Tim buried his head in his hands. “I hope so too but I find it hard to believe that he could be that violent. He’s too afraid. He’s not that type.”
“Are there any other suspicious people or events that you can recall associated with the basketball club?”
“You think it’s something to do with the club?”
“It’s an angle we’re exploring.”
Tim looked alarmed. “Usually we barely see the parents. They drop off their kids and call back for them in an hour. Frequently it isn’t the same people who bring the children, sometimes it’s the dad, sometimes the mum and often a relative or friend. As a result I wouldn’t know half the people dropping off and collecting children. And I haven’t noticed anyone hanging around or anything like that.”
“What about the other man who is involved with the club?” Eoin said.
“Charles Purcell? He drives the bus if we have an away game. He’s very decent.”
“So nothing suspicious to report there?”
“No.”
“We’ll need a statement from you. Call down to the station after work tonight. Ask for Sergeant Romanska.”
Tim nodded.
The door opened and Alanna gestured with her head that it was time to go.
Eoin stood and Isobel followed. “We may need to talk to you again.”
“Of course.”
They made their way out onto the shop floor.
Eoin handed Alanna the car keys. “You drive,” he said.
Alanna took the keys and led the way out of the shop. Eoin detoured towards Alan who was tidying some railings. Isobel hung back to listen.
“Alan, your boss is really trying to help you. Take his help. Don’t start down the wrong road. You’ll live to regret it and so will your mum.”
Alan’s eyes filled up.
Eoin squeezed his shoulder. “We can all do stupid things, but when we do we need to learn from them and change.” He took a card from his pocket. “Here’s my card.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank your boss.”
“I will.”
He walked out to the car and Isobel followed. The minute they sat in Alanna pulled away from the curb.
Eoin said, “What have you got, Alanna?”
“They’re talking of releasing Mark Brady in an hour but I’ve told them to hold him until we talk to him. I think we need to ask him why he didn’t tell us about Ian Costello.”
“We do.”
“And a woman called Brenda Collins rang Henry Street sixteen months ago. She talked about a stalker but didn’t name him. It was logged as a call in but she refused to come and make a statement.”
Isobel closed her eyes.
“What? Do you know her, Isobel?” Eoin asked.
Isobel took a deep breath.
“Is she one of your women? She is.”
“I have her full name and address here,” Alanna said. “We need to go and talk to her.”
“Could Ian be The Shadow?” Isobel said.
Alanna shrugged. “The alibi he gave of the football game is being checked and we are contacting his gym for a record of his attendance. His behaviour with Brenda is dodgy. This is a credible lead and we are definitely following it up. We will probably have to bring him in for questioning again.”
Eoin nodded. “Alanna and I like to pull every thread in an investigation. Eventually you pull the one that unravels everything”
Isobel took a deep breath. “I understand. Perhaps when we go to talk to Brenda you would let me have a few minutes to explain that I haven’t betrayed her confidence?”
“Or we could go without you and she wouldn’t associate you with it?” Alanna said.
Isobel made a face. “That’s true. But I would like to be there. Now that her name has come up through someone else, maybe the fact that she has already talked to me might be a help. She might open up.”
Alanna looked at Eoin. “It would be great if she would formally report the rape and make a statement.”
He nodded. “OK, Isobel we don’t want to break your trust with Brenda. You can have a few minutes with her first but if she is angry with you or blames you then you will have to wait in the car. We want her to talk.”
Alanna parked outside Henry Street Station.
“Let’s see what Mark has to say now about Ian,” Eoin said.
Chapter 39
Isobel was once again installed in the observation room. She watched as Eoin and Alanna entered the interview room where Mark Brady was relaxing in his chair, his solicitor beside him at the table.
“I presume you’re here to discuss the statement about Mark’s innocence?”
Eoin gave a fake smile. “Not quite. We have some more questions for Mr. Brady here.”
Sonia Kane rolled her eyes. “Still on a fishing expedition. Still determined to suggest he’s responsible for something he couldn’t have done.”
Eoin crossed his legs casually. “On the contrary, Ms. Kane, determined to find out why he withheld vital information from us, information that involves threatening behaviour from a man involved with the basketball team. Our Mr. Brady here has covered that up.”
Mark Brady’s mouth fell open. “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”
Eoin folded his arms and nodded at Alanna who introduced everyone for the purposes of the tape.
“What exactly are you accusing Mark of doing?” Sonia turned to Mark, taking in his shocked face. “He has no idea what you are talking about!”
“Is that so, Mr. Brady?” said Eoin. “So, when a woman reports that a man is stalking her you don’t think she needs to contact the police? You don’t think that professionals should assess whether this man is a danger or not?”
Mark Brady looked at his solicitor, shrugged and shook his head.
Sonia Kane said, “I presume you’re going to enlighten us soon because clearly my client has no idea what you’re talking about.”
Alanna said, “Maybe not having been stalked yourself or harassed it’s easy for you to minimise and dismiss a woman’s fears. Easy to say that someone bothering her is simply unwanted attention and nothing serious.”
Mark frowned. “Stalked? Unwanted attention? I’m lost.”
