Of course, I knew how. Understaffed and overworked in the more rural parts of Ireland meant there were holes in the net for offenders like Dick Coughlan to slip through.
I turned back to the screen and clicked to the next page, my heart climbing into my mouth as I scanned the records.
"Guess who was the proud owner of a white Ford Transit van at the time of Clara's disappearance." I couldn't keep the glee from my voice. It wasn't proof of wrongdoing but it was a thread and if I just kept pulling at it, I knew the whole story would unravel.
"What does all of this mean?" Ronan asked, straightening up.
"It means we go and have a little chat with Sarah Coughlan because I think she knows more than she’s been telling us.”
“Do you think she’s in on it?”
“At the very least I think she’s covering for him,” I said, climbing to my feet. “I just how to God I’m wrong though.”
Ronan grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and the keys from his desk.
“Are we going to tell the others?”
I shook my head. “We’re only going to check it out. If we find something, we’ll call in the cavalry.”
Ronan’s grin was infectious. “Suits me.”
57
October 17th 1996
I think Dick is following me. I can’t be sure but I’m almost certain I saw his van earlier, sitting outside the house.
I asked Sarah and she said I was mistaken. He’s gone to Waterford with some job or other. She asked if maybe it was Liam but I know it’s not. He wouldn’t just sit outside the house like that. He’d have come in.
Alice is doing my head in at the moment. Banging on about the disco she’s going to. It’s going to be the ‘event of the year’, apparently. Her words not mine. I can’t blame her for being excited though. I was probably the same going to my first disco but baby boy has put paid to all of that.
I can’t believe how much my belly is starting to show. I used to be able to hide it a little bit with my baggy jumpers but now every time I look in the mirror I’m even bigger.
And soon he’ll be here. I can feel him squirming around in there and I think I’m starting to get nervous.
What if I’m not a good mother? What if I do something wrong?
I want to get it right, give him the best life I can and love him. Is that enough?
I suppose I have to hope it is.
I’m a little excited too though at the thought of holding him in my arms, my own little boy.
He’s kicking now, it’s like he knows I’m thinking about him.
I love you, baby boy. Mommy can’t wait to meet you!
58
My eyes felt like someone had attached tiny lead weights to them while I'd been asleep. The mattress beneath my back was lumpy. Was I back in the hospital?
My memory was foggy and refused to cooperate as I struggled to remember just what had happened.
The sound of someone humming drew my attention and I focused in on the noise.
The room in Sarah's house. Her daughter Alison. The pictures...
Sarah drugged me.
The memories came back in fragments and as soon as I tried to grab them, they broke apart like the dust from a moth's wing.
"Wakey-wakey, sleepy head," Sarah's voice was scratchy as she tried to sing the words. "I know you're awake, Alice. You can't hide from me."
Opening my eyes, the lights overhead were blinding and I blinked against them. "Where am I?"
"Your new home," Sarah said. "I've been waiting to bring you home for such a long time."
I turned my head to the side and found myself face to face with something straight out of a nightmare. There was still a little blonde hair on the skull but no flesh. The thin strands arranged artfully around what should have been its face. It stared back at me, its eyeless sockets letting me see all the way into the back of the cranium.
The scream tore at the back of my throat and I bucked and thrashed on the bed. The restraints around my wrists and ankles cut painfully into my skin.
"Don't be afraid, Clara didn't mean to frighten you." Sarah's voice broke through the panic ripping me asunder. Her words bringing with them a kind of blissful insanity that I longed to sink into.
I was dreaming. This had to be nightmare. It had to be. It couldn't be real. This wasn't Clara on the dirty, stained mattress next to me. I wasn't staring at the skeletal remains of my dead sister. It wasn't possible.
Tears blurred my vision and I continued to scream until my voice broke hoarsely over the sound.
"I thought you'd be happy to see her," Sarah said. And even in the frantic panic taking over my mind, I could hear the hurt in her voice as she spoke. "I thought this was what you wanted. You're always harping on about wanting to find Clara and I've brought you both back together."
I turned my face away from the body on the bed next to me, twisting my neck as far as it would go, just so I could avoid looking at the skull.
"Don't be so rude," Sarah said, kneeling down next to me.
"How could you do this?" My voice was a twisted, unrecognisable wreckage but at least it worked.
"I'm doing it so we can all be together again. We were always meant to be a family."
"I'm not your family," I said. "Clara wasn't your family..."
"Clara was an entitled little bitch who always got her own way." The vehement violence of Sarah's words shocked me into silence.
"You know she actually regretted getting pregnant. I didn't. I loved every short second of it..." Sarah closed her eyes and ran her hands over the front of her flat stomach. "I found out two weeks before Clara that I was pregnant. I was going to have someone of my own to love. She was going to be mine..."
Shock kept me from speaking, forcing me to listen to Sarah as she rambled. The cuff over my right hand shifted a little. Was I imagining it?
"I did everything right. Everything." Sarah opened her eyes and stared down at me. "I tried to protect her but I was weak..."
