BILLY MEAGHER’S HOUSE was in the centre of town. The street sloped down towards a row of shops, a grocer’s, a newsagent’s, a hair salon, and one of half a dozen local pubs. Each house was pebble-dashed to the front and painted a different colour. The ex-postman’s house was a watery shade of blue. Lynch had phoned ahead, so that by the time they arrived, the kettle was boiled and a plate of assorted biscuits lay on the kitchen table. From Lynch’s face, he wasn’t in the mood for tea after his conversation with the chief super.
‘You’ll both have a cuppa, then?’ Billy asked, more as a statement than a question.
Kate figured she would have to supply the goodwill for both of them. Lynch took his cue from her: despite his bad mood, he knew he’d get nothing out of Billy Meagher if the ritual of tea-sharing was declined.
‘Are you retired long?’ Kate asked.
‘A couple of years – I got out when the going was good. The country’s going downhill, there’s nothing surer.’
‘You live alone, then?’
‘I do, Miss. It suits me well. Only me and Rocky here.’ He leaned down to pat a collie’s head. ‘Rocky’s nearly as old as myself, if you count his time in dog years. Great company, though – I’d be lost without him.’
Lynch put down his tea. ‘Billy, we’re hoping you can tell us about the Thompson and Connolly families, especially Alice and Sandra.’
‘Yeah, I knew them. What do you want to know?’
‘Anything you can tell us.’
‘They lived here, they left, and most people were glad to see them go.’
‘Why?’ Lynch gulped some tea.
‘Some folk are queer. None of them were friendly, like. It’s a tight community, this.’
‘Can you be more specific?’ The edge in Lynch’s voice revealed his tetchiness.
‘What Mark is getting at, Billy,’ Kate added, ‘is that you must have seen your fair share of odd stuff over the years. I’d say you’re a very observant man.’
Lynch stood up from the table.
Billy ignored him, focusing his attention on Kate. ‘I am, yes, for sure. You wouldn’t believe the half of it. There was a family here once, a mother and her son, a queer pair they were. They lived on the outskirts, so it was damn awkward delivering their mail. They had a bloody awful dog too, never shut up barking.’ He patted Rocky again. ‘The son, he must have been in his thirties, he took to playing with himself at the upstairs window. I never paid it any mind. I mean, you see all kinds of stuff. But then some of the schoolgirls took to taking a shortcut that way so I had to have words.’
‘What did you say?’ Kate asked, unsure where this was going.
‘I told him to pull the bloody curtains. The mother was no better. She used to go around half naked. At least, she did when I was delivering the post. I had a set routine, you see,’ he said, biting into a custard cream. ‘The auld one was eventually put in a home. The son wasn’t long following her. There was something odd going on there for sure, mark my words.’
‘And the Thompsons and the Connollys – would you say there was something queer going on there too?’ Kate drank her tea, like this was the most normal conversation in the world.
‘Hard to say, but old Mrs Connolly was probably the worst of the bunch.’ He seemed to be enjoying himself, dragging out the information, being the centre of attention.
‘The daughter, Sandra’s natural mother, what became of her?’
‘I can’t say I know,’ his face darkened, ‘not for sure.’
‘Why? I heard she left after the baby was born.’
‘That’s the spin they put on it. I was always suspicious. She wasn’t a bad sort, that youngster. All I know is, the girl was the size of a house with that child of hers. No one asked any awkward questions. The next thing, old Mrs Connolly had the baby, and the mother had gone off to England.’ He helped himself to another custard cream. ‘As I said, I had my doubts. I mean, the girl never came back, not once – it’s hard to credit.’
Lynch sat down again. ‘Did you suspect foul play?’
‘I didn’t say that. All I’m saying is, it was odd, nothing more.’ Billy Meagher was on the defensive now.
‘Don’t worry, Billy,’ Kate said gently. ‘We can check out what happened to the mother from our end.’
He nodded, seeming somewhat relieved.
‘I hear Sandra and Alice were close,’ she continued.
‘Ah, yeah, they were for sure.’
‘And Sandra was the quieter of the two?’
‘Aye, she was quiet, in her own way.’
‘In her own way?’
‘She could be a bit of a flirt, that one. The two of them could be. They’d roll them school skirts up until there wasn’t much left to the imagination, if you get what I’m saying.’
‘Did you think all was right at home, with the parents and the grandparents?’ Kate gave him a reassuring look.