“This is great for us, Duffy. For the whole station. No more scary phone calls from the Chief Constable now, eh?”
I let him speak and smiled and nodded in the right places. He was right, though – better to have the press off your back than on. When he was gone I rounded up Lawson and McCrabban for the drive to Antrim RUC. We had a picture to show Mrs Deauville now and maybe she would remember something.
Lawson made the courtesy call to Antrim RUC to let them know we were on our way but when he put the phone down he looked puzzled.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
“She made bail,” he said.
“Mrs Deauville?”
“Yeah.”
“Who paid it?”
“Her legal aid solicitor got an envelope full of fifty pound notes and a typed note that explained that this was for Elena Deauville’s bail.”
The envelope full of fifties and the note were standard paramilitary procedure, but why would the paramilitaries bail her? Perhaps she or her husband had set up this arrangement for herself in the event of her arrest?
“We better go talk to Mrs Deauville and find out who her mysterious benefactor is. At what time was she bailed this morning?”
Lawson looked pale. “It was last night. At 9pm. The solicitor wanted her out pronto so she walked the bail money over to the barracks.”
“And the police just released her?”
“They had to.”
“And no one told us?”
“Nope. But in their defence last night everybody was pretty preoccupied by the news from Gibraltar.”
“How is that a defence?”
“Uhm, well—”
“What if she’s skipped?”
“They took her passport, didn’t they?” McCrabban said.
“Why are we talking? Let’s get over there.”
We got in a Land Rover and drove up to Sunnylands estate but of course she wasn’t there.
The police evidence tape was still across the door and I had to use my skeleton key to get in. There was no evidence of packing, her jewellery was still in the box upstairs. At the back of one we found a semi-secret drawer filled with twenty pound notes. She wouldn’t have forgotten that.
“Don’t think she’s been home at all,” Lawson said.
“She hasn’t. Come on. Let’s find out where she did go.”
Back to the barracks. I left a reservist at her house in case she did return. No direct flight to Bulgaria today but via London or Paris no probs with a duplicate passport. I circulated her description to the ports and airports. I called up O’Driscoll to get his take but he seemed to think it was no big deal.
“So what? She made bail. She’ll still have to appear in court in two weeks.”
“You don’t get it, mate. She’s not at home. She’s flown the coop.”
“And lose five grand bail? No way. They’re in a council house living from benefit cheque to benefit cheque.”
“They’re major heroin smugglers, Seamus, for all we know they have fifty grand stashed away.”
“You’ve always been a worrier, Duffy. She’ll show up in court, you’ll see.”
I hung up on him. Seamus was a decent bloke but he had never been a top-quality peeler and his horse sense was way off on this case. There was something seriously wrong here.
“Get me her solicitor on the phone,” I said to Lawson.
The solicitor was an old pro called Carol McCauley out of McCauley and Wright in Antrim. She filled me in on the bail envelope and the note. This was not the first time she’d had such an unusual bond payment and if these Troubles went on it wouldn’t be the last.
“I’m not interested in the money, Carol, in fact I’m not even that interested in your client’s career as a heroin smuggler—”
“She’s been charged with obstruction of justice. That’s all. There’s no evidence of anything else.”
“Which explains why the bail was a mere five grand.”
“The magistrates listened to a load of circumstantial evidence from the RUC drugs squad—”
“Carol, look, as I say, I couldn’t give a shit about the drugs or the bail money. I’m investigating her husband’s death. Mrs Deauville may be in danger. She may have been a witness in her husband’s murder. That’s all I care about.”
“So what is it you want to know?”
“What did she say to you about the murder?”
“She never spoke to me about the murder.”
“And what did she say about the bail money? Where did it come from?”
“She said that she had no idea. She said that maybe some of Frank’s friends had helped her out.”
“That seems unlikely. He was an independent operator. After you got her out last night where did she go?”
“She asked to be left at Antrim bus station.”
“And is that where you left her?”
“It is.”
“And she got on a bus?”
“Uhm, no, I didn’t actually see her get on a bus.”
“Well you’ve been very helpful, we’ll take it from there.”
“Is everything all right? Do you think she’s OK?”
“I have no idea but she didn’t come home last night. If we’re lucky she’s just skipping out on the bail.”
“And if we’re unlucky?”
“She’s dead.”