Who Took Eden Mulligan?

by Sharon Dempsey

  ‘Come over here and I’ll talk you through what we’ve done so far,’ said Gabriel. Rose followed him to a makeshift office in a mobile shed. On the wall, a map of the site was covered in Xs and pinpoints.

  ‘We are working our way steadily through this section today.’

  ‘You’re attached to the university?’

  ‘Yes, Bradford, the department of archaeological and forensic sciences. We specialise in bringing the disciplines together.’

  Rose looked at the images he was showing her on an iPad.

  ‘These are photographs of other sites we’ve worked on. It will give you a sense of what we are doing and what we hope to find.’ Rose looked at the partially preserved body in the image. Skin, leathery and brown, coated bones.

  Another image showed a site after the dig was complete. The landscape looked like something alien. ‘As you can see, the terrain bears the scars of our work. It’s a strange set-up. In order for the Good Friday Agreement to work, the families we are working on behalf of have to accept a lack of restitution and justice. Their lack of closure is the price asked of them.’

  They turned to the sound of approaching voices. Marie appeared at the door with Lizzie Mulligan. She was dressed in a calf-length, straight, sand-coloured skirt with a white V-neck T-shirt. Her dark, glossy hair was pulled back into a low ponytail. Everything about her looked pristine, considered and smart. A direct contrast to her brothers.

  Gabriel closed the iPad and turned to shake Lizzie’s hand. ‘Good to meet you,’ he said.

  Lizzie nodded. ‘I felt that one of us should be here. Just in case. Eileen wanted to be here but she’s working.’

  Rose welcomed her into the stuffy office. ‘This can’t be easy for you, Lizzie.’

  ‘Please, sit down,’ Gabriel said, offering her a stool and she sat.

  ‘I haven’t been as active in pushing for the police to find out what happened to our mother – the boys took more of an interest in all that. I wanted to move on. To try to put it behind me. But the truth is, there’s no escaping it. Not really.’ Lizzie paused. She was dry-eyed and her voice was steady. Rose noted her composure. She was a self-assured woman.

  ‘The day they took our mother, they took our childhood too,’ Lizzie said. ‘What chance had any of us? You can’t thrive with no mother or father to care for you.’

  Rose could only murmur in sympathy.

  CHAPTER 52

  Gabriel stepped forward and began explaining the process of the dig: what they were hoping to achieve by the close of the day and what she could expect. She listened patiently.

  ‘If we find anything significant the state pathologist will come down. Her office will carry out the post-mortem and the formal identification of remains once they leave the site.’ Gabriel then made his excuses and went back to work.

  Rose appreciated the opportunity to speak with Eden’s daughter alone. ‘Lizzie, I know you and Paddy were initially taken in by the Atwoods, and that Paddy left following allegations of abuse. What happened?’

  ‘The Atwoods weren’t bad people. They did their best for us, but Paddy, well, he was a handful. He acted up. Got into trouble at school and at home. It was as if he was trying to push everyone away from him.’

  Rose nodded. ‘What kind of trouble?’

  ‘He tried every trick in the book to annoy them, but they had the patience of saints. When he threw stuff, broke ornaments or destroyed books, they calmly explained why it was wrong. Eventually, he worked out the only way to hurt them was to make stuff up. That was when he began making allegations against Alan. Said Alan would strike him with a belt and would lock him in the shed overnight. All lies.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Paddy tried to wreck any chance I had of being part of a real family. The worst of it was, he accused Alan of watching me. He started blocking up keyholes with tissue paper to prevent Alan from allegedly spying on me. Kept insinuating that there was something in the way Alan looked at me. He wanted to destroy Alan. I told anyone who’d listen that it wasn’t true. Alan and Linda weren’t my parents, but what they offered us was a damn sight better than Moss Street. I had my own bedroom, pretty flowery curtains, even a dolls’ house for frigsake. I thought I’d landed on my feet and I sure as hell didn’t want Paddy ruining it for me. Alan never made me feel uncomfortable for a second. But after everything with Paddy he withdrew. He was cordial and kind but no more; frightened to get too close.’

