by Brothers
She could hear him faintly, she was sure he said, fuck.
‘Lucas,’ Marie said. She knew he wasn’t listening. ‘Lucas.’
‘Yes. I was just looking at something on the computer.’
‘I married Michael, Lucas,’ Marie said, her voice almost apologetic.
‘Marie, that was, what, nearly twenty years ago, water under the bridge,’ Lucas said, attempting to sound like he didn’t care. It pained him when she hadn’t felt the same way about him but it had sickened him that she had chosen Michael over him and even though he had moved way past his obsession with her now, at the time, he had wanted to die. ‘Look, I’m glad it worked out for you,’ he continued. ‘As you said, we were only kids.’
‘The thing is, since I left the paper, I have no contacts over here in journalism.’ She could sense the tension in his voice but wanted to focus him on the task in hand. She knew it would have been hard for him to open old wounds, especially where Michael was concerned but he was the best in the business and she desperately needed his help.
‘And you want my help?’ Lucas said, still disbelieving that she was on the other end of the line.
‘You could say that,’ she said, thinking of how she left. ‘I need someone with a bit of clout to kill the story, or at least the angle they’re going with.’
‘I don’t get it though, Marie.’ Lucas would have done anything for her in the past, she was his everything, then; he wasn’t sure about now though, and he definitely wasn’t sure about why it was so important to kill a story that would die its own death anyway, particularly if there was no substance there and besides, the fact that Michael was involved was making him less inclined, to say the least. ‘I don’t really know what I can do,’ he said.
‘Lucas, look, if you are worried that Michael is the murderer, he’s not, he has a cast-iron alibi, he wasn’t even born when it happened.’ She sighed. ‘I just don’t want my kids googling their dad’s name and coming up with murder on the same page,’ she said.
‘When was the murder?’ Lucas couldn’t help but be curious.
‘1970’s, they think,’ she answered.
‘In Kilkenny?’ he said. What are the chances? He thought to himself.
‘Yes’ Marie said.
‘And how, do you and…’ he hesitated, finding it hard to say Michael. ‘How do you guys fit into the picture?’ He walked towards his desk and scribbled down some notes.
‘Michael is from here, born and raised on the next farm up,’ she said. ‘We’ve been here, leasing the land, for the past ten years, and now, just recently, January in fact, we finally bought it.’
‘Jesus Christ, Marie, you weren’t joking when you said yes to living in a mansion.’ He studied the picture of the grand house on his screen.
‘How do you know where… What do you mean?’
‘I’m looking at your house on my computer screen right now.’ Lucas zoomed in on the picture of Fitzpatrick Estate. The grandeur of the house suited her, he thought wistfully as he admired the beauty of its exterior architecture.
‘You are really… that was quick,’ she said, shyly. ‘Oh my God, don’t tell me that the story is out already.’ She panicked. She couldn’t understand why something so rural and local to Ireland would have hit the headlines in the UK.
‘I just have a radar for this stuff,’ Lucas lied. He wasn’t about to explain that he just happened to be sleeping with Lizzie O’Reilly, a member of the family that appeared to be equally implicated in the murder. Not yet anyhow.
‘Look we are really just caught in the crossfire here, is there anything you can do?’ Her sigh was heavy, Lucas could hear her desperation.
‘I told you he wasn’t for you, you should have listened to me,’ Lucas said, grinning. His humour had always been the same, which is why they were such close friends in the first place. ‘I’m still not one hundred percent convinced that there isn’t more to it.’ He read her like a book.
‘That’s the complicated part.’ She sighed. ‘It’s not the fact that they will pin the murder on Michael, it’s what they’ll rake up when they go rooting.’
‘I’m listening,’ Lucas said, he grew worried at the tone of her voice.
‘I’d much prefer to speak to you in person, it’s too…
‘Let me guess, complicated,’ Lucas answered for her, already searching for flights on his screen. ‘Marie, can I ask just one question?’
‘Of course.’
‘Does Michael know you are ringing me?
‘No.’
