him.

  “And?” She glared at Anna.

  “And I met Kate Crowley in the bathroom. One of Gallagher’s guys, I think, followed her in. We had to jump out the window, and there was another guy in the alleyway – he went to grab her and –”

  “Jesus Christ! Are you sure it was her?”

  “Positive!”

  “And the guy in the alley?”

  “She knocked him out.”

  “What?”

  “She kicked him in the face – it was definitely a kickboxing manoeuvre or something like that …”

  Anna trailed off as she observed Elise’s red face, anger pulsing in her eyes.

  “What the hell is going on here? If she can knock a man out, what possible reason does she have to shoot him?”

  “Exactly!” Myles said. “We thought you should know.”

  Elise glared at Anna again. Taking a deep breath, she fought an inner battle to calm down.

  “This could explain some of David’s injuries. The pathologist said it looked like he had been in a fight.” Elise rubbed a hand over her face. “So, Kate’s gone from the club? I’ll need to call in Connors and Moore.”

  She turned narrowed eyes on Anna.

  “I want your statement as soon as possible! And don’t mess any further with my investigation!” She paused, her eyes softening. “You could get hurt.”

  A young uniformed Garda put his head around the partition to her office cubicle.

  Anna was glad of the interruption.

  “Detective, did you hear? Two dead bodies found in the back of a car, near the Peace Park.”

  Elise’s eyes widened, and the blood drained from her face.

  “Christ!” She pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and finger, exhaling deeply.

  “What happened?”

  The Garda rocked back and forth on his feet with nervous excitement. “Hard to say just yet. A car was stopped and searched at one of the checkpoints set in place for the conference. The driver was acting suspiciously. There were two dead bodies in the boot of the car. Apparently it looks like two of Gallagher’s guys.”

  Without another word, Elise grabbed her jacket and rushed to the stairwell.

  18

  Natalie Crowley was restless and lonely. She realised she had been chain-smoking for an hour now and pushed the cigarette packet away in disgust. She refilled her glass of wine instead. Kate had called her and told her everything – David was dead.

  Natalie had cried for over an hour after she put the twins to bed, barely managing to control her grief until then. David had attacked Kate and he was dead. Shot in the neck. Natalie wondered if there had been much blood and if he had been scared in his final moments. She wondered what he had looked like. She didn’t love David anymore, she knew that. He wasn’t a good father, and he was a lousy partner. Still, she grieved for him. David. The father of her children, the man she had been obsessed with for almost four years.

  Once her tears had dried, she felt only agitation. She needed her sister.

  The hotel apartment in Chartres was sparsely furnished. Natalie had taken a booking for two weeks, hoping Kate would join them long before then. They had the basics, but it was hardly the home comforts her girls were used to. There were two bedrooms, one tiny bathroom, and an open-plan living area. It was a far cry from the luxury four-bedroomed house she had shared with David. Even when she had occasionally taken the twins and fled to Kate’s modest three-bed semi, it had been a lot nicer than this. But the hotel offered anonymity, sanctuary. It would be a safe haven until Kate joined them. Natalie was still thanking God that the flight to Paris had had three seats to spare at the last minute. Chartres was familiar to her; it was the place the Crowleys had spent two weeks on many summers in her childhood. It had been as good a base as any – an hour on the train from Paris.

  Now Natalie had nothing to do but wait. And hide.

  But she didn’t want to hide alone. She needed Kate, had always needed Kate, and never more so than now. The small apartment felt too big without her.

  Natalie had spent the last few days taking the girls to the park or to the market, walking the streets, teaching them French phrases, smiling as they tried to pronounce the unfamiliar words. The nights were always the same. Once she had Rachel and Rhea settled, she would sit on the small armchair drinking cheap wine and smoking, waiting for the telephone to ring. Kate had told her to invest in a new mobile phone the day before she left Ireland – so Natalie had done that, then switched off her old mobile phone and thrown it into a public waste bin outside Cork airport.

  Kate was clever that way – she was certain the Gallaghers had a Garda on their side and didn’t want to take any chances. David and his brother John had always known when Kate had approached the Gardaí over Natalie’s mistreatment at David’s hands, often before she had even reached home. She was convinced the Gallaghers were being tipped off rather than properly investigated.

