O’Connor almost bounded up the corridors, switching back on his mobile phone as he walked. Kate said nothing and let him make the call he had been eager to make from the time Ellie Brady had mentioned how the girl’s hands had been joined and the name of Gilmartin.
‘Donoghue, we’ll need to get that file. Ellie Brady’s case is connected.’ He put his phone on speaker for Kate to hear.
‘I’m already on it.’
‘And another thing, Donoghue, the guy the boys down in Gorey are talking to, Gilmartin, he was the one who pulled Ellie out of the fire.’
‘I know.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Murray’s been on. Gilmartin has confirmed a photograph of Amy Brady was in the possession of the owner of the Carina, a William Cronly.’
‘You ran the registration plates?’
‘Yeah, it was registered to the late Alison Cronly of Cronly Lodge. Then it changed ownership to her son, William Cronly with an address at Meadow View, Rathmines. I sent a squad car around to the address earlier, but they didn’t get an answer. I’m sending another one there now.’
‘We’ll need a search warrant.’
‘We’ll need two. The guy still owns a house in Wexford too. It means pulling a judge at the courts in both locations.’
‘Donoghue, I want to know everything we can find on him. Social security number, where he works, what he had for breakfast, everything. Who do you have checking the travel details to Italy?’
‘A half dozen of the guys from Harcourt Square.’
‘You’ve given them Cronly’s name?’
‘They’re running with it now. I’ll come back to you when I know more.’
‘Right, let me know when either of those search warrants comes through. I should be back there shortly.’
By the time O’Connor hung up the phone on Donoghue, both he and Kate were in the car on their way back across the city.
‘I don’t want to rain on your parade, O’Connor, but something isn’t adding up here.’
‘What do you mean? It all makes perfect sense to me. The Carina, lives local, the guy had a photograph of Amy Brady and an identical MO.’
‘Not quite identical.’
‘Well it’s as near to fucking hell identical to me. The plaiting, the ribbons, the crucifix, positioning of the body, it all adds up. You said yourself, our man likes to repeat.’
‘He abducts them first. Then he buries them.’
‘Maybe, but perhaps he didn’t have a shovel handy, Kate?’
‘I’m not saying to rule him out, but it is different. He does repeat, but we’re looking at the end result here, people do similar things for different reasons. With Caroline, her death wasn’t his intention. It was a frenzied attack that ended in a ritualistic burial. With Amelia, it was premeditated. He went prepared to kill her. But he still abducted both of them.’
‘I’m not disagreeing with you there.’
‘The burials are two-fold for him, O’Connor – one to protect him, the other to protect his victims. If he planned to kill Amy Brady, he would have taken her, like the other girls. He’s a risk-taker, but he would have lured her into going with him. If he did break into the caravan and the girl either refused to go with him or didn’t react the way he wanted her to, the killing would have been brutal, frenzied, like Caroline’s. Ellie Brady didn’t mention any injuries to the girl’s body, no blood, no external signs other than the girl looking as if she was sleeping.’
‘Yeah but—’
‘And why wait?’
‘You said it yourself, Kate, it only takes a trigger. Something else coming into the mix to set the whole bloody thing off.’
‘I know I did. But once started, these things don’t stay dormant. Emotions can remain pent up for decades, but when they unravel, they can’t be put on hold.’
‘Let’s agree to disagree, shall we?’ O’Connor pulled up outside her apartment.
‘Look, keep me in the picture. Something isn’t adding up. I just haven’t worked it out yet.’ Kate closed the car door behind her.
‘Okay,’ O’Connor lowered the window on the passenger side.
‘Oh, and another thing, O’Connor.’ She leaned in. ‘If William Cronly did go to Tuscany as a boy, he didn’t travel alone. Find out when the mother, Alison Cronly, died. She’s part of all this. Nothing happens in isolation.’
‘Sure, Kate. Will do. I’ll keep you in the picture.’
‘Talk to you later.’
O’Connor turned the car with a squeal of tyres, speeding off down the road. Kate watched him leave, then turned to look up at the first-floor window. She hoped Sophie and Charlie were back from the park. Hearing Ellie Brady speak of her devastation had made Kate desperate to hug Charlie. Then in a little over an hour she would get to talk to Declan, and maybe, finally, they could set about rebuilding their life together.
Mervin Road
HE STOOD BACK FROM THE WINDOW IN THE LIVING ROOM, watching Kate say her goodbyes to the driver of the car. He had waited until the babysitter had sent Charlie into the bathroom to wash his hands before grabbing her from behind.
‘Shush, now, don’t struggle. We don’t want to upset Charlie, do we?’