‘Leave it with me, then.’ He smiled. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’
Chapter 17
Wednesday Morning – 2016
‘My Jesus, that’s some report.’ Detective Kelly slid a bound copy of the preliminary autopsy report across to Louise. ‘There now, Detective Kennedy, broken jaw, cracked skull, this fella was seriously kicked to death. We don’t need any bloody hearing to prove that, surely, it’s an open and shut homicide, even if it was forty-six years ago.’
‘And frozen in time for us all to study it, mad altogether.’ Louise nodded her head. ‘And you honestly think this Timothy Fitzpatrick guy has something to do with it, he’s just so…’ Louise scrunched up her cheeks, searching for an apt description. ‘So, not the type.’
‘I don’t know if he did the kicking, or the leaving him for dead for that matter, but I’m sure there’s something he’s not telling us.’ Kelly swivelled on his chair, thinking. ‘Yeah, there’s definitely something.’ He chewed the end of his biro; he couldn’t quite put his finger on it but he knew he was close. ‘We’ll know more tomorrow when we sit down with them, I suppose.’
‘Maybe.’ Louise paused and rubbed her temple hard. ‘Maybe not, though.’ She’d had a splitting headache since she woke and scrutinising photographs of a forty-six-year-old corpse did nothing to settle her stomach. She was close to passing out with the heat and she could feel Kelly studying her from across the desks, willing her to admit she was hungover. She shouldn’t have opened the second bottle of wine when she got home last night, she thought. Being weak was not something she would confess to lightly but the thought of travelling two hours to Dublin that evening was grating on her. ‘Do we really need to go up tonight, though?’ Louise asked.
‘Well, no you don’t’. Kelly answered. ‘But that’s when I’m leaving’, even if he hadn’t wanted to travel tonight he would have done so, just to torment her. He could tell by her grey pallor that she was suffering. ‘You could make your way up in the morning, if you preferred’. Kelly said, knowing she wouldn’t.
‘No, I’ll go.’ She answered. ‘But I want it on record that I’m not happy about it.’ She flicked her eyes across him and smirked. ‘I am not one for taking advantage of expenses and overnight allowances, like some’. Her expression suggested indifference and he smiled at her in response. Normally she would have been the first to jump at an overnight opportunity, especially if it was in Dublin. ‘As long as you drive’. She added, knowing he would have insisted on the exact same thing.
*
With Harcourt Street Garda Station across the road, the Camden Court Hotel in Dublin was a familiar spot to visiting detectives. It was close to seven p.m. when they pulled into the car park.
‘I’ll never sleep tonight now; you shouldn’t have let me sleep so long,’ Louise said jokingly as they made their way to their rooms. ‘We may hit the town in- spots, wear me out a bit,’ she giggled.
Kelly smiled. He could have matched her energy level just not her enthusiasm for barrelling into some overcrowded, overpriced pub in the city centre. He was more into eating a well-cooked meal, in good company with a few drinks and then bed.
‘A hangover will do that to you,’ Kelly said, he had been waiting for an opportunity to slag her off about it all day and with her falling asleep for the entire drive to Dublin, it was the first time he’d had the opportunity.
‘Shut up,’ she said, the sleep in the car helping her to normalise. Kelly had us
ed the back of his fingers to gently slap her awake and she had berated him for it. ‘Jesus there is nicer ways to wake a sleeping beauty,’ Louise had said to him.
‘When I see one, I’ll be sure to wake her with love’s true kiss,’ he’d sniggered.
Louise sleeping for most of the journey had left Kelly with more headspace to think about how he was going to get inside Timothy Fitzpatrick’s version of the truth and he thought he had a plan. Her gentle snoring had made him glance at her more than once on the trip, but it was her top slipping slightly from her shoulder that turned his glance into a lingering look. He had looked; knowing that he shouldn’t, at her milky-white, pale skin and wished he could have touched it.
‘Right, 206, this is me.’ Kelly slid his card into the receiver. ‘You’re next door.’
‘Grand. See you downstairs, in say…’ she looked at her watch, spinning her wrist to catch the clock face in the right position. ‘Eight okay for you?’ she continued. ‘Or is that too late for you OAPs?’