  She sighed and steadied her breathing. ‘Eventually, Linda and Alan couldn’t take any more, and Paddy was sent away. Broke my heart all over again, but I knew they didn’t have a choice. Something inside Paddy was damaged beyond repair. He couldn’t help it.’

  Rose could hear the hurt in Lizzie’s voice. Her face had drained of colour and she looked washed out in the brightness of the day.

  ‘What about your relationship with Paddy? How did it survive?’

  ‘I saw him on and off at prearranged visits with social workers sitting in, watching us. Things between us were never the same, but he’s my kin and my twin, so I get him. I understand. He was hurting. What they offered was so nice, so safe and lovely, that he had to destroy it. It was self-sabotage. I can see that now, looking back.’

  ‘You work as a counsellor, I believe?’ Rose couldn’t help herself. It seemed too good an opportunity to not bring up Lizzie’s occupation.

  She nodded. ‘Yes, I’m self-employed.’

  Lizzie went to say something further when suddenly they heard Gabriel shout.

  ‘Halt!’

  They both froze. It could only mean one thing.

  CHAPTER 53

  ‘Stay here. I’ll see what’s happening,’ Rose told her.

  ‘No, I’m coming too. If they’ve found her, I want to be there.’

  Rose and Lizzie made their way across the boggy field. The atmosphere was strangely electric, but Rose could tell the team were containing their excitement out of respect for Lizzie. Gabriel walked forward to meet them halfway.

  ‘We’ve uncovered bone so this part will be slow. We have to be careful not to destroy any evidence.’

  ‘How soon will we know if it’s Eden?’ asked Rose.

  ‘It has to be her. It’s where they told us to look,’ Lizzie said, her voice cracking. Rose could see her body was leaning forward, as if every fibre in her being was dragging her towards where her mother might lie.

  ‘I’m afraid that we already suspect it’s not her,’ Gabriel said gently. ‘We’re pretty certain we are looking at male remains.’

  ‘No! Not again.’ Lizzie wailed as if she had been physically struck. She buckled in on herself, her body lurching forward, and Rose put her hand out to steady her. ‘Lizzie, I’m so sorry. I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear.’

  ‘No, no, no,’ she said, her voice a raw gurgle of pain and tears. She walked away from them, clearly wanting to be alone.

  Rose turned to Gabriel. ‘What next?’

  ‘We determine the size and condition of the grave before we disturb too much. We usually can get an idea of the gender quickly, depending on the pelvis and skull size. That’s what makes me certain this isn’t Eden Mulligan. Come over and have a look.’

  The forensic archaeologists in Gabriel’s team stepped back to allow him to bend over the opened grave. Rose peered in. It wasn’t particularly deep, maybe five feet down, if that. The remains were still mostly covered by the brown clay soil but a few parts were clearly visible, where the soil had been carefully scraped and brushed away, exposing partially rotted clothing.

  ‘What can you tell looking at it now?’

  ‘The male pelvis has a narrower, heart-shaped pelvic inlet, see here?’

  Rose looked at where he indicated.

  ‘Women have wider pelvises in order to give birth and there’s differences to be found in the shape of their skulls, too. But, mainly, we look at the pelvis.’

  Rose looked at where he was pointing with a metal rod.

  ‘It’s a narrower angle where the two pe
lvic bones meet than what you would find on a female.’

  ‘So, you’re sure it’s not Eden?’

  ‘No. It’s not her.’

  CHAPTER 54

  Sometimes the dead don’t stay dead. They reach up through the dark clogs of earth and crawl through your sleep with a rancid, flesh-rotted grasp that tears at your neck and forces you to face realities you’d rather not.

  Rose knew that dredging up the past was not always a good thing. Secrets within families stay hidden mainly because that’s how they want them to be. Her own family was no exception.