The initial panic had worn away, leaving me exhausted. If I was going to get out of this, then I needed to play along with Sarah.
"What happened to her?" I whispered.
"He did," she said. "He was so angry when he found out I was pregnant. Said I'd tried to trap him..."
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault." Sarah stood up abruptly, her weight disappearing from the edge of the bed.
Tracking her movements across the room wasn't easy and she disappeared from sight at the bottom of the bed. I tugged at the cuff on my wrist a little harder, feeling the restraint begin to loosen. It wasn’t enough to slip my hand out but it was a start.
"I won't let him hurt you," she said, coming back into view. "He wants to you know. Ever since that night, he's wanted you. I protected you all these years, kept him from going after you."
"Why Clara?" Simply saying her name was painful, my throat felt like I'd swallowed a mouthful of razor blades.
"When I lost the baby, he panicked. Worried I was going to leave him. He thought if he took Clara's baby, it would make up for it. But when he saw you he panicked... Thought it would be too much." She leaned down over me, her expression one of exultation. "But when I saw you I knew it was fate. Who lets their child walk along the road late at night? I'd cared for you. Cared for you when your mother couldn't, wouldn't..." She twisted her face up in disgust.
"We came back for you."
"But you took Clara instead," I said.
Sarah nodded. "She was easy. Too clumsy and slow in the dark."
"How did she die?"
Sarah's expression shifted. "I don't want to talk about that."
"Sarah, please," I said, struggling to pull myself up on the bed. My movements jiggled the corpse next to me, the bones rattling against the plastic they were cocooned inside and I halted. "Please tell me what happened to her."
With her back to me, Sarah's shoulder's tightened.
"He was an animal, couldn't wait to get home..
."
My stomach clenched painfully and I gritted my teeth against the ache in my chest.
"What did he do to her?"
"In the end, nothing..."
Sarah's words hit me like a slap.
"But you said?"
"She fought and went into labour..." Sarah's voice took on a dreamy note. "The baby lived for an hour. I held him the whole time."
"And Clara?"
"She bled out. Dick was so mad."
I swallowed back the bile that flooded up my throat. Turning my face back, I stared at what remained of my sister. She had fought. Fought to escape. And she’d died anyway…
"In case you were worried, I didn't let him near her once she died. I took care of her myself. Her and the baby. Wrapped them up nice and snug."
"You're a monster," I said, the words tripping off the tip of my tongue.
"What did you say?" Sarah's voice dropped sending alarm bells ringing in my head. But I was too far gone to care anymore. "You say he's an animal. You helped him. You helped him kill Clara and kill her child. You helped him murder all of those poor girls and for what? You think he's a monster but you're the fucking monster!"
The palm of her hand cracked against the side of my face. The sting of her blow brought the taste of blood to my mouth.
"Don't you ever tell me who I am," she hissed. "You don't know what I've had to do over the years to keep you safe. What I've had to sacrifice to protect you so we could all be here like this..."
The creak of a bolt sliding open made Sarah freeze. Her eyes were wide as she turned away from me and faced the other end of the room.
I strained to see what she was looking at but I couldn't see anything beyond the end of the bed. It was then I realised I wasn't wearing the clothes I'd dressed myself in that morning.
The pale pink dress was short, cutting off mid thigh, reminding me of the kinds of dresses my mother had made Clara and me wear when we were small. My toes were painted a pale pink that matched the dress and without having to look, I knew my fingernails would match.
"Help!" I screamed as the sound of heavy footsteps on a set of stairs met my ears.
"Shut up!" Sarah clamped her hand over my mouth and I bit down on her palm.
She squealed and snatched her hand back, her expression a mask of terror as she turned to the end of the room once more.
"If I knew we were going to have company, I'd have washed up." Dick said. The sound of his voice turned the blood in my veins to ice. "I've waited a long time for this..."
59
The house was in darkness as Ronan parked outside.
"Do you think she's in?" he asked, scanning the overgrown garden.
"Well she's not answering the phone number she gave us and this is the only listed address we've got for her." I climbed out of the car and closed the door carefully.
"You try the front," I said. "I'm going to go around the back."
The phone in my pocket chose that moment to ring. Sliding it out of my pocket, I stared at the number and swore softly.
Brady was the last person I wanted to talk to but if I didn't answer and something went wrong...
"Siobhan here," I said, pressing the phone to my ear.
"Where are you, Geraghty?" He sounded more than a little pissed off.
"I'm out following up on a lead. We've got a pretty good suspect and—"
"Get your ass back to the station. Detective Carroll left you in the office going over the case files with strict instructions not to budge."
"Sir, I couldn't ignore this lead." I fought to keep my voice steady.
Silence greeted me over the line and my stomach churned.
"Where are you?"
"Out at the Coughlan house."
"I don't want you to do anything until I get there, do you hear me, Geraghty? You've screwed up enough things to do with this case. I'll have your ass if you go against me on this one."
