outcome.
'We don't know, Sadie. She never took fits?'
'Never.'
'Was she on medication of any kind?'
'No. She were on iron for a while, months back, but not now.'
'What did her iron tablets look like Sadie – in case maybe she look some recently and you didn't know?'
'Why? What difference do iron tablets have to make?'
'Just clearing some things up. Can I see her tablets?'
'Muire, run up and fetch them tablets from the bathroom, love,' Sadie said, and the younger of the two girls – the girl whom I had thought was going to speak on my last visit – ran up the stairs, her footfalls thudding across the ceiling above us.
While I waited for her to return, I promised Sadie that we would bring Angela to them as soon as possible. 'And her belongings, Sadie. You'll want that gold ring back, I'm sure,' I said, remembering the ring Angela had been wearing.
'What gold ring? She didn't wear no gold rings.'
'Are you sure? She was wearing a gold ring with some kind of stone in it. It looked expensive.'
She paused for a fraction of a second too long before responding, 'Oh, right. Aye. That ring. Aye. I forgot about that. Bought it herself, she did.'
But I knew she was lying. Angela didn't wear a gold ring and Sadie was chancing her arm for a piece of jewellery she didn't own.
A more important issue, though, was where, then, the ring had come from. A boyfriend or lover perhaps? The lover who had had sex with her before she died and who was, presumably, the last person to see her alive and, logically, therefore, her killer?
Muire returned with the tablets. They were red and green in a plastic coating and looked nothing like the description of the tablet discovered in Angela's stomach.
'Sadie, could you ask the girls to leave? I have one or two more questions,' I said.
'Go'on out and play wi' yourselves,' she said and the two girls left with their dolls.
'Did Angela have a boyfriend?' I asked.
'Probably. She were a lovely looking girl.'
'You don't know any names, Sadie?'
'No.'
'What about Whitey McKelvey?'
'Are you joking? You're as bad as that ignoramus I married. She wouldn't have spat on McKelvey if he was on fire.' She paused briefly as she realized how inappropriate her choice of words had been.
'Then why did Johnny go after him? They were seen together. Might she have been seeing him without you knowing?'
'I'm telling you. Whatever she was meeting McKelvey for, it weren't boyfriend stuff.'
'Do you know where she stayed on Thursday night? Johnny said he hadn't seen her since Thursday, yet we know she was with your girls on Friday at the cinema. I'm a little confused, Sadie.'
Sadie paused and I sensed there was something she didn't want to get drawn on. 'She stayed with one of her friends; I don't know who. Then she met the girls at the cinema on Friday and that's that.'
'Where did she go after the cinema?'
'A friend's, I suppose. Is this not what you're meant to be finding out yourself?'
'Why did she stay away on Thursday night?'
'Girls do these things. Wanted to visit her friend and have one of those American things – sleep-over things.' She knew as well as I did that the answer was a weak one.
'Why did Johnny say he hadn't seen her since Thursday? Did he not know that the girls were with her on Friday?'
'They had a row, that's all. Same as any family. He didn't need to know she was taking the girls to the pictures. He wasn't lying; he didn't know any better and none told him otherwise.'
'What was the row about Sadie?'
'None of your business. It was about family stuff – nothing to do with what happened to her.'
'What about Angela and drugs, Sadie? Any chance Angela was taking drugs? Was the row about drugs?'
'You lot are all the same. Always thinking the worst of people.' But again, despite her indignation, it didn't have any conviction. 'Kids'll be kids, Inspector. You know that. Or do your wee'uns not shite like the rest of us?'
Muire was playing in the garden by herself as I was leaving. stopped and watched her. If she was aware of my presence, she did not show it.
'What's your dolly called?' I asked.
'Angela,' she replied without looking up.
'Angela was very special to you, wasn't she?' I sat on the edge of the chair where Sadie had been when I arrived. The girl nodded, hut still did not look up. 'Did she take you to the pictures on Friday?'
'Some scary thing. It was rotten!' She pulled a face, finally looking at me.
'Where did you go after that?'
'Home.'
'Angela too?'
'No. She went to see her friend, I think.'
'Whitey?'
'No.'
'Who, Muire? Think. It's really important.'
'I dunno. She never said.'
'Did she say where her friend lived?'
A shake of the head.
'Which direction did she go in when you came out of the cinema?'
She bit her bottom lip and frowned in concentration, but again couldn't answer me. 'The bus stop, just. We left her at the bus stop.'
'Good girl, Muire. That's going to be very helpful,' I said trying to sound sincere. 'One other thing, Muire, and then I'll go. Did Angela have a fight with someone the day before? On Thursday? Did she row with your Mum?'
Muire shook her head, but would not look at me again and busied herself with her dolls.
'Was it your dad she rowed with?' Again a shake of the head, but this time in pantomime fashion, as a child does when trying too hard to appear truthful; my own daughter had done just such a thing many times before. 'What did she row about with your dad?' Nothing. I squatted down right beside her, pretending to play with her doll. 'What happened, Muire? It's really important if I'm going to catch the man who hurt Angela.'
She looked up at me and tears began to well in her eyes. 'Angela said Daddy was watching her.'
'Watching her?'
She nodded solemnly. 'In the house. Watching her when she went to bed.' The tears began to run down her face but she did nothing to stop them.
'Is that what you were going to tell me the last day?' I asked and she nodded at me shyly. Then her expression changed and her line of vision shifted to above and behind me.
'Don't talk to strangers, Muire!' Sadie said. Shoving past me and grabbing the girl by the wrist, she pulled her to her feet. She slapped her sharply across the tops of her legs, the girl's dress cushioning most of the blow. 'Now, get into the house.'
Sadie marched behind her and left me standing alone in the garden. I looked round to see the neighbour from earlier, still standing at the hedge, smiling over at me. 'Can I help you, sir?' I asked.
He shook his head, still smiling. 'No. I'm just enjoying the entertainment.'
'Would you enjoy it more down the station?'
' Piss off, prick,' he said, then went into his own house.
When I returned to the station, I learnt that Costello had assigned two uniformed officers to assist me full-