Alanna sat forward leaning on the table, reducing the distance between her and Mark. “What about the man you know who was following a woman home and ringing her. You didn’t think that that was worth a mention?”
Mark frowned.
Silence.
“Oh my God! You can’t be talking about that thing with Ian?” Mark looked from Alanna to Eoin. “I’d forgotten about that. That is not the same thing at all. That was some stupid behaviour from an equally stupid and insecure man. It was sorted out immediately. The woman involved assured me that everything was alright. I checked with her. Now you’re going to get sidetracked like this and spend time persecuting a guy who has nothing to do with the rapes and murders.”
“And you’re qualified to make that decision, are you?” Eoin said.
Mark shrugged. “You may disagree with me but I know Ian much better than you do and he wouldn’t, couldn’t, have done this.”
“You seem very sure?”
Mark shook his head. “I suppose Tim mentioned this to you.”
“Well, Ian treated us to a good example of his laddish attitude and, just so you know, he didn’t stand up for you,” Alanna said.
Mark rubbed his forehead with his hands. “No, I can imagine he didn’t. He would have been terrified at being interrogated by you and when he gets afraid he behaves stupidly. It’s exactly what happens to him on a date. He tries to seem like a big lad and ends up saying stupid things, none of which he means. He’s socially inept, that’s all. He’s afraid of most people, especially women. There’s no way he would attack any woman.”
“The woman in question rang the station and asked for help,” Eoin said.
“Tim and I spoke to Ian. He stopped ringing and calling at the house. He stopped.
I know that because I spent some more time with him. Brenda – oh!” Mark put his hand over his mouth.
“We already know her name.”
Mark nodded. He leaned forward on the desk, clasping his hands together. “Ian knew he had messed up and he swore he would never bother Brenda again. We spent more time with him, made sure that he wasn’t hanging around her. We kept in touch with Brenda and a few weeks later she was feeling again that she was being watched and followed. Tim and I knew it couldn’t be Ian. Tim and I went round to Brenda’s to check everything out. We couldn’t see anyone. In the end Brenda thought it might just be a carryover from the experience with Ian, that she had become more jumpy.”
“You didn’t notice anyone hanging around?” Eoin said.
“We even drove around the roads near Brenda’s house and took down the numbers of any cars not parked in a driveway. I still have the list and I have dash cam of all of that.”
“You kept it?” Alanna said.
“Yes. Brenda seemed genuinely frightened. Ian had stopped anything he was doing. Brenda herself didn’t even think this was him. She didn’t know what it was, that was why she rang the gardaí but what could she say. None of us could find anyone or anything. No one new had been bothering her. She had gone on no new dates.”
Alanna said, “When did all this happen?”
“Well, Ian’s date was before Christmas so it was January when we spoke to him. Brenda rang in March, still anxious. Ian was definitely not bothering her then. That is when we went to look around her house, to try to reassure her. As I said, we couldn’t find anything.”
Eoin said, “We’ll need a list of those car numbers and all of the dash cam recordings.”
“No problem. Has something happened to Brenda?”
“That is none of your business. Don’t interfere anymore in our investigation. And in the future you let the gardaí make any decisions about what is going on.”
“I only tried to help her. She was afraid. Oh God. We thought it was just nerves. Did …?”
Eoin said, “You are to tell no one about anything that we have asked you. You are to contact no one. You have done enough damage. Do you understand me?”
Mark nodded.
“I’ll send in Detective Constable Chin to take your statement. We’ll release you then.”
Sonia Kane said, “And make a statement about Mark’s innocence.”
“He may not be a murderer but I would hardly call him innocent,” Eoin said.
Eoin and Alanna joined Isobel in the surveillance room.
Eoin said, “What do you think, Isobel?”
“Ian was bothering her in January of last year. She was attacked in March.”
“Do you think Ian is The Shadow? That he lied about being at the football game in England and at the gym? Or, if some of those alibis check out, could he have attacked Brenda and her case is personal and not part of The Shadow’s pattern?”
Alanna shook her head. “The fact that Brenda described the same outfit and the same type of attack as the other women suggests that it was the same perpetrator.”
Eoin rubbed his chin. “So if Ian isn’t The Shadow, she had another stalker who was more dangerous and who raped her?”
“If that’s the case then,” Alanna said, “I think that Brenda, after what happened with Ian, was more aware and that as a result she could sense The Shadow when he was doing his surveillance.”
Isobel nodded. “That makes sense.”
“We may get something from the list of car registrations or the dash cam,” Alanna said.
Eoin made a face. “Possibly.”
“Let’s grab a sandwich and then go to see Brenda,” Alanna said.
Chapter 40
Alanna parked in Brenda’s drive.
Isobel saw the curtains twitch. She felt nervous.
“Good luck,” Alanna said.
“Thank you. I’m going to need it.”
Eoin turned in the passenger seat. “Isobel, don’t forget that we’re trained to speak to rape victims. We’ve done it before. Do your best with Brenda but if she can’t see that you didn’t bring us here then we’ll take over.”
Isobel nodded.
Isobel rang the doorbell. Brenda opened the door and leaned out. She saw two people in the car. “Is that Patricia with someone?”