"Yes sir," I said, my heart sinking. The line went dead and I caught Ronan watching me over the top of the car.
"What did the boss man say?"
"He said we're not to do anything until he gets here..."
"Are we just going to sit out here twiddling our thumbs then?"
"He said we couldn't go in, not that we shouldn't secure the perimeter."
Ronan grinned at me.
60
A hand slid up my leg and I tried to squirm away.
"Get your hands off her!" Sarah's voice was icy and the hand disappeared from my leg.
"Babe, you know I'm sorry about earlier."
I twisted my head and could just make out Dick standing in front of the bed. Sarah's body blocked my view as she stepped between us.
"You know how I get and—"
The sound of a crack echoed in the room. Dick's face reddened where Sarah had struck him and he grimaced.
"I've told you before about doing that," he said through gritted teeth.
"She's not for you. She's mine." Sarah said as Dick tried to push her out of the way.
"We always share," he said. "This one is no different. I let you have your fun when I've had mine."
He shoved her hard and I was only vaguely aware of the sound of Sarah hitting the ground. The cuff on my wrist was looser with every second that ticked by. Tugging and pulling at it, I fought to loosen it the rest of the way.
The sound of a zipper sliding down brought terror clutching its way up my throat. This was how Clara must have felt.
I fought harder.
The bed dipped and strong hands slid up over my ankles. "You're special," Dick said huskily. "Older than I usually like but I've waited so long for you I'm going to enjoy this." He jerked my legs apart, his knee pressing between them as he climbed over me.
He shoved Clara's plastic wrapped remains violently toward the edge of the bed, spilling her bones onto the grubby mattress next to me. Something sharp pressed against my side as Dick's weight bore down on me.
From the corner of my eye, I watched Sarah crawl to the bed. When she climbed unsteadily to her feet, blood trickled from the side of her mouth. In her hands, she clutched a hammer.
Dick's hands slid up over my sides as he moved over me, his mouth coming down on my neck. His damp breath was moist against my skin as he bit down hard enough to rip a scream from me. The scent of his sickly sweat invaded my senses. I couldn't escape it. Couldn't fight free of the hold he had on me.
"Scream for me." His breath beat against my skin, heavy with his excitement.
Don't think about it. Don't think about it.
"Scream for me, Alice."
His hand slid around my throat, grip tightening as he choked off my air supply and I still wouldn't give him what he wanted.
My hand was almost free.
The dull thud of the hammer striking the back of his skull registered in the back of my mind.
He jerked up, his movements uncoordinated as he swung away from me. Blood splattered onto my face and chest as Sarah struck him again, a glancing blow that caught him across the nose.
"Bitch," he said, his voice clogged with blood as he staggered from the bed.
I pulled my hand free of the leather restraint and went to work on freeing my other arm.
Sarah screamed and then there was a dull moan. The sound of a body hitting the floor and then other wet sounds. My gaze was focused on the restraint keeping my other hand in place. If I looked up, I would lose what precious advantage I had. Whatever my chances might be with Sarah, if he killed her I knew what would happen to me.
61
Peering in through the back window, I scanned the dark tidy kitchen, searching for any sign that Sarah was in fact home.
"Anything?" Ronan asked, moving up beside me, a silent shadow in the darkness.
"Is she going somewhere?" I said, shining my torchlight back into the corner where I'd spotted the suitcase during my first sweep. I strained to read the tag on the bag.
"Looks like it," he said.
"It's alread
y tagged. You said Alice McCarthy called in the domestic report this morning."
"Yeah, but why would she still be here?"
"I don't know, I—" I cut off, as a muffled sound drew my attention. "Did you hear that?"
The noise came again and in the distance, the sound of sirens started to cut through the night air.
I rattled the door handle and found it unlocked. As I pushed open the door, the muffled scream became louder and I darted into the house without waiting for Ronan.
62
I ripped at the cuff, tearing my fingernails in my frenzy to get free.
I’d read the newspaper reports on the other victims and the torture they'd endured. I knew what would happen if Dick came for me.
The sound of a chair scraping the floor overhead brought me a renewed sense of urgency as I pulled the cuff off.
"I told you I'd protect you," Sarah said. Her hand caught my hair as she tried to jerk me back onto the bed. From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the hammer, slick with blood, raised in her other hand.
"Gardaí!"
My hand closed over the sharp piece of bone that had dug into my side as Sarah brought the hammer down over me.
I rolled my body in against her, the blunt end of her hammer striking my collarbone as my hand drove the bone shard into her.
Light exploded behind my eyes as the pain of her blow ricocheted through me. The hammer fell against my back.
The darkness claimed me.
63
The flash of the emergency lights threw strange shadows up and over the trees, reflecting back shapes that weren't really there.
"Make sure you push the reporters back from—"
"Geraghty!" Brady's voice cut over me and I turned to see him ducking beneath the tape cordoning off the front of the house. His hair seemed greyer than I remembered and part of me wondered if maybe I'd caused it with my disobedience of a direct order.
All the Lost Girls Page 28