Gallows Lane (Inspector Devlin Mystery 2) by McGilloway Brian

Author:McGilloway, Brian [McGilloway, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Crime
ISBN: 9780230744455
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers UK
Published: 2009-11-11T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Friday, 11 June

For the second time in almost as many days, I walked through a sea of condolences on the way to my desk. Costello was talking to someone in his office, though I could not see who it was. Williams had gone to Letterkenny General to attend the autopsy on Kerr’s body which had finally been cut down from Gallows Lane after the forensic examination was completed.

I sat in our office and opened a new folder. Starting with the robbery in Castlederg, I wrote down all that I knew with regard to Kerr.

He had been part of a four-man gang, hired by Peter Webb. He recognized only Webb of the other three, though another one of them had seemed familiar. Despite Kerr’s having named Webb under interview, the RUC did not pursue the lead.

Upon his return, Kerr was spotted several times around Webb’s land. Webb’s wife was having an affair. I assumed the person who was Webb’s Special Branch handler appeared on the night Webb died. After his death, Kerr again visited Webb’s house – this time to extort money from the widow, threatening to reveal details about Webb’s past.

Then Kerr offered to hand himself in, after completing his mission; except someone nailed him to the same tree from which Webb had been hung.

Clearly, Kerr had discovered the identities of the other members of the gang and had gone to confront them – or to forgive them, if he had been telling the truth all along. They were obviously not interested in his forgiveness and instead finished the botched job they had started years earlier when they shot him and left him for dead. Presumably there was more than one of the gang: Kerr was fairly small, but I doubted one man could both hold another to a tree and nail him in place at the same tree. That meant the remaining two of the Castelderg gang were alive and well – and still in the vicinity.

And of course, Kerr’s identification of the gang members meant that either Webb had told him before he died – or Kerr had subsequently found out in some other way. But how? And did it mean that Kerr had been responsible for Webb’s murder?

Unable to see past these last questions, I went out to get a cup of coffee. I was halfway to the kitchen when I heard Costello call my name. He was standing at his office door, gesturing me to go over. Leaving down my empty cup, I went into his office. Sitting in front of his desk, a smile dying on her lips, was Miriam Powell once again.

*

Miriam Powell and I had been briefly involved in a relationship when we were teenagers, which concluded when she met Thomas Powell; a man she later married.

Our paths crossed again when Debbie had shared a house with her during university. Miriam frequently took pleasure in reminding Debbie that she had known me first, hinting at sexual liaisons subsequently which had never actually taken place.

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