Isobel smiled. “No. Could I talk to you for a few minutes?”
They went in and sat in the sitting room.
“Mark couldn’t be the murderer,” Brenda said. “I tried to ring you to tell you.”
“Sorry. I’ve been so busy.”
“Mark helped me with someone who was bothering me and when I was nervous another time he came to reassure me.”
“I know, Brenda. The gardaí have found out about that. The two people in the car are Garda officers. They need you to explain all of the times you were afraid.”
Brenda hung her head. “You told them I was raped.
Isobel reached out and touched her hand. “No, Brenda. I didn’t. They talked to Mark and Tim and found out about Ian bothering you. Alanna and Eoin need to hear about that.”
“That was before the rape.”
“Yes. Do you think you could tell them about the rape as well?”
Brenda face creased up in agony.
“Think about it. They’re really nice people and very good at their job. They’re desperately trying to put everything together and you might be able to help them.”
Brenda bit her lip. “I don’t know.”
The doorbell rang.
Brenda said, “Oh God.”
“Brenda, you’re going to be OK.”
Brenda grasped her hand and squeezed it.
“Will I answer the door?” Isobel asked.
Brenda nodded.
Isobel went and showed Alanna and Eoin into the sitting room. They chose the two armchairs and Isobel sat on the sofa beside Brenda.
Eoin said, “Brenda, we’ve been talking to Mark and Tim from the basketball club and they have told us about Ian. Mark also said that even after they had spoken to Ian and warned him off that you were still anxious. We know that you rang the Garda station but didn’t report Ian.”
Brenda wrung her hands. “That was later. When I rang the Garda station it wasn’t Ian. It was … I don’t know.”
Isobel spoke gently. “When did you speak to Tim about Ian?”
Brenda turned to Isobel.
“You remember, you bumped into Tim one day in the shop and told him about Ian.”
“That’s right. That was just after Christmas. I had gone out with Ian for a drink in December.” She turned to Eoin and Alanna, “My divorce was through a year and, and …”
“And you thought it was time to date?” Alanna said.
Brenda shrugged. “Yes. Everyone was encouraging me to start to live again. But I suppose I wasn’t really ready.”
“What happened with Ian?” Eoin asked.
Brenda shook her head. “The date was a bad idea. It wasn’t just him, it was me too. I wasn’t ready.”
No one said anything.
Brenda looked out the window. “I guess Ian thought that I was very interested and he called with a huge Christmas present and wanted to go on another date. I told him no and then I noticed that he would be outside the house. If I went into town he would suddenly appear and suggest coffee. It did spook me and upset me but, to be honest, he seemed more desperate than scary. When I bumped into Tim I mentioned what was happening and he asked if he could talk to Mark about it. I was annoyed with Ian and I said yes and then they had a word with him. Ian came and apologised for upsetting me and everything settled down, he stopped bothering me. I thought it was all over, then in March I started to feel uncomfortable.”
“What do you mean uncomfortable?” Alanna asked.
“As if I was being watched again, only this time I couldn’t see Ian. I rang Mark one night when I was feeling scared and he was actually with Ian when I rang. I knew then it wasn’t him. Mark ca
me over with Tim that night and they looked around. They couldn’t find anything.”
“What did you do then?” Isobel asked.
Brenda shook her head. “Back then I thought I was turning into a paranoid idiot. I was sure that what had happened with Ian hadn’t affected me but here I was a few months later, afraid that I was being watched again. It was only after the rape that I started to wonder if that had been Him watching me.” She looked down at her hands.
Eoin nodded to Isobel.
Isobel kept her voice soft, gentle. “You wondered if this feeling was really about the rapist watching you.”
Brenda didn’t look up. She nodded. “Only afterwards. I thought that he must have watched me and known my routines and known about my children.”
“You rang the gardaí at one stage,” Alanna said.
Brenda looked up. “Yes, after that night when Mark and Tim came round when they couldn’t find anything, Mark did say to ring the gardaí if I was really worried. I think Mark could see how frightened I was. But when I rang the station I realised that the whole thing with Ian would come out and, since I knew that it wasn’t him and had no other evidence of anyone interested in me, what was the point?” She wiped away a tear. “After the rape it was too late and of course He warned me not to say anything.” She put her hands over her eyes. “What a mess!”
They gave Brenda a few moments to compose herself.
“Is there anything else that has come to mind that would help us identify the rapist?” Alanna said then.
Brenda lifted her head, wiping her tears away. “That’s the awful part of this. I didn’t see him. I couldn’t identify him. Even if you catch him what can I tell you about him? Nothing. I couldn’t even help put him away.”
“This guy is very clever, very intelligent,” Alanna said.
“Yes, I knew that from his voice.”
Isobel felt herself tense.
Eoin waited a moment and then said casually, “What was it in his voice that gave that away?”
Brenda had her head tilted to one side. “Isobel asked me about his accent and I couldn’t remember anything but, the more I thought about it the more I realised that he had a kind of ‘TV’ voice. I suppose that’s why I thought he was intelligent and cultured.”
Broken Silence: A tense psychological thriller Page 23