  So, she had made Natalie promise to get rid of her mobile, just in case it could be traced and her whereabouts passed to the Gallaghers. Now only Kate knew her phone number – they were alone in the world. They had been alone before, but al
ways alone together. Natalie didn’t like this feeling.

  Natalie and Kate had literally done everything together their whole lives. In school and college, they were always side by side. Through their parents’ divorce they had been a constant support to one another. From their red hair and green eyes, to their opinions and interests, they were almost always completely identical. They even shared a hatred of their mother’s new husband and had grieved together over the death of their father – they had never wanted to be apart. They were two women joined as one.

  Until Natalie met David Gallagher. For the first time, someone was coming between the twins. Of course, they each had had boyfriends before, some of whom the other twin hadn’t got along with. But David was different. Natalie fell in love quickly and completely. David was daring and confident. Natalie had been mesmerised by his charm and charisma. He had access to the best clubs in Cork, bought her generous gifts, and showered her with compliments. He hated for them to be apart and was never happy when she was with her sister. At the time, she had been flattered by his jealousy. She took it as a sign of how much he loved her. If she was honest with herself, she felt lucky this handsome, successful charmer had noticed her at all.

  Until David convinced her to move in with him, he used to call her up to twenty times a day. Kate was furious with him and with her sister – she told Natalie that David was trying to check up on her, to control her. But David told her he was just making sure she was OK, and she believed him. Before long, she left the house she shared with Kate and moved in with him. It was the first time the twins had ever lived apart. Kate had been crushed. Not because Natalie was moving in with a man so soon, but because she was moving in with him.

  But despite the growing tension and division between the sisters, it was Kate’s house Natalie fled to the first night David attacked her.

  Natalie had grown increasing isolated over the following months. At first, David convinced her she didn’t need to work, and she quit her job as a linguist and part-time teacher. Then she discovered she was pregnant early in the relationship – she was shocked, but David’s delight soothed her fears. Soon, though, he began to physically abuse her. It started with squeezing her arm too tight or pushing her over. It quickly progressed to punching, kicking, and squeezing her throat so tight she would see black spots dance in front of her eyes.

  She sensed her sister’s disgust that she didn’t leave David. But she couldn’t. He had eroded every bit of her confidence, quickly, imperceptibly. When David swore each time would be the last that he hit her, she always believed him. Even when she caught David cheating on her, she stayed. And he swore he would change for their children. He was so excited to be a father. He spoke of marriage, and Natalie had never felt happier. She wanted to put the bad times behind them.

  On some level, Natalie knew David was a monster. Kate went to great efforts to point out his failings to her – every time the Gallaghers were mentioned disparagingly in a newspaper article, she would save it for Natalie. But the articles only made suggestions about the Gallaghers’ activities, never outright accusing the family of criminality. Journalists knew better than that. Every time there was trouble on a night out, Kate made sure Natalie knew about it and examined the facts.

  “Drugs being dealt in David’s club! Natalie, read this article.”

  “It’s only speculation!”

  “For God’s sake, wise up!”

  “Well, it’s hardly David’s fault! He’s a businessman – these things happen! What’s he supposed to do? Police every single person in every one of his clubs?”

  “He’s a low life, Natalie! He and his brother are thugs. You hear the stories about them, you see the way men eye them when we go out. They are dangerous men!”

  Natalie had shut her ears and her mind to facts she knew to be true.

  Kate, on the other hand, seemed to grow even stronger in her resolve to break them up. The relationship between the twins became strained, but never fractured.

  When her twin daughters were born Natalie felt a shift in David and his family. The Gallaghers had always been ambivalent towards her. She knew they viewed her as just another woman on David’s arm, even when she was living with him. But with the birth of their grandchildren Natalie found Tom and Mae Gallagher to be claustrophobic. They were always interfering, and she could never do anything right. David never stopped his ill-treatment of her. And he was an ambivalent father. He made no secret of the fact he had wanted sons – daughters were a disappointment to him – he disregarded his children while his parents more than made up for it in harassing her about their upbringing. David resented the neediness of the babies, the crying and sleepless nights. And he made it perfectly clear what he expected of Natalie, regardless of how tired she was. He soon grew bored of Natalie and the twins and took to bringing women home after a night out at a club in the city. Natalie was trapped in a living hell and Kate was her only supporter.

