The Killer in Me by Olivia Kiernan

Author:Olivia Kiernan [Kiernan, Olivia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Thriller
ISBN: 9781524742669
Google: wWMCuwEACAAJ
Amazon: B07GMVLXRZ
Barnesnoble: B07GMVLXRZ
Goodreