Who is Alice?

by Miranda Manning

  “I have friends in low places and it comes in handy at times.”

  They all laughed, probably for the first time since they had met.

  “I don’t think Alice should come back to the apartment block after this,” Cassandra said. “What will I do with the rest of the stuff? I have a boot-load of it.”

  She had a satisfied smile on her face and Nicola saw Alice smile again, giving her some hope that this child-woman would come through this.

  “I might be able to store them in this office, if they’re in bags,” said Nicola, “and I’ll lock the jewellery in the filing cabinet until Alice has a secure place to live. She may need to sell some of it in any case if it’s saleable andthings get desperate. Alice, don’t ever tell anybody that I stored your stuff. We’re not supposed to get over-involved in cases – there are boundaries we are not supposed to cross.”

  “Okay,” said Alice doubtfully. “But where do I stay? The B&B will only keep us for two more nights.”

  “I’ll look at the refuges,” Nicola said, “but I want to ask you some awkward questions first. Firstly, I would like to phone your sister to see if she can be of any assistance – and also Jack Madden. When I phone Jack it could cause a huge furore and we all have to be ready for that. If he denies that he is the father of your children he may take out an injunction to stop us going near him. But I suspect he will not want to do anything so public and that may be an advantage. We can thank our stars that there is no such thing as a superinjunction in this country.”

  “My sister is in Botswana with a Third World charityso she can’t help. If you have to phone Jack, that’s okay. Tell him I love him and that we are okay. I really think that this is only temporary and he will be back to us.”

  The other two women looked at each other in despair beforeCassandra went out to get some more of Alice’s property from her car.

  “Go give her a hand there, Alice,” Nicola said. “I need to think.”

  She phoned the two refuges, asking if they would have a place for a woman and two girls for the weekend. The response was doubtful. They were both full but, in one, there was a possibility that one of the women was going to return to her home.

  “If she does, then you’ll have a place,” Nicola said, relieved at the possibility.

  “If she does, she will be going back to the husband who has ill-treated her and her children for the last seven years, so we are not encouraging her.”

  “Sorry – I didn’t mean to be pushy.” A wave of depression swept over Nicola as she put down the phone.

  Her next job was to establish Alice’s PPS number so she set about doing that as the other two women brought Alice’s property into her office, Alice wheeling a girl’s bike.

  “You’ve got a very big car!” Nicola laughed as a small hill of black bags containing clothes and toys began to form on her office floor. “I’ll put them in that empty filing cabinet for the time being. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the bike.”

  “Grace will be so glad to have it back.” Alice smiled. “She would really miss it.”

  “I might be able to take it home until we find you somewhere more permanent.” Nicola had crossed more boundaries in one day than she had in the previous three years and it worried her.

  She told Cassandra and Alice about the refuges.

  “Have you ever heard of The Coven?” Cassandra asked Nicola.

  “Sounds intriguing, but I haven’t.”

  “It’s somewhere on the Headford Road. It’s reputed to be a large mansion which is run by a woman called Eliza Lynch whose son-in-law walked out on her daughter and their two children and left her near destitute – and this woman vowed to do her best for any other women in that situation. She is very unconventional and there’s a long sob story attached but this might be the answer if you can’t get Alice into a refuge.”

  This day was getting more and more surreal. Nicola felt a ray of hope though she was conscious again that this was not correct procedure . . . but if all came to all it might be the only option open to her.

  “How does one contact The Coven?” Even the name of it was off the wall.

  “In fact it’s called Cappagh Hall, I think, but some outraged husband nicknamed it The Coven and it sort of stuck,” Cassandra said with a grin. “Ithink I can get hold of a number for you. But I need to go now. Alice, why don’t you go into town and have a bit of lunchand let Nicola get on with her job?”

  Alice looked doubtful but meekly left with Cassandra.

  Nicola’s next job was to callJack Madden. But first shewent to the canteen for lunch. She hoped she would meet someone not in the Social Work Department so that she could take her mind off her case load, at least for the hour. She was lucky. She had just found a seat when Billy, an elderly porter who had been with the HSE since Adam was a boy, sat down next to her.

  “You don’t mind if I join you?” he smiled as he plonked himself and his very full tray down.

  “I don’t appear to have an option,” she grinned.

  He was a lovely man, great with the staff and even better with the clients. He had an empathy that was unusual and could be trusted with anybody’s deepest secrets.

  “Well, who do you think will be Taoiseach?” he demanded cheerfully.

  “Not sure really,” Nicola replied.“I’m not into politics and I’m only just getting used to the fact that the other guy has popped his clogs.”

  “Mother of God! What is the world coming to? The correct way to speak of the deceased is to call him ‘the late Taoiseach’ – and he didn’t ‘pop his clogs’ as you say – he went to his final reward.”

  “Sorry,” Nicola smiled though she knew from the grin on his face that Billy was only half serious. However, you could never be quite sure with the older generation.

  “They say Jack Madden is a cert,” Billy went on, taking a hefty mouthful of the shepherd’s pie.

  “Looks a bit like it alright,” Nicola acknowledged. “Though you never know!”

