A Terrible Beauty

eight hours and then he was going to come after me.'

Katie stepped out of the shower and wrapped a pink towel around her, twisting another pink towel around her head in a turban.

'Did he mention Dave MacSweeny?'

Paul shook his head. 'All he said was, 'You've got forty-eight hours, boy, and then I'm coming after you.''

'But you took him to mean that Dave MacSweeny wants his building materials back?'

'What else do you think he was talking about? Believe me, pet, if Icouldgive them back, I'd do it like a shot. But Winthrop Developments won't return them until they're fully reimbursed, and Charlie Flynn's still sunning his fat arse in Florida and how can I gethimto pay the money back, even if he hasn't spent it, and you know what happened to my commission.'

Katie didn't know what to say. Even public crucifixion at the crossroads didn't seem to have deterred Dave MacSweeny from seeking his revenge. If she was going to protect Paul from being badly hurt, it was beginning to look as if she was going to have to admit to Dermot O'Driscoll that she knew where Charlie Flynn was, and why he was hiding, and what Paul's involvement was. In plain language, the shite was going to have to hit the fan.

At least she had arrested Tomas O Conaill for killing Fiona Kelly. She may have saved another girl's life, too, if O Conaill had been planning to make up the number of sacrificed women to thirteen. But that wasn't much of a consolation for losing her career.

The phone rang, and Paul picked it up. 'It's for you,' he said. 'It's Jimmy O'Rourke.'

35

She was dressed and back at Anglesea Street in less than forty-five minutes, her hair still damp. Detective Sergeant Jimmy O'Rourke was talking to a distraught redhaired woman on the landing outside her office. 'Mrs. Buckley?' said Katie, holding out her hand. 'My name's Detective Superintendent Katie Maguire. Why don't you come in here and sit down? Jimmy-how about a cup of coffee?'

Mrs. Buckley sat down on the edge of the chair. She was a very pale, defeated-looking woman. Her wild red hair was untidily arrayed with plastic combs and she wore a cheap gray anorak from Penney's. Katie noticed her nicotine-stained forefinger and offered her a cigarette. Mrs. Buckley took it and lit it and blew out clouds of smoke.

'I was going to surprise her by taking her out for her dinner,' she said. 'I went into the fashion department and she wasn't there. They said she never showed up in the morning and nobody knew where she was, not even her best friend. So I walked up to her flat and she wasn't there, either.

'I was walking back down when I met the fellow who lives downstairs from her. He's had heart trouble or something so he's on the unemployment. He said he saw her walking down the road in front of him at about five past nine, and a car stopped and she got into it.'

'Has she ever taken days off before? Just gone off, without telling anybody?'

'She might have done. She lives on her own now because of our family situation. But today was important. She had to finish the work for her leaving certs. That's why I was going to take her out for her dinner. I thought she might like a bit of a treat.'

Jimmy O'Rourke came back, followed by a young woman garda carrying a tray with four cups of coffee. 'Frank O'Leary's below, the witness. They just brought him down in a squad car. Do you want me to bring him up?'

'Yes, please.' Katie pried the lids off the coffee cups and passed one to Mrs. Buckley. 'You want sugar? Here. Tell me about your family situation.'

'I left my husband about seven months ago, the day after Paddy's Day. He was always spending all his wages on drink and I suppose I just decided that I'd had enough. I went to stay with my sister and unfortunately her husband Kieran was a little too sympathetic, I suppose. We started an affair and this went on for three or four months before my sister found out. Me and Kieran left and for three weeks we had to live in his car because none of the rest of the family would take us in. My mam still won't speak to me even now, and Kieran's family treat him like he's got the foot-and-mouth disease. Siobhan couldn't stay with us, of course, and so my sister helped her to find a little room of her own on Wellington Street.'

'You don't think that your family situation could have upset Siobhan enough to want to go away for a while? Girls of that age, you know, they often get very distressed without telling anybody. Bottle up their feelings.'

'We were getting along grand. Siobhan liked Kieran all right. She knew that Kieran makes me happy in spite of everything, like. And she would never have missed her college this morning without telling me.'

'Do you have a picture of her?'

Mrs. Buckley opened her purse and took out a photograph. 'This was her nineteenth birthday party.'

Katie looked at the laughing redhead holding up a glass of champagne, while Mrs. Buckley anxiously bit her lips. 'You will find her, won't you?'

Frank O'Leary was a proud, portly, slow-spoken man with thick glasses and a bobbly green sweater.

'I saw Siobhan walking down Summerhill about maybe fifty yards in front of me, although the sun was in my eyes. I recognized her red coat and her red hair. She was almost as far as York Hill by the off-license when a big white car pulled up beside her and I could see that she was bending over and talking to the driver.'

'You couldn't see the driver?'

'Not from that distance, no.'

'How long did Siobhan stand beside the car talking before she got in?'

'Oh, not long at all. I didn't even have the chance to catch up to her. I was going to say hello but she suddenly opened the door and climbed in and then the car was away.'

'Do you know what kind of a car it was?'