Girl Targeted

by Val Collins

  ‘At least you had someone you could rely on. Back then I resented him not letting us near you. That’s partly why I never got in touch, but I can see now that he was trying to protect you from your idiot friends.’

  Orla insisted on paying for lunch, and while they ate, Aoife filled her in on her plan. At 4:50 they headed for Robert’s car.

  ‘You’re sure you don’t mind doing this?’

  ‘Aoife, when have I ever done anything I didn’t want to do?’ Orla looked at her black trousers, which were paired with what was obviously a designer black-and-white jacket. ‘I wish I’d known your plan. I’d have brought a change of clothes. This is my professional look.’

  Aoife smiled. ‘I think you’ll manage. Nice hair by the way.’

  Orla’s long blond hair was divided into three plaits, two on either side, one in the centre. They were gathered at the nape of her neck in a plaited bun. She looked like a thirty-year-old model on her way to a business meeting.

  ‘Be very careful, Orla. Remember, he’s dangerous.’

  ‘I can take care of myself. I’ll ask him to drop me at Heuston and I’ll get a taxi back here. I’ll meet you in the lobby around six.’

  *

  Aoife hid in a shop doorway and watched Orla bump against Robert. She had unfastened her tote and its contents spilled all over the pavement. Robert, and two men who were passing, helped her gather her possessions. Orla kept her eyes fastened on Robert. Four minutes later they walked to his car and drove away. Aoife returned to the Westbury and waited. By 6:30 she was becoming anxious. At seven she phoned Orla’s mobile. It was switched off. At 7:30 she considered calling the police.

  *

  At 7:45 Aoife’s phone rang. She grabbed it without checking the caller ID.

  ‘Aoife?’

  ‘Oh, hi, Maura.’

  ‘Are you okay? Where are you?’

  ‘I’m meeting a friend in Dublin. Is something wrong?’

  ‘Jason’s just left. He’s in a state because you’re not at home. Is everything okay?’

  ‘Yes, I’ll be home later. I have to go. I need to keep this line free. Bye.’

  Eight-thirty and still no word from Orla. What could have happened her? Even if Robert saw her pick up the pen, why would he harm her? If he was suspicious, wouldn’t he just drop her off somewhere? He wouldn’t have any reason to kill her. But if she was okay, why wasn’t she answering her phone? At 9:30, Aoife decided to go to the police. Halfway to Pearse Street station she changed her mind. “My twenty-four-year-old friend took a lift from my boss’s son and now she’s not answering her mobile” was unlikely to ring any alarm bells with the police. “I think my ex-boss’s son is a murderer although I’ve no proof and I’m worried because he gave my friend a lift and now she’s not answering her phone” didn’t sound much better. Did police stations share a database? Would they find Aoife listed under “paranoid nutter”? There was a train to Kildare in fifteen minutes. All Aoife could do was go home and wait. If Orla hadn’t contacted her by tomorrow, she’d get Orla’s parents to file a missing persons’ report. Aoife and a sleeping Amy were on the train at 10 p.m. when Maura phoned again.

  ‘I’m sorry, Aoife. I know you’re with a friend, but Jason’s been calling me every fifteen minutes since seven p.m., begging me to phone you.’

  ‘If Jason is so anxious to know where I am he can phone me himself.’

  ‘That’s what I’ve been saying since seven o’clock, but he’s in such a state I finally gave in. I’ll tell him you’re okay and he’ll see you when he sees you. I’m sorry to bother you. I promised myself I’d never do his dirty work again, but he always talks me around.’

  ‘Again? Are you talking about the time I went for a drink with Eilis after work? I knew you were acting strangely that day. You weren’t meeting a friend at all, were you? Jason told you to say that so I’d come home.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t get involved, but he gets into such a state.’

  ‘Yeah, well, I’ll be home soon.’

  ‘I won’t tell him. He’ll be so relieved to see you, everything will be back to normal in no time.’

  Aoife had her doubts, but she was too worried about Orla to care. She kept her phone clutched in her hand in case she missed Orla’s call, but there was still no word when the train pulled into Kildare at 10:15. As the taxi approached Aoife’s house, all the upstairs lights were switched on. The blinds in their bedroom were pulled up and she could see Jason’s face in the window. When she was paying the driver, she heard the blinds being rolled down and by the time she reached their bedroom, Jason was gone and the spare bedroom was in darkness.