  “I’d say it’s a cert alright. He’s very well liked and he was only beaten by the casting vote of the Chair last time round. It would be nice to have a Taoiseach from the West.They might even finish the Distributor Road in his honour.” He paused for another mouthful.

  Nicola was beginning to regret that he had sat beside her. She ate her salad thoughtfully while Billy chatted on and when she looked up she noticed that the Community Welfare Officer with whom she had spoken about Alice was there. What’s more, she was looking at her and so were the other three people at that table. It was a pity that everybody couldn’t be as discreet as Billy. Frowning, she gulped down the end of her coffee, said goodbye to Billy, and went back to her office.

  It was Thursday afternoon and, from what Alice had told her, Jack Madden would normally be heading for Galway or maybe be at his Dublin home but she calculated that, with all that was going on, all of the Cabinet would still be in their Dáil offices and, in particular, those who were in the running for Head of Government were unlikely to leave the seat of power.

  At two thirty, giving him plenty of time to have had his lunch, she phoned Government Buildings. She got Jack Madden’s secretary immediately and was surprised when she was told Jack Madden was available. This was easier than she had expected but she was caught slightly on the hop. She’dexpected to have to make several calls before she actually got him.

  The familiar smooth voice of Jack Madden slid down the line.

  “Good afternoon, Nicola. What can I do for you?”

  “It’s a professional matter, Mr Madden. I think you may be able to help me.”

  “I certainly hope so, and you can call me Jack.”

  “Thank you, Jack. I am a social worker with the HSE. I have a client at present who has informed me that you are the father of her children and that up until two days ago she lived in an apartment on Taylors Hill which you paid for and that you joined her there at some point almost every week. But, since the Taoiseach died, she is having trouble co
ntacting you and she has been locked out of the apartment.Can you tell me, Jack, if all this is true?” Nicola had managed to keep her voice quite steady and professional. She didn’t accuse him of anything. She behaved as if she was just clarifying something.

  She heard a slow intake of breath, as if he was composing himself.

  “Of course it’s not,” he answered. “Who the hell is this woman anyway? She must be some kind of nut. People who are mentally ill often form a fixation on someone, in particular someone who is famous, and they imagine they have a relationship with them. She is, I presume, a sort of a stalker – though I wasn’t aware of her until now. What did you say her name was?”

  “Her name is Alice O’Brien.” Nicola felt safe naming her but she wouldn’t let him know her whereabouts.

  “And she says that I am the father of her two daughters? She’s mad.”

  “She may be, Jack, but I never mentioned ‘daughters’ to you nor did I say there were two. I said ‘children’ and the fact that you know they are daughters and that there are two of them certainly makes me wonder.”

  “Don’t you get smart with me, Missy! It’s more than your job’s worth.”

  “Surely, Jack, you’re not threatening me?” Nicola replied, shocked now at the tone the conversation was taking.

  “No, I am not threatening you but you should know that some social worker cannot just phone a TD and accuse him of having two illegitimate daughters, without having any proof.”

  “I haven’t accused you of anything. I just asked for clarification and you have clarified two things.”

  “And what are they, may I ask?”

  “That you know Alice O’Brien and that you know she has two daughters.”

  “Lucky guess! You had better not be spreading rumours around Galway.”

  “I have no intention of it. That is certainly more than my job is worth. I have a job to do and part of it will be to get a One Parent Family Payment for the client and to establish who the father of the children is and help her follow him for maintenance.It’s all quite routine really, though we don’t often have a case where the alleged father is so well known.”

  “When you investigate this further you will be unable to find anything concrete that links me with this woman and her children.”

  “You seem quite sure of that, Mr Madden. If that is the case you have nothing to worry about.” Nicola was beginning to worry that he seemed so sure, though in a way that was not a surprise. The way Alice told it, it seemed that he had arranged things in such a way that there was nothing on paper to link them. This investigation would not be easy.

  “I have nothing to hide. But if I find that you are snooping around in my business I will make sure that you are transferred to a little island off the Mayo coast and your career will come to a dead end. You don’t get to be a Minister of Government without having some perks.”

  “Gosh, Jack, that sounds remarkably like a threat again and I don’t like it. I will do my job and if you are telling the truth it will be no more than an inconvenience. If however you are not honest with me, my investigation could turn up some very interesting facts which could affect both of our careers, and not least yours.”

  “Look here, girl. I won’t be threatened or intimidated by some jumped-up slip of thing who thinks that because she has been to college for a few years she can bring down a government. I can deal with you in any manner of ways. I have friends in low places. So don’t cross me.”

  “Gosh, Jack, that is the second time someone said that to me today. The other person who said she had friends in low places is a call girl. What does that make you?”

  “It makes me a very dangerous adversary, Miss McCarthy.” And he put down the phone.

  Nicola’s hand was trembling as she replaced the receiver and she wondered if she had been wise telling him that she didn’t think he was being truthful. She was also regretting that she had mentioned she had spoken to a call girl that day. If Jack Madden had friends in low places, like he claimed, it was unlikely he didn’t know what his neighbour in Taylors Hill did for a living and he would almost certainly not be pleased that she was talking to anyone who could make life difficult for him. It was funny that she had heard the same expression twice in one day. The first time it was said it made her laugh and the second it sent a shiver down her spine.

