‘I’m renting. But what’s that got to do with you? Just because you and your boyfriend clubbed together and bought a little love nest.’
‘I own the place. Oran rents from me.’
‘Why are we having this conversation? Is it because you’re a woman?’
Richie shoved Ray’s shoulder.
‘Whoa, keeper of the peace,’ said Ray. ‘You’re in uniform now. What will the neighbours say?’
Richie looked around at the empty streets.
‘Fucking watch yourself,’ he said, shoving his face into Ray’s.
‘I do. And I like what I see,’ said Ray. ‘I could watch myself all day.’
Shaun was slumped in a chair at the station, his long legs stretched away from the desk. He hadn’t said a word apart from a muttered hello to Frank.
‘We just have to wait for Richie,’ said Frank. After five minutes, Richie walked in, red-faced and sweaty. Frank stared at him, then turned to Shaun.
‘Just tell us where you were that night,’ asked Frank. ‘Please. This has gone on too long.’
Joe sat by Shaun’s side, looking around the room, focusing in the silence on the bulletin board mounted on the pale cream wall. A bad colour photocopy was pinned in the corner with a girl’s face framed at the centre. Her eyes were small under thick eyebrows, her hair a mass of black frizz. Her pudgy cheeks pushed against the edges of the shot. MISSING was printed above her. Siobhan Fallon. Last seen in American Heroes, Tipperary town on Friday, September 7th. Joe had never heard anything about her. One missing person can capture the media’s attention, while another, less attractive victim, went no further than a homemade poster on a station wall.
‘Seascapes,’ said Shaun, suddenly.
Joe spun around. ‘I goddamn knew it.’
‘Seascapes. Holiday homes?’ said Frank, ignoring him.
‘Yes.’
Joe was shaking his head.
‘What time was that?’ asked Frank.
‘Seven-thirty.’
‘And what were you doing there? Working?’
‘No,’ said Shaun. He glanced at his father. ‘Me and Katie…we went there to be alone.’
‘Why did you need to be alone?’ asked Frank.
Shaun flushed. ‘We were…’
Joe held his breath.
‘What?’ asked Frank.
‘We went there to have sex.’
Joe exhaled and closed his eyes.
‘Did Katie know that’s why you were there?’ said Frank.
‘What?’
‘Is this something Katie expected to happen?’
‘Yes, she did,’ he said.
‘And did it happen?’ asked Frank.
‘Kind of. I don’t know,’ he said.
‘How do you not know? Did you or didn’t you?’
‘She was, you know, it was her first time. She was nervous.’ He began to cry. The questions got more personal, almost medical. Every answer was dragged out of him. Then it was Richie’s turn.
‘So, basically, nothing was happening, she was too tense and this pissed you off?’
‘No,’ said Shaun. ‘That wasn’t the way it was. It did happen, but then it hurt so we stopped.’
‘And you got angry because this wasn’t all going the way it was supposed to!’
‘No.’
‘She didn’t give up the goods, so you lost it.’
‘No!’
‘Maybe she didn’t even know why she was there at all. Maybe this was all a big surprise to her. You’d get her a bit drunk, then in you go.’
‘You asshole!’ said Shaun. Then he couldn’t stop. ‘You fucking asshole. I loved Katie. This is all bullshit.’ He cried harder, his mouth quivering. ‘You,’ he said, pointing at Richie, ‘have no clue what happened, you weren’t there. I put my arms around her and told her not to worry, that she could call it off any time she wanted. You don’t know anything about me and Katie! Why am I even telling you this stuff?’
‘You called me and asked us to come in here for an informal chat, Frank, not abuse,’ said Joe. His face ached with every word he had to get out. He propped his elbow on the desk and leaned his head against his hand. He looked up. ‘We’re helping you out here. If you had anything more on Shaun, he would be arrested by now. But you don’t. Apart from his alleged denial of having an argument while under alleged caution.’ Richie’s eyes narrowed. He opened his mouth to reply, but Frank was quick to put a steadying hand on his arm.
‘So is it true that after this you had an argument?’ said Frank gently.
‘Yes,’ said Shaun, wiping away his tears.
‘Why didn’t you tell anyone this earlier?’
‘Because I thought she was going to come back,’ he sobbed. ‘I thought she was trying to freak me out. I didn’t want to let everyone know what had happened. Her mother would have killed her.’ When he heard what he said, he started to sob harder. Everyone waited until he had calmed down.
‘What was the argument about?’ asked Frank.
‘It was stupid,’ said Shaun. ‘She asked me had this happened to me before, with anyone back home and I asked her did she want me to be honest. And she said yes, so I told her it had never happened to me, that before when I had been with someone, everything had worked out OK, but that I didn’t mind that it didn’t happen properly for us.’ Richie sucked in a breath. Shaun ignored him and kept talking in desperate bursts.
‘I thought she knew it wasn’t my first time, but she had presumed it was. I don’t know why she asked me what she did, but I guess she was feeling bad and, I don’t know. Anyway, she got upset that I hadn’t told her I had done it before. And I tried to reassure her that it didn’t matter what had happened before, which it didn’t, but she was too upset. She said some things and then she stormed off. I ran after her, but she pushed me away.’
‘What did she say exactly?’ said Frank.
Shaun began sobbing again. ‘She said, “Leave me alone. I feel like a loser. You made me feel like a total loser.”’
‘And what did you say to that?’
‘I said,’ he looked up at the ceiling, ‘I fucking said, “Fine. I’ll leave you alone, then.”’ He went on, through his sobs, ‘And I did. I left her alone. I went back to the house and washed the goddamn dishes. And now look.’ His body shook. His tears flowed. Joe put his arm around him. Shaun was wailing now. He got up and ran for the bathroom.
Joe shook his head at Frank and Richie.
‘He shouldn’t have lied,’ said Frank.
Joe’s jaw was locked shut and his teeth were like spines in his mouth. He had been grinding them hard through the entire interview.
‘I’ll go and check on him,’ said Frank.
‘You know, you never have to look too far to find the killer,’ said Richie, when Frank was gone. ‘What is it again? Ninety percent of murders are committed by the husband, the boyfriend—’
Joe shook his head. He thought of the guys he grew up around, the ones you couldn’t reason with because they were so stupid. It was too easy to fight them.
‘You’re fairly quiet now, aren’t you?’ said Richie. ‘Shiting on with your stupid fucking suggestions until your son gets pulled in. Then all we get is a guilty man’s silence.’
Joe’s jaw spasmed.
Richie lowered his voice to a growl, ‘I’m just saying young Shaun here bangs the arse off his girlfriend, they have a fight, she storms off and her body turns up three weeks later in his back garden. He doesn’t say a thing