  One night, after Natalie suffered a particularly vicious beating, Kate went to the Gardaí. She had filed many reports, but this time she threatened to go over their heads if nothing was done about it. On her way home, she was attacked. She gave as good as she got, but she was left shaken and bleeding. The message was clear – keep your mouth shut.

  And still Natalie didn’t leave him.

  Looking back now, Natalie wondered who she was then. A woman in love, a woman desperate to make a family, a woman exhausted from single-handedly raising her twins.

  Once, Natalie did threaten to leave David. He had been more abusive than usual and bringing women to the house. Natalie felt like less than nothing. In a heated argument she threatened to take the girls and leave for good. How David sought to punish her still sent a chill down Natalie’s spine. On a night she still could not bear to think about, David had come to the house, and taken the girls. David had driven with their daughters to the Cork docks, parked, and telephoned her, threatening to drive off the quay.

  When the Gardaí brought her children home to her, unharmed, Natalie had made up her mind. It was as though gears and levers had shifted into place, leaving her questioning who she had been for four years. Suddenly, her mind was clear. She was leaving. She knew now that she would, that she would have to find a way.

  Kate had begged her for years. Now that Natalie was finally listening, she never said “I told you so”; she just remained a solid support. And then, an opportunity presented itself, and Kate knew just what to do.

  Natalie pushed herself up from the armchair and moved to the twins’ room. She stood in the door frame, no longer able to sit and wallow in the memories of the last few years of her life. Her daughters slept in a double bed, back to back. There were no curtains on the window, and the moon sliced through the darkness to illuminate the twins. Their curly auburn hair was messy on the pillows, their mouths slightly open, their small arms wrapped around identical blue teddy bears. The teddies’ eyes sparkled in the sliver of light, twinkling at her. Natalie looked at her future; it made her feel at peace to watch her daughters breathe.

  Her ringing mobile phone drew her back to the living room; she snatched it up from the coffee table.

  “Kate!”

  “Are you all OK?”

  “Yes – are you? Where are you?”

  Kate sighed. “Still in Cork. It’s dangerous here. Gallagher is searching for me.”

  Natalie stifled a sob. “Why can’t you just get out of there?”

  “Natalie, it won’t be for long more. Just hold it together for a few more days. I love you. I’ll see you soon. Are they safe?”

  Natalie looked over her shoulder towards the bedroom. “Yes, always in sight, I told you.”

  After Kate ended the call, Natalie burst into loud sobs. She couldn’t take much more of this. With shaking hands, she reached for the cigarette packet and lit another.

  19

  Sunday

  Sunday morning dawned bright and cold. Anna set the shower to cool and felt herself come alive under the c
hilly blast of the water. Her lower back ached, probably from the jump from the Mad Hatter’s bathroom window.

  As she dried her hair a text from Myles drew her attention: I’m going surfing!!! Join me.

  Anna glanced out her bedroom window, at the white frost-covered grass, and shuddered. Myles Henderson was mad!

  No way! I’d freeze to death!

  Dinner then. I’m not taking no for an answer!

  Anna smiled. Their date had ended very abruptly. After their brief – and extremely tense – conversation with Elise Taylor, Myles had hailed a taxi, paid the driver, and kissed Anna quickly on the cheek. As dates went, it had been extremely adventurous, and completely unexpected. Myles had been on Anna’s mind as she drifted off to sleep. His firm hand on the small of her back as they spoke with Elise, his soft kiss as he said goodnight. Anna realised there was no way she was refusing a dinner date.

  I’ll be in town later – I’ll meet you in the seafood restaurant next door to your hotel at 6. If you’re not a block of ice by then!

  Myles responded with a selfie of himself giving a thumbs-up, the cold waves rolling onto the shore behind him on Garrettstown beach. Anna grinned. She really liked this guy.

  Over breakfast, Anna looked again at the business card from Kristian Lane. She had a three o’clock coffee meeting with him in the city. She knew she’d have to tell him everything she could remember, and she wondered what files he would have access to, if any. Anna knew Alex had some documentation about the investigation, and she wondered if Kristian Lane could apply to access old Garda files. The butterflies that danced in her stomach could be from excitement or dread. She was prepared for anything the private investigator might find. She had told herself that anyway.

  She brewed fresh coffee and sat at her kitchen table. She had lit the stove in the living room already, and the heat was invading the whole downstairs of her house. She pulled her laptop towards her and looked up the morning news headlines.