A Terrible Beauty

'I don't know. That's why they're secret.'

Chief Superintendent O'Driscoll shook his head. 'You're a great detective, Katie. One of the best I've ever had. But you have to understand that the job requires sometact,my love, as well as skill.'

'When I find out who dismembered eleven people and buried them on Meagher's Farm, sir, then I'll be sweetness itself.'

The briefing was short and inconclusive and full of smoke. The technical team showed pictures of the scattered skeletons, but there didn't appear to be any pattern to their disposal. All that they could usefully deduce was that the bodies must have been dismembered before they were buried, because nine femurs were located at the bottom level of the excavation, with three rib cages on top, and then dozens of assorted tibias and fibulas and scapulas, with finger bones and toe bones and skulls.

And, of course, the legs must have been cut off so that holes could be drilled, and little rag dolls tied onto them.

Detective Sergeant Edmond O'Leary pointed mournfully to the blown-up photographs. 'There was no way of telling for certain which thighbone belonged to which pelvis; or which patella belonged to which thighbone; or which anything belonged to anything else.'

At the back of the room, Liam sang, under his breath,'The hipbone was disconnected from the? thighbone! The thighbone was disconnected from the?knee bone!'

Katie turned around and gave him an exasperated frown, but he gave her a grin of apology and a wave of his hand.

'Until we have a full pathological report, all we can say for sure is that these skeletons were probably all buried under the feed store in Meagher's Farm at the same time?even though they may not have actually died or been killed at Meagher's Farm. Their remains may have been transported from another location, and we don't yet have any evidence that they died or were killed on the very same day.'

'Any footprints found?' asked Liam.

'Only John Meagher's, and his mother's, and those of his various laborers.'

'Tire tracks?'

'John Meagher's Land Rover Discovery, that's all. And the milk lorry from Dawn Dairies. And the young boy's bicycle.'

'Any clothing found, or shoes?' asked Katie.

'No, nothing.'

'Any buttons, or hooks and eyes, or zippers, or fastenings of any kind?'

'No, and that was unusual, peaty soil being such a preservative.'

'So we could be looking for clothes, as a possible clue?'

'We could, yes. And jewelry, of course. They were all adults, by the size of them, and it would be rare to find eleven adults without a single crucifix, or wristwatch, or wedding ring between them.'

'Get onto that,' Katie told Edmond O'Leary. 'Ask around the jewelers' shops inCork , in particular?see if they've been offered a quantity of wedding rings and other personal knickknacks. Lenihan's would be a good bet, inFrench Church Street . We pulled in Gerry Lenihan twice last year for fencing stolen rings.'

'The only other thing I can tell you so far is that the bones were probably those of young adult females, although I will obviously bow to Dr. Reidy's greater expertise in this matter if he says different.'

At that moment, Garda Maureen Dennehy came into the briefing room and handed Katie a note.Eamonn Collins: Dan Lowery's, 2:30 pm.

'Thanks, Maureen.'

'By the way, your husband called you, too. He said he may have to go toLimerick tonight, so don't wait up for him.'

'All right,' Katie nodded, thinking to herself,What the hell is Paul up to now?

6

She was talking to one of the airport security police when Dr. Owen Reidy came through the automatic sliding doors, impatiently pushing two young children aside. He was wearing a billowing tan trench coat that was belted too tight in the middle and a wide-brimmed trilby hat.

'They kept us waiting on the runway atDublin for over twenty minutes,' he grumbled, pushing his medical bag and his bulging overnight case at the young garda. 'What do they think, we have time to waste waiting for these package holidaymakers to land fromFlorida ? They should make them circle until they run out of fuel. And crash. And burn.'

Dr. Reidy had a big, mottled face and sumptuous ginger eyebrows, and he always sported a huge spotted bow tie. He had been closely involved with Charlie Haughey, when he was Taoiseach, and theIrish Examinerhad claimed that he was 'the fifth man' in a middle-aged orgy at the Grafton Hotel inDublin , which Dr. Reidy had always firmly denied. Deny it or not, he was a grand stegosaurus from the mid-1980s, when the Irish economy had begun to boom, and certain people had made a great deal of money, thanks to nods and winks and tax breaks and special favors, and he still expected to be treated like one of the great and the good.

'Glad to see you're well, Dr. Reidy,' said Katie, as they walked out into the sunshine.

'Pphh!I was hoping for two days of golf in Killarney. Not picking over skeletons inCork .'

'So far, we've exhumed eleven skulls, which presupposes eleven different individuals, and a corresponding collection of assorted bones.'