Kelly was already gone.
He took a quick shower, checked his emails and it was still only seven thirty. He grabbed his phone and made his way downstairs to the bar. He was debating whether or not to tell Louise he was early, but decided against it, ordered himself a beer and took up a sofa in the lobby to wait. Scores of sumptuous sofas were dotted around the open area, separated by leafy plants in oversized ceramic pots. He could see the appeal to the many different types of person that milled across the marble. There were business types, family types and everything in between. He could tell by the shoes of most what their intention in the city was. As he was sure the staff could tell that he was one of the team from Harcourt Street Station. He’d have a swim, he decided, in the morning, early, before Louise was even awake. He would have been there right now if she hadn’t suggested they meet up. He leaned back on the sofa and took the first swig of his beer. He took his phone from his pocket to ring her, when he heard her voice.
‘Well, I hope you have had a cool shower to douse those sexy thoughts.’ It was definitely her voice but he couldn’t make out where it came from. Kelly was fixed to the spot as he listened. ‘As if you need reminding,’ Louise said then. She had arrived at the bar earlier than Kelly, and when there was no sign of him, she took the opportunity to ring her sister. She found a sofa in the lobby and dialled Alex’s number. Kelly moved silently, craning his neck to find her. She was silent, no doubt listening to her caller. ‘Ugh, please too much information, Alex. Keep your sordid information to yourself.’ Louise’s voice sounded louder this time, almost girly, he thought. ‘I can’t, I wish I could, but I’m here with a colleague.’ He heard regret in her voice. ‘Well, what time does your gig end?’
Kelly wished he knew who she was talking to. Whoever this Alex guy was, he decided, she sounded close to him. He hadn’t thought about it before, but he supposed, a good-looking, successful girl like Louise was bound to have a boyfriend. The pangs of jealousy he felt took him by surprise and he couldn’t understand why the thoughts of him and Louise being together, had never crossed his mind till now. He had always treated Louise just like a friend, some would say, much to Louise’s annoyance, like family, but she was someone he was comfortable with, someone who didn’t play any games and that, in Kelly’s book, was a rarity.
‘I know, but I am back up in Dublin next weekend, we’ll get together properly then.’ Kelly was sure that the intention of the get-together was anything but ‘proper’ by the tone of Louise’s voice. ‘You could just come to my hotel room after your gig, stay with me here?’ she said. Kelly’s hernia was about to burst out of his gut. ‘No, I’d say Kelly will have gone to bed by then, so you won’t have to meet him.’ He would be mortified if she knew he had heard her.
Listening intently, Kelly’s jealousy was overflowing. Afraid to move, he listened to the entire conversation. He hadn’t realised it till now, but he was yearning to be with Louise. The office banter with her was the highlight of his day, not because of her witty one-liners, or her ability to reduce a grown man to tears, but because there was something more to her, genuine and sincere, and Kelly was falling for her.
‘Oh and Alex, will you bring me in some underwear. I’m sure I left some there for occasions such as this.’ She giggled. ‘I was so hungover earlier, I’ve forgotten almost everything, and I won’t have time to go out shopping.’ He could hear her laughing. ‘I’ll be knickerless tomorrow,’ she said and laughed loudly.
Kelly’s face flushed at the thoughts of it. The image of Louise knickerless was impossible to shake.
‘I could imagine bringing Kelly into Marks and Sparks to buy lacy underwear,’ Louise laughed. ‘Although you are probably right.’ Louise had confided in Alex about how she felt about Kelly, and Alex’s suggestion that underwear shopping with her colleague might just be the bomb that Louise needed to put under him, either that or a neon sign saying, hey I’m into you. ‘Okay, Alex. See you later. Love you too.’ Louise unzipped her bag and dropped her phone inside the pocket. She lifted her empty beer bottle and click-clacked across the marble floor of the lobby in the direction of the bar, to order a second. It wouldn’t be long before Kelly was down, she thought and she was glad, now that the journey was behind her, that they were back at The Camden Court Hotel. She was looking forward to it. She was sure to keep to beer though; she wouldn’t be as hungover on that.