  Aoife paced for hours, mobile in one hand, praying Orla would contact her. At 6 a.m., she lay on the couch and fell asleep.

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  Aoife woke at 8:30 and checked her phone. Still no contact. The house was quiet. Jason must have gone to work. Her call log showed nobody had tried to contact her. She’d have to tell Orla’s parents she had talked their daughter into getting in a car with a murderer. She couldn’t remember their phone number, so she would have to go to the house. Still wearing yesterday’s clothes, she bundled Amy into the buggy and headed for the train station. The train was pulling into Heuston when her mobile rang.

  ‘Hi, Aoife, it’s me.’

  ‘Orla! Thank God! I thought you were dead. What happened?’

  ‘I turned off my phone when I got into the car. I didn’t want Robert seeing your name appear on the screen.’

  ‘Where have you been all this time?’

  ‘We went for a drink, then he invited me for a meal and we went on to a nightclub. He offered to drive me home, but I didn’t want him to know where I lived. He invited me to his house, but I didn’t want to risk that, so we drove to Bray Head.’

  ‘You spent the night in his car? I told you he’s dangerous.’

  ‘You know me. When I do something, I like to do it properly. The longer I spent with him, the more opportunity I had to help you. Anyway, he fell asleep in the car so I found the pen. When he woke, we went for breakfast, and then we walked to Greystones.’

  ‘You walked on the cliff path? He could have thrown you into the sea and nobody would be any the wiser.’

  ‘If he was planning to murder me, he wouldn’t have taken me to breakfast. I was beginning to think I’d never get rid of him, so I said I’d be late for work if we didn’t get the train back to Bray. He wanted to drive me to the office. I said the DART was faster during rush hour and my boss was horrible and I’d be in terrible trouble if I was late. I’m on the DART now. I gave him a fake mobile number. He said he’d phone me this evening. He thinks we’re going out again tonight. It’s a pity he’s dangerous. He’s a bit full of himself, but I kind of liked him.’

  *

  They agreed to meet in the lobby of the Westbury so Orla could hand over the biro. Aoife was worried the hotel staff might not let her in. Her clothes were crumpled, she probably smelled, and she hadn’t even run a comb through her hair. One of the waiters looked at her but said nothing. A moment later Orla entered. Nobody would have guessed she had spent the night in a car. There wasn’t a wrinkle on her clothes, and her makeup was freshly applied. She had undone her plaits, and her hair curled around her face and down her back.

  ‘Aoife! You look dreadful.’

  ‘Thanks. I’ve been up all night worrying about you.’

  ‘You should know by now I can take care of myself. Here’s the pen.’ She grinned. ‘And the bonus prize is?’ She twirled a small keyring in the air. ‘Tell me I’m a genius.’

  ‘What is that?’

  Orla handed the three keys to Aoife. ‘I’m guessing one of these is for the office. One of the keys on the other ring looked like a front door key, and I couldn’t take that or he’d miss it immediately. I wouldn’t wait too long to use the office key. Robert might change the lock when he discovers he’s lost it.’

  ‘You’re right, you are a genius, Orla. That’s perfec
t. Thank you so much.’

  ‘Oh, that’s not all. I told you I was determined to be useful.’

  Aoife groaned. ‘What did you do?’

  ‘I found out Annette knew about Dan’s affair.’

  *

  ‘Robert told you that?’

  ‘I got him talking about his family. I made up a story about my dad’s relationship with another woman and the whole thing came out.’

  ‘About Delia?’

  Orla nodded. ‘Cassie spent a weekend with Robert shortly after she got engaged. She had too much to drink and started crying about how she didn’t want her life to end up like her mother’s. Robert said Annette wasn’t too bothered when she found out about Dan and Delia’s affair—apparently he’s had many over the years—but when she called to the office and saw that Delia was pregnant, she phoned Cassie.’

  ‘Did she confront Delia?’