  Alice had never been so scared in all her life – not even when her parents had said that they wouldn’t have her back in their home with the children. She had known then that Jack loved them and would look after them but now it seemed as if he had just stopped doing that. She couldn’t believe that the situation was permanent. She kept looking at her phone, expecting him to have texted to say it was all some big misunderstanding. But the screen remained depressingly blank.

  She wandered around the shopping centres in a daze, filling in the time before she picked the girls up from school. She tried not to cry as she saw Jack’s face on thefront of every newspaper, his other family by his side in some of them. That had never bothered her before. The other family! She’d always felt that they were his Dublin family and she and the girls were the Galway family. But now it seemed Jack had opted to forget her and her girls. No smiling pictures of themin the papers! How could there be? Only a handful of people knew of their existence and those people were intensely loyal to Jack. None of her acquaintances knew the full story and even if theyhad been told theywouldn’t have believed it.

  The government was clearly in turmoil. It looked as if Jack would be some sort of caretaker Taoiseach at any rate. One of the papers was suggesting that he would be acting-Taoiseach until the next election and that the party would look at the situation in advance of that and consider whether or not it needed a new leader.

  In the meantime Alice had to come to terms with what was happening to her and her children and she wasn’t sure just how she would do that. Things like PPS numbers were a foreign country to her. She wondered if her mother had one. She had never heard of one but the way Nicola was talking you’d think that they were what made the world go around. She hoped that Nicola would be able to find hers, though maybe if she could get in touch with Jack he might have a very good explanation for his behaviour and she wouldn’t need it. It was all very depressing.

  The weather was lovely for September. Usually a brisk walk on the prom with its beautiful view of the Clare hills cheered her up, but she didn’t want to walk the prom. She always met people she knew there and she was avoiding people she knew at the moment. She just couldn’t bring herself to tell people that she was homeless.She told the children that they were just looking for a new place and they seemed to believe that. She didn’t mention it to their teachers and she certainly wasn’t going to tell other mothers at the school gates. She still hoped that the situation was temporary and that something akin to a miracle would turn up or maybe that she would wake up and it would all have been a nightmare. But in her heart she knew that this wouldn’t happen. She was all over the place really and she knew it, but she had no idea how to deal with the situation. Nicola seemed capable enough but she appeared hassled as well and Alice couldn’t decide whether or not she herself was the only cause of the hassle.

  She really didn’t want to go to a refuge. She thought The Coven place sounded even worse but Cassandra said that that was not its real name so maybe it was nice.Alice went into Goya’s and ordered a cappuccino and apple crumble. She smiled at a woman in the corner who had children at the school. There was no way she wanted to talk to her, even though the woman had often made friendly overtures towards her. But if she talked to anybody now she was afraid that she would burst into tears and let the cat out of the bag. Imagine the turmoil! Jack Madden had a mistress and two daughters! No one would believe it. They would probably have her certified. No, she couldn’t talk to anybody, even her friends, until she had something sorted out.

  She noticed when she went to pay that she had only a few notes left in her purse. Crikey!She had paid the B&B for two nig
hts and now her funds were very low indeed. She needed to get dinner for the girls but that would have to be in a restaurant or, at any rate, McDonald’s – more expense. What was she going to do if something didn’t turn up today?

  She wondered which clothes Cassandrahad taken from the apartment. Shewas about to phone Nicola to see if she could check what was therewhen she remembered that her phone had been cut off. She really needed a change of clothes for the girls and also Orla’s blanket but she hadn’t even a car to get back to the social worker’s office and Cassandra was busy for the rest of the day so she couldn’t ask her.

  She decided if she walked fast she’d have time to get back to the office and, if Nicola wasn’t too busy, she could rummage around in the bags for what she needed for the next few days. She knew that luckily nearly all their clothing was clean as she had a habit of keeping everything up to date. She never wanted to have to be doing housework when Jack came. She made sure it was all done while he was away.

  When Alice arrived at the officeNicola was just putting down the phone.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt, Nicola, but could I have a look at the things Cassandra brought from the apartment? I could do with some of the clothes, in particular for the girls. Is there anywhere I could rummage through the bags?”

  “You’re okay, Alice. We’ll lock the door and you can sort some things out in a couple of minutes. When do you have to pick the girls up from school?”

  “Three thirty. I have a bit of time yet.I could put what we need for the next few days in one black bag and I could take it with me when I go to the school.”

  It dawned on both of them at the same time that most mothers at the school gate would think it odd if Alice turned up on foot with a black plastic bag. Nicola saw Alice’s lower lip quiver and felt truly sorry for her. Everything had become so different for her in the blink of an eye.

  “Maybe you should just take what you need for tonight and tomorrow,” Nicola said. “When we find you a place I’ll bring the rest of your stuff in my car. I might have a Tesco bag here and no one will know what’s in it.”