  Finding Sean Torrent, the IRA commander that Rose suspected her mother had links to, hadn’t been too difficult. Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, there were plenty of his sort walking the streets as free men. He had managed to navigate his way back into Belfast society, still protected by the auspices of the state. Sean Torrent could go about his business as long as he kept his head down, whereas a couple of decades ago, he would have received a bullet in his head for talking to the police.

  Smuggling illegal fuel, running brothels, and selling drugs were the current concerns of the men who had previously traded in bullets and bombs. Back in the day, Torrent was thought of as the dog’s bollocks around Rose’s area. Evelyn certainly held him in high esteem. So high, in fact, that Rose wondered if she had been willing to risk her life and her children’s lives to do his bidding. It wasn’t unreasonable to think that she was in deep enough to have caused serious injury, if not death, to those considered to be legitimate targets. There was only so much digging up of the past that Rose wanted to do though, and she realised she may never know how far Evelyn went in her devotion to the cause. Perhaps Kaitlin was right, and their mother’s secrets were better off buried with her.

  The pub was referred to as a social club, a backstreet dive where knock-off drink was sold at knock down prices. Rose pressed the buzzer and the man on the other side of the security camera released the lock and let her in.

  She walked through the dark hallway and found herself in a dimly lit bar. There was a green, baize-covered snooker table in the middle of the room, where two young men – one with a shaved head and the other with his hair pulled back into a topknot – were in the midst of a game. The quick, sharp clack of the cue and the balls made her feel on edge. She headed towards the bar and then froze. There he was, sitting on a stool, drinking a pint of beer, looking down at his phone. She was sure it was him.

  He hadn’t changed too much. Tall and dark, the years hadn’t diminished him. She took a seat to the side to gather herself and have an opportunity to study him. She let her eyes drink him in for a moment, registering every detail: his tall height, the slouch of his shoulders, the angle of his nose that seemed so familiar, the set of his dark grey eyes. His hair was thinning, but what was left of it had been cut short. It still held its dark colour despite the threads of grey coming through. His stature made her think of a politician, or someone used to being in charge.

  He turned, as if suddenly aware of her intense scrutiny, and caught her looking.

  She took her chance and walked towards him.

  ‘Sean Torrent?’

  ‘Who’s asking?’

  She could see his eyes flit to the door, as if assessing the possibility of a quick exit should he need it.

  ‘Rose Lainey.’ She flashed her ID. ‘I want a word.’ She hoped he wouldn’t recognise her. The last time she had crossed paths with him had been when she was sixteen. He had let his eyes linger over her tight-fitting T-shirt then, before asking if her mother was at home.

  The barman looked up from the sink where he was washing a jug. ‘I don’t want any trouble.’

  ‘You won’t get any,’ said Rose. ‘This is a friendly chat.’

  Torrent stood up from the stool and she could see that he was uneasy from the way he shuffled his feet. A man with no secrets to hide wouldn’t be so ill at ease. It abruptly reminded her of why she was here.

  ‘I need to ask you some questions about Eden Mulligan.’

  She examined his face for movement. Nothing. Almost too steady. It was a well-practised look. Sean Torrent was clearly someone who knew how to take his time when it came to responding to unwelcome questions.

  ‘As I’m sure you are aware, Eden went missing in July 1986. I am carrying out a review of the case and your name has come up.’

  The clatter of the snooker balls rang out as the topknot took the break.

  ‘Came up in what context, exactly? I was only a teenager when she left.’

  ‘The context isn’t relevant. And what makes you say she left?’

  ‘Everyone knew Eden. She was one of those girls. Loved herself too much. She probably ran off with someone.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  He shrugged. ‘She wasn’t the type to waste her life hanging around the poky streets of Belfast. Someone like her had big ideas, big dreams. Even as a teenager I could see that.’

  Rose wasn’t sure why she felt uneasy.

  ‘Did you ever speak to Eden?’

  ‘No, didn’t get that close. No such luck.’ He gave a hard, bitter laugh.

  ‘Eden got involved in something. Something that could have placed her in danger. I think you might know what that was.’

  ‘We were all involved in something in those days. That was how you got by. Hustling. Trying to keep alive. You can’t pin it on me.’

