Lynch held the pub door open for her. ‘Keep talking, Kate, but quietly. We don’t want to frighten the locals.’
Once they were seated, Kate took up where she had left off. ‘Early promiscuity, especially in close-knit communities, and in someone of Sandra’s intelligence, tells us there were other factors influencing her behaviour, outside the obvious lack of parental care. If she was abused, we can draw inferences based on what we now believe.’
‘Go on.’
‘I’ve been reviewing the profile again, and a certain pattern is occurring.’
‘Hold on. Let me order something to eat, so it’s out of the way. What do you want?’
‘I don’t mind – tea and a toasted sandwich.’
‘More bloody tea. Right, I’ll be back in a second.’
Kate looked around at the half-dozen people scattered throughout the room, all engrossed in conversation. She checked her phone. Charlie would be home with Sophie, their childminder, by now. With Lynch at the bar, she rang the apartment.
‘Hi. Sophie, it’s Kate. Is everything okay? … That’s great … Can I have a quick word with him?’ She heard the clatter of the phone going down, Sophie telling Charlie to hurry up in the bathroom as his mum was on the phone.
‘Hi, Charlie, how are you doing, my clever clogs? I hear you got an A for your Dolphin project!’
‘And a book token, Mum, for five euro!’
‘Wow, that’s brilliant! We can go shopping on Saturday, if you like.’
‘Cool. Can I bring Simon? He got an A as well.’
‘If it’s okay with his parents, absolutely.’
‘Mum, I gotta go. Sophie’s making pancakes, and they smell yummy.’
‘Keep me some. I won’t be late.’
‘Bye, Mum, love you.’
‘Love you too.’ She hung up, placed the phone on the table, and waited for Lynch to return from the bar.
Sitting down, he said, ‘You were telling me, Kate, about a pattern.’
‘Yes, of course. Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts there for a minute.’ She pulled out the case file from her bag. ‘I’ve been thinking about our killer’s behaviour, specifically how she’s forging her relationships with men. She has a need to move from one person to the next, each relationship offering her whatever she believes she’s looking for, then essentially failing her. I think her view of men isn’t far removed from the parameters of her potential dissociative disorder.’
‘You mean this multiple personality idea.’
‘That’s right. Initially, she’s looking for emotional feedback, her sexuality and attractiveness drawing her targets in, and at first this works well. It’s important for her to be in a relationship, to believe somebody loves her, but because her view of men is warped, it’s also inevitable that she’ll look for a reason ultimately to hate them, to seek revenge for whatever trapped her in this emotional cauldron, creating two extremes within the one person, love and hate.’
‘I’ll leave the psychoanalysis bit to you, Kate, but we still need a concrete link.’
‘We’ll find it. Something tells me Sandra Regan has learned the art of keeping secrets. At face value, she appears normal, but we know too much about her to believe that now. Assuming the abuse in her case went beyond neglect, it’s not unusual for abuse sufferers to seek affection in any number of ways, including the pattern I’ve described. As I said, young girls don’t have sex with their friend’s father unless something isn’t right. It would certainly have tested the friendship, especially if Alice ever found out about it.’
‘I found Alice nearly as evasive as Edgar Regan.’
‘That’s the thing about secrets. They have a complicated path, and you’re not always sure who is keeping what from whom.’
When her mobile rang, Kate saw straight away it was Adam, and so too did Lynch. ‘You’ll want to take that,’ he said coldly.
‘Hi,’ she said. ‘I’m in Leach with Mark.’
‘Great,’ Adam replied. ‘I intended phoning him after you.’
‘You want to speak to him? Hold on a second.’
He took the phone from her. ‘Are the usual communication channels causing you a difficulty, O’Connor?’
‘Do you want to hear what I have to say or not?’
‘I’m listening.’
‘The last record of Thomas and Cynthia Connolly, Sandra’s grandparents, that I can find is from 1999. An application for a medical card of all things – Thomas Connolly was a general handyman, but his income was low. He put Cynthia and Sandra down as dependants. His card wasn’t approved, but I’ve checked everything else, including driver licence renewals, utilities, bank details and the electoral register. It’s like the trail went cold some time around the autumn of that year. Sandra Connolly changed the billing name on the family home in early 2000 and, as far as I can tell, she is now the legal owner of their house. She probably took care of everything else as well.’
‘And there’s no record of them arriving across the water, or anywhere else?’
‘Not that I can find.’