Kelly, finally able to move, stretched his long lean legs. He shook his head; berated himself for thinking that he had any kind of rapport with Louise and took out his phone to text her. He glanced across the lobby and followed her path inside the bar door. He was too uneasy with what he had just heard to be able to face her. The thoughts of her, his Louise, spending the night with this Alex guy made him want to leave. He gulped back the remainder of his beer; wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and composed his text.
Inside the bar, Louise waited till the barman looked in her direction and held her beer bottle up to signal another. ‘208,’ she said to him when he handed her the bottle and he put it on her tab. She found a table, away from the TV’s and pulled out her phone. She could have taken Kelly to see Alex’s gig, but she didn’t want to, she was looking forward to having a quiet meal with him instead, and besides, she was still feeling a little tender and needed a quiet night, and Alex’s gig was guaranteed to be anything but. A chance to have dinner again with Kelly was far more appealing.
Kelly deleted the third attempt at a text to Louise; he couldn’t find a way of saying what he wanted, not without offending her. He picked at the label on his bottle, leaving a mess on the glass coffee table in front of him.
Won’t make it tonight. Catch you in the morning for breakfast, 8 a.m.
He pressed send. He’d go for a swim instead, he decided. Maybe order some room service. Let her wait on her own for her booty call.
Louise lifted her phone to read his text. She sat up straighter when she read his blow-off. ‘Shit,’ she muttered under her breath, she was disappointed. She shook her bottle to check how much was left; she had barely taken a mouthful. She tutted and left the green, long-neck bottle standing back at the bar. She hadn’t the heart to sit there on her own and headed back to her room. If the truth be told, a good night’s sleep was just what she needed, as disappointed as she was. She kicked off her boots and sat on the edge of her bed. Opened her phone and responded. She climbed out of her clothes, leaving them where they fell and flopped into her bed, not giving anyone or anything a second thought.
With each length of the twenty-metre pool, Kelly grew more agitated and consumed with jealousy. The annoyance that he had hoped to wash away with relentless lengths of the swimming pool hadn’t budged. If anything, the cold water coupled with the adrenaline coursing through his body had intensified his jealousy, so he abandoned his usual gruelling training schedule, dried himself off and returned to his room. He wasn’t in the humour to do anything else.
He stalled outside her room as he walked towards his own a
nd listened, wondering if she was alone. Afraid to find out, he continued past and slipped inside his own door, his imagination doing far more damage to his mood than reality could. He couldn’t understand why he hadn’t realised before, realised that he liked her, in fact realised that he wanted to be with her. Had she, he wondered, or was it all in his head.
Back in his room, he took a towel from the rack and rubbed his wet hair, drying away the excess water that had gathered on the tips of the strands and kicked off his flip-flops by the bed. He reached for the remote, flung his legs across the sheets and punched his pillows into place behind his back. He was going to have to leave the volume on all night, he thought, the last thing he wanted to hear was any comings or goings in the room next door. It was then he noticed the message on his phone.
Can’t believe you stood me up! Pity. See you in the morn. Lou X
Kelly read and reread the message four more times. He couldn’t decide what she had meant. He had never seen her sign off as Lou before, and the kiss, that was a first. He wondered did she intend the message for him, he couldn’t decide and he surely wasn’t going to be able to sleep. It was going to be a long night.
*
The next morning, Louise looked at her watch for the second time in as many minutes. It wasn’t like Kelly to be late. In truth, it wasn’t like him to have stood her up last night either, so she intended to have a go at him, that’s if he ever showed up. They needed to be in the station in forty minutes. And if at all possible, she wanted to be there early, so she didn’t have to run the gauntlet of ex-colleagues milling around the common rooms up there.
‘There you are, what’s the story?’ Louise was buttering her toast when he arrived.
‘No story.’ Kelly was cool as he answered her.
She looked at him, not afraid to hold his gaze. ‘What happened to you last night?’ she asked, the early night had done her the world of good and she was fresh and sharp.