No Safe Place: A gripping thriller with a shocking twist by Patricia Gibney

Author:Patricia Gibney
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786814081
Publisher: Bookouture

Fifty

It was gone midnight as Lottie drove with Boyd down the narrow road to Barren Point on the shores of Ladystown lake.

Ladystown was the largest lake bordering Ragmullin. Whereas Lough Cullion was the water source for the town, Ladystown had treated sewage pumped into its depths daily. It was still good for fishing, so Adam had told her years ago.

‘Where am I going?’ she asked.

‘Sharp left,’ Boyd said. ‘Mind that tree. Jesus. You should have let me drive.’

‘I’ve to be on my way to the airport at six, so it’s best I have my own transport.’ She hoped he couldn’t smell the alcohol on her breath.

‘What about me?’

‘There’s the squad car.’

She parked haphazardly and jumped out. She took her protective suit from the boot and dragged it over her clothes, then got a torch and headed towards a uniformed officer standing beside a crime-scene tape. A man with a dog was there too.

‘Who are you?’ she asked.

‘Bob Mulligan.’

‘You’re the man who discovered the body?’

‘To be honest, I think two teenagers stumbled on it before Mutt here. Don’t know how much damage he did to it.’

‘Did he dismember it?’ She was anxious to see the scene, assess the situation and maybe catch some sleep before she had to be back on the road.

‘He had part of a hand in his mouth. I got it out. You’ll need to be taking my DNA because I touched it. Isn’t that the right procedure?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘It can’t have been there long.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The body. It must have been dumped in the last week. Mutt and I have been away, over in Galway, and he’d have sniffed it out if it had been there before that.’

‘Where do you live?’

Mulligan pointed to a light shimmering through the trees. ‘Over there.’

‘Do you know where these teenagers went?’

‘They might be staying at the caravan park.’

‘Wrong time of year for holidaymakers.’ She instructed two guards to check. ‘Mr Mulligan, please stay here. I’m going in to have a look.’ She turned to the uniforms. ‘Anyone got a torch stronger than this? And call in reinforcements. We need to find the teenagers.’

With an industrial-sized torch in her hand and Boyd behind her, she made her way through the bushes in a crouch, frozen leaves crunching underfoot, until the clearing opened up in front of her.

Though she’d seen a fair number of bodies, her stomach heaved and her skin bumped and crawled. Under the glare of the artificial light, the blue-black body seemed to be heaving too.

‘Jesus, Boyd. Tell me what I’m looking at.’

He joined her. ‘I hope that isn’t Mollie Hunter.’

Lottie took a step back and looked up at him. ‘Who?’

‘I don’t think it can be. This body is too decomposed. She only went missing yesterday evening, if she even is missing.’ Boyd was shaking his head.

‘What on earth are you on about? Who is Mollie Hunter?’ She stepped into his space.

‘A young woman who may or may not have disappeared. Gilly O’Donoghue is her friend and she can’t locate her.

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