Eighteen Kisses

‘Did Kayla ever come here?’ I asked.

‘Yeah,’ said Hazel. ‘She loves taking pictures at the gigs, and if there was somebody playing on Tuesdays that I knew she really wanted to see I’d text her and tell her to come down. We aren’t meant to tell anybody, but I know Kayla can keep a secret. One time, Robert Smith from the Cure was here, and she was so excited. She loves them. When we first moved in with Kayla and her mum, Anna, and I heard they were her favourite band, I knew we were going to get along.’

I remembered the Cure song from my dream – ‘Pictures of You’ – barely recognizable on the radio. It took all my concentration not to dwell on the image of the man in the balaclava.

The door of the bar opened and Sergeant Lawlor came in.

‘Hi, Matt,’ said Hazel cheerfully. ‘Can I get you anything?’

‘No, thank you, Hazel,’ he said abruptly. ‘I’m going to take Jacki to meet the rest of the team.’ He turned to me. ‘Sorry I’m late. We better get going; they’re waiting for us.’

‘See you soon,’ said Hazel with a smile.

I followed Sergeant Lawlor through Temple Bar, across the road and over to Ming’s. Again it was deserted, apart from two men sitting at a table in the corner. One looked older than Sergeant Lawlor and had a grey moustache. The other was a lot younger; he had short blond hair and was fairly good-looking, if you were into the conventionally attractive type.

I walked behind Sergeant Lawlor over to the table and sat down. ‘This is Sergeant Ray Harte,’ he said, pointing to the younger man. ‘And this is Detective Sergeant Tony Lonergan.’ They both shook my hand.

‘We’re happy to have you on board,’ said Tony, although he didn’t sound like he meant a word of it. He seemed to be eyeing me with suspicion, like I was some sort of imposter. Ray, on the other hand, smiled at me, and was considerably less intimidating.

‘It’s amazing what you can do,’ said Ray. ‘Really amazing. Delighted to have you working with us, Jacki.’

‘Jacki is going to interview the eight suspects,’ said Matt.

‘So that’s what we’re calling them now,’ said Tony with a smirk.

‘I think Matt might be on to something with that,’ said Ray. ‘As you know, I’ve worked on the case from the beginning, and I think there’s something seriously strange about the whole thing.’

‘As do I,’ said Matt. ‘Jacki has already met with some of them, haven’t you?’

‘Well, just three so far,’ I said. ‘Her friend Ellie, and her sister Libby. And Hazel, of course. I asked Libby for an object of Kayla’s; I’m hoping it will help me connect with her.’

‘And she gave it to you?’ said Matt.

‘Yeah, she gave me a necklace. Why?’

‘I’m just impressed, that’s all,’ he said. ‘I didn’t think she’d be so cooperative.’

I was glad I’d impressed him, although getting a necklace was a long way from solving a murder.

‘I still think we’re looking at a serial killer,’ said Tony.

‘You weren’t there at the initial investigation,’ said Matt. ‘There was a lot of conferring going on. Some of the anguish hinted more at guilt than grief. It’s been two years now, and they’ve had time to get used to the lies, practise what they’re going to say. This is messy, which is why I think Jacki’s help is invaluable to us right now.’

It sounded like he was trying to convince Tony that my presence was justified.

‘You can’t seriously think that the serial killer is a myth?’ said Tony.

‘Oh no, I don’t. I know he’s out there,’ said Matt. ‘I just don’t think he killed Kayla Edwards.’

‘I certainly wouldn’t trust that Calum guy,’ said Ray. ‘I don’t like him at all. And Andrew Hogan is a right creep.’

‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

‘He has a record,’ said Ray. ‘Aggravated assault.’

‘I’d prefer not to influence Jacki,’ said Matt. ‘Let’s see what she comes up with herself.’ It looked like Matt hadn’t told me everything, but I suppose that didn’t matter. Like he said, too much information might cloud my judgement. I was wary of jumping to conclusions, and also of ruling anybody out, for that matter.

‘I better get going,’ said Tony. ‘Nice to meet you, Jacki,’ he added, but his tone was still harsh. He put on his jacket and left.

‘Sorry about that,’ said Matt. ‘He’s a bit sceptical.’ That still wasn’t an excuse to be rude, but I didn’t care. I knew better than to let people like him upset me. Matt believed in me; that was enough. And I was sure that when I came up with answers for Tony he wouldn’t be so dismissive.

‘Can I ask you something?’ said Ray.

‘Yeah, go ahead,’ I said.

‘Aren’t you… afraid of the ghosts?’ His voice turned to a whisper.

‘I’ve learned it’s the people you need to be more scared of,’ I said flatly.

‘Well,’ said Matt, ‘there’s no arguing with that.’

Chapter 9

The next day Hannah and I and my two other best friends from Dublin, Sophie and Ross, sat on the grass in a circle in St Stephen’s Green, enjoying the evening sunshine.

Hannah, Ross and I had been friends since primary school. And then in first year we’d tacked a poster to the noticeboard saying BAND MEMBERS WANTED. I sang and played guitar, Ross played lead and Hannah played saxophone, but we needed a drummer and a bassist. Ross had insisted on putting the poster up on the very first day of secondary school. ‘What’s the rush?’ I’d said.

‘Jacki, we can’t let any Travis Barkers or Cliff Burtons slip through our fingers.’ Funnily enough, ours was the only band notice up there. We’d held auditions in the auditorium at lunch.

After a half-hour of us sitting there, staring at the door, a short girl with a purple streak in her hair walked in. She was wearing black patent Doc Martens with her grey uniform, the sleeves of her jumper were rolled up and she was carrying two battered drumsticks.

‘Hey, I’m Sophie,’ she said.‘I hear you need a drummer?’

‘Yeah, but you’ll need to audition,’ said Ross, eyeing her suspiciously. She then played an awesome drum solo, and we offered her the position on the spot. It turned out she’d done a ‘Drum Skills for Beginners’ class when she was seven, then taught herself the rest. We’d all been friends ever since.

Electric had been fairly uneventful that day – Dillon and I had been split up and given different tasks. I’d stuffed lots of envelopes with invitations for the Electric Unsigned gig, and Dillon had helped with the album reviews. The sun had shone all day and the office, with its huge windows, was unbearably warm. I was happy to be outside now. While we chatted, Sophie laid back with the sun on her face, Hannah made a daisy chain and Ross checked out any girl who walked by in shorts. Luckily his and Hannah’s brief romance last year hadn’t affected their friendship – they sort of acted like it had never happened, which Sophie and I were happy to go along with.

The Green was packed. Some people sat by themselves, reading or relaxing; others sat in twos or lay side by side, their fingers intertwined, and the rest sat in groups like ours – pockets of people dotted across the grass. Kids ran past carrying ice pops, and tourists examined maps, trying to decide on their next stop. The super-prepared had packed sandwiches and picnic blankets; Ross let us sit on his jacket as the grass was still damp from yesterday’s rain. It was perfect, but I wished Nick could have been there. I really missed him and wanted to see him, especially now that everything was all right between us.

‘All I’m saying,’ said Ross, ‘is that you’d probably be the first to go.’ Sophie had made the mistake, on this fine evening, of posing the question, ‘Which one of us do you think would be most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse?’

‘I would not be the first to go,’ said Hannah, abandoning her daisy chain and dropping it on to her lap. ‘And why the hell does everyone think Ross would be the last one standing?’

‘He can run pretty fast,’ I said, batting away a wasp that was buzzing dangerously close to Ross’s head.

‘And he has the whole height thing going on,’ added Sophie. Ross is six feet tall, although at one point in