  ‘Cassie convinced her to do nothing for the time being. Annette started meeting Dan for lunch whenever she could, and if she was nearby when he got calls on his mobile, she eavesdropped to make sure they weren’t from Delia. Everything seemed fine until just before Christmas, when Annette heard Dan on the phone. He said, “I just want to give her a Christmas present. I want her to know I didn’t completely abandon her”.’

  ‘That must have been when he decided to put Ellen in his will.’

  ‘Maybe, but Annette interpreted it as Dan warming to the idea of another child. She figured it was only a matter of time before he looked for custody.’

  ‘She didn’t want that?’

  ‘She was afraid custody would lead to more interaction with Delia and eventually to Dan leaving her. Cassie said she was terrified of losing the world she had spent a lifetime building.’

  ‘Terrified enough to commit murder?’

  *

  ‘I don’t know, but I haven’t told you the best part yet. When Robert fell asleep, I searched his car.’

  ‘Orla! What if he’d woken up?’

  ‘He did. I’ll get to that in a minute. Did you know Robert was just back from London?’

  Aoife shook her head.

  ‘He came back yesterday morning. When I was rooting through the glove compartment I found a wallet. His normal wallet is bulging with cards, but this wallet had only one. A credit card in the name of John Donovan.’

  ‘He’s stealing credit cards?’

  ‘No, the wallet was stuffed with receipts going back months. If it was stolen it would have been cancelled long ago. I think Robert must have opened an account in another name. He couldn’t have the stolen money going into his own account.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Did you ever try to lodge a substantial sum to your account? The bank ring and ask you where the money came from. They’re required to by law.’ Orla reached for her coffee. ‘I’m parched. That hotel’s idea of breakfast is to drown everything in salt.’ She took another gulp. ‘All the receipts were for sterling, so Robert must only use the card abroad. He seems to go to London every two to three months. You wouldn’t believe the places he stays. Twenty-two thousand pounds a night for a hotel suite, and he spends more on designer clothes in a day than I’d spend in a year. Anyway, just before he woke, I saw a receipt from a shop. He bought a book called A Poison Aficionado’s Guide to 6 Killer Chemicals.’

  *

  ‘I don’t get it.’ Aoife jiggled Amy, who was getting fed up being ignored. ‘Why would Robert buy a book on poison? The police could trace it back to him.’

  ‘How? He bought it in a foreign country under an assumed name. It’s safer than buying it online or looking up the information on the internet.’

  ‘You said Robert woke up. What happened?’

  ‘I’d been so engrossed in the receipts, I forgot to keep an eye on him. He was all bleary-eyed so he didn’t see me stuff the wallet into my pocket.’

  ‘You still have it?’

  ‘No. The pockets in this jacket are tiny. I was afraid to move in case it fell out.’

  ‘What did you do?’

  ‘Robert wanted to take me to breakfast. I told him I was dying of thirst and didn’t think I would make it to the hotel. He stopped at a petrol station to get me water. I knew he’d look at me through the window or in those cameras most petrol stations have—men always do—so I pretended to fix my makeup. I dropped my lipstick on the floor, ducked down, stuffed the wallet into the glove compartment and two seconds later I was applying my lipstick again.’

  ‘What if Robert notices the wallet’s been thumbed through the same day his key goes missing? He could come after you.’

  ‘He’d have to find me first.’

  ‘Ireland’s a small country. You can find anyone with a bit of effort.’

  ‘Only if you know who you’re looking for. He thinks I’m Natasha, a thirty-one-year-old who’s abandoned her dreams of a career in modelling for a job in a bank. If I ran into him, I don’t think he’d recognise me in my normal gear. I even sound different.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘I put on a Northern Ireland accent. He thinks I’m from Belfast and I’m renting an apartment in Dundrum.’

  ‘Okay, but try and stay out of the city centre for a few weeks, just to be safe.’

  ‘I’m not finished with him yet. On the way here, I realised it was stupid to give Robert a fake mobile number. I’m going to call him this afternoon.’

  ‘Why? You can’t meet him again.’

