‘I only know what I’ve told you, about that old cow Connolly. Maryann Thompson, she was a drinker, but …’ He swirled the dregs of his tea in the cup.
Sensing he was holding something back, Kate said, ‘Billy, everything you tell us is confidential. We’re not even sure if there is any direct connection to our investigation, but if you know something, or think you do, it’s probably best that you tell us now.’
‘Aye, maybe you’re right.’ He looked from Kate to Lynch, then back to Kate. ‘It’s a long time back, but I saw him up to no good.’
‘Who?’ Kate maintained eye contact.
‘It was when both girls were in their teens that I saw the two of them together.’
‘Who are we talking about?’ Lynch pulled his chair in closer.
‘Young Sandra Connolly and Alice’s father, Sam Thompson,’ he blurted, as if surprised they weren’t keeping up with the conversation.
‘What did you see?’ Kate kept her tone level.
‘I couldn’t be sure, at least not at first. The light can be tricky in the forest, especially late evening.’ Once more, he looked from Kate to Mark and back to Kate. ‘It was the school uniform I recognised, that red tartan skirt. I thought, for feck sake, it’s not right, school kids carrying on like that.’ Indignation was written on his face. ‘I was going to pull the two of them off each other, but then I realised it was Sam who was doing the loving.’
‘So,’ Lynch said, ‘you did nothing?’
‘A man has to think about these things, but in the end, I decided to let it be.’
‘Do you know if it happened again?’ Kate asked softly.
‘I don’t know, but it wasn’t long afterwards that Sam and Maryann moved to Dublin, and Alice stayed here to finish her schooling. A right pair of hippies, they were. They rolled their own cigarettes, you know. I saw both of them out of their heads more than once. They did their fair share of tripping, that’s for sure.’
‘Did you ever hear what happened to them?’
‘Aye. Maryann passed away not long after she left here. The drink killed her liver before any of the other stuff.’ He sat back in the chair, pointing to the window. ‘She’s buried up there with her parents in the cemetery.’
‘And Sam?’ she asked.
‘For all I know he’s still in Dublin. He was here for the funeral. The whole village turned out. It’s the way we do it down here.’
‘It seems Sandra’s grandparents made a quick exit too – do you know anything about them?’ Lynch looked distinctly suspicious of Billy Meagher.
‘There weren’t too many questions asked after that pair left, but I daresay you’ll be talking to our ex-postmistress, Lily Bright. She’ll fill you in on what’s what.’
‘You sound like you already know what she’s going to say,’ Lynch remarked.
‘Maybe it’s nothing, but I remember … there was something very peculiar about their mail. Lily jabbered on about it for months, and you’ll find that normally she’s a woman of few words.’
MEAGHER’S PUB, LEACH, COUNTY WICKLOW
‘THAT WAS TESTING,’ Lynch said to Kate, once they were outside Billy Meagher’s house.
‘You knew it wasn’t going to be easy.’ Kate hesitated, then added, ‘You’re going to have to talk to O’Connor. He’s the one digging for information on the parents. We’ll have to let him know that Billy Meagher considered Sandra’s mother’s disappearance suspicious. If he thought something wasn’t right, he wouldn’t be the only one.’
He looked up the street. ‘All right, Kate, but I’m in need of something proper to eat. Let’s see if we can grab some food in that pub.’ He pointed to Meagher’s. ‘Do you think there’s a connection to our ex-postman, village inbreeding?’
‘I don’t know, but what Billy Meagher said about Sandra and Alice Thompson’s father is certainly painting an interesting picture.’
‘What’s your take on it?’
‘Sandra engaging in sexual activity at a young age and, apparently, doing so willingly with an older man tells us a lot about her mental and emotional state back then.’
‘Meaning what?’
‘She isn’t the same girl described to us by Barry Lyons. On the one hand we have an image of someone who isn’t as talkative as her peers, shy, intelligent, probably letting Alice be the forceful one. Yet on the other, as a teenager, she openly had sex with her friend’s father. It doesn’t add up. If she was promiscuous from an early age, assuming Alice never found out about it, Sandra had the ability to deceive the one person she was close to.’
‘Could she be our killer, Kate?’
‘I know people can put up a fa?ade to fool others. If Sandra Regan is the person we’re looking for, and we find proof of severe abuse in her early years, she would have become socially dysfunctional, her moral compass different from that of others, and primed to set out on a devastating path.’