  ‘Not everyone worked that way, making sure to keep themselves safe at the expense of other lives. I’m pinning nothing on you. Just asking a few questions. If you don’t want to have a friendly chat here, I can get a car to come and take you to the station.’

  Rose thought of her mother and how her family life had been caught up in the type of rhetoric he pushed. Freedom and revolution packaged up with bombs and bullets. She caught her breath. There was something so visceral in how she felt about him, how she felt connected to the past he represented. It was as if her childhood was woven through with everything he stood for. She could easily imagine taking a gun and putting it to his head, to right the wrongs he had committed. She wouldn’t lose any sleep over it, that much she was sure of.

  ‘For fuck’s sake. Can I not enjoy a quiet pint without being harassed?’

  ‘You would have been aware of the Mulligan family. Probably went to school with them.’

  ‘So what?’

  ‘So, what can you tell me about them?’

  ‘They were the same as the rest of us. Skinny wee runts roaming the streets.’

  ‘At what point did you become involved with the paramilitaries?’

  He jerked his head to the side. ‘I don’t know what you’re on about. I don’t need to tell you anything.’ He said the words dismissively, as if he could brush her off like a piece of inconsequential dust.

  ‘I think you’ll find that you do. You see, I know more about you than you think.’ She allowed herself a beat of pleasure at having the upper hand in this strange dynamic.

  ‘It was easy for you to use the people around you, the friends you grew up with, and trample their lives to save your own skin. Do you sleep easy at night? Or do their ghosts haunt your dreams?’

  He sneered, his mouth twisting in contempt. ‘Catch yourself on. I don’t know what the fuck you’re going on about, love.’

  ‘Don’t call me love. I want you to understand that I know more about you than you think. More than you could ever guess at.’ She narrowed her eyes and spoke quietly. Somewhere in the back of her mind she had yearned for this meeting. He represented everything she hated about her mother. Sean Torrent was the quiet knock at the door that signified her mother disappearing into the night, to clean up God knows what atrocity.

  ‘You don’t remember me, do you?’ she asked.

  ‘Should I?’

  ‘I’m Evelyn Lavery’s daughter.’

  His expression switched; his eyebrows knitting together in puzzlement.

  ‘What do you want?’

  ‘I want
to know why my mother answered to you and I intend to find out.’

  Rose turned and walked out the door, glad to leave the stench of the dive bar behind. Her eyes took a second to adjust to the brightness of the day. Sean Torrent was never going to tell her what she wanted to know but she needed to make him aware of her presence. She wanted to be the bane of his life, the way he had been the bane of hers.

  Her phone rang and she saw Danny’s name flash up.

  ‘What’s up,’ she said as she answered.

  ‘They’ve found another body at the dig site. It could be Eden.’

  ‘I’ll be at the station in half an hour. Wait for me.’

  Within an hour, they were on their way to the site.

  Danny parked their car beside a Land Rover and they got out. The ground was rough and muddy. Rose cursed herself for not having a spare pair of boots at hand. As they walked closer to the site, they could see all activity had halted, waiting for their arrival.

  ‘That’s Gabriel. He’s in charge,’ Rose said, indicating to Danny the tall fella standing by the mobile hut with a group of others.

  ‘Christ, he looks like Poldark.’

  Rose laughed. ‘I’d noticed.’

  They approached the group and Rose introduced Danny to them.

  ‘Well, we’ve another body, then?’ Danny said.

  ‘Yes, buried alongside the first one.’

  Rose stepped forward. ‘Do we know yet?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said before she could get the rest of the words out. ‘It’s female. The Mulligan family have been notified of the finding.’

  CHAPTER 55

  Danny woke up the next morning with a saying of his father’s in his head: if something says it’s a duck, and it walks like a duck, the chances are, it is probably a duck. The words bothered him all the way to the station. Why, if Iona Gardener was claiming to be responsible for the murders, was he so determined to disbelieve her? In order to get his head around it, he went back to the beginning.