  ‘If Robert is trying to kill you, then we need him as far away as possible until there’s enough evidence to get him arrested. When I phone to cancel our date, I’ll say I’m flying out to the Caribbean tomorrow and I’d like him to join me for the weekend. That will get him out of the country. When he checks into the hotel, there will be a message from me saying I—I don’t know what I’ll say, but I’ll think of something to explain why I was delayed. I’ll keep Robert waiting for me as long as I can. It will buy you a few days at least.’

  On the train home, Aoife phoned Eilis, who reluctantly agreed to meet her that night in Stephen’s Green. It was time to recover the bugs they had planted.

  *

  Aoife was not looking forward to listening to the USB Orla had retrieved. It was a three-hour drive to Tipperary, and Dan was incapable of silence. Three hours of his prattle was a daunting prospect, but Aoife needn’t have worried. The interesting section was right at the beginning. After fifteen minutes of music, Aoife heard a door slam. Dan was in attack mode.

  ‘Why the hell don’t you ever answer your phone?’

  ‘Good morning to you too,’ Robert said. ‘What’s the matter with you?’

  ‘I phoned you every half hour from eight p.m. and you had your bloody phone switched off.’

  ‘Big night last night. I didn’t want to be interrupted.’

  ‘For God’s sake, Robert. I don’t want to hear about your little tramp. This is business.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Why did you give Delia a company credit card?’

  ‘Who says I did?’

  ‘What are you, ten?’ Dan bellowed. ‘Answer the question.’

  ‘She was getting nosey. Wanted to know how I could afford my new house. How come you were suddenly rolling in it when you were barely making ends meet five years ago?’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I said you had made some lucrative investments. She didn’t believe me.’

  ‘So you gave her money? Why didn’t you come to me?’

  ‘You’d have gone off on one. We couldn’t risk her going to the police or to the board. Someone with a cool head needed to take charge.’

  ‘And that’s you I suppose?’

  ‘Even you have to admit I’m better at keeping my temper. I said, in acknowledgement of the fact that we had made some very savvy investments, I was prepared to give her a little extra each month. The card’s an American Express. She couldn’t spend more than a hundred euros a month on it. It shut her up for a while.’

  ‘You wer
e admitting guilt.’

  ‘Give me some credit. I gave her a company card so I could justify it if I had to. If she cheated on her expenses, that couldn’t be my fault. And I told her I understood things were difficult for her financially, that you had told me about Ellen and I didn’t want my sister to go without. Obviously I didn’t let on I didn’t believe Ellen had any connection to me. I said the company was in financial difficulty but the hundred euros a month was a token of my appreciation of her deep connection to our family.’

  ‘She’d have come back for more.’

  ‘Probably. But Tom took care of that for us, didn’t he?’

  *

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Dan’s voice was so low it was barely recognisable.

  ‘I—’ There was a screech of brakes.

  ‘For God’s sake, will you look where you’re driving. Pull over.’

  ‘We’ll be late. The Away Day can’t start without us.’

  ‘I don’t give a damn how late we are. There’s a coffee shop over there, pull in.’

  Doors slammed and there was over an hour of silence. When the tape resumed, someone turned on the news and they discussed foreign affairs, tax and the upcoming meeting for the rest of the tape. Delia wasn’t mentioned again.

  *

  When Aoife thought about it, it made perfect sense that Tom had to be involved in the scam. He was Robert’s right-hand man. It had taken Aoife less than a week to discover their scam. Tom had years to uncover it. Of course, Eilis had worked there years too and she’d never suspected anything. Aoife wanted to ask Eilis’ opinion, but over twenty minutes after they were supposed to meet, Aoife was still waiting outside the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre. Ten minutes later, Eilis appeared, clearly not in the mood to chat. She walked right past Aoife.

  ‘Not one word. You’re lucky I came at all. Why can’t you do this on your own?’

  Aoife hurried to catch up with her. ‘Maybe I could, but I’m already scared. I’d be terrified on my own.’

  ‘What about me being scared?’

  ‘I know, I’m sorry, but this is for both of us.’

  ‘Huh!’

  They reached the Stephen’s Green office, and Aoife unlocked the main door and ran up the stairs. Eilis refused to hurry. Aoife had just reached the first-floor landing when a male voice called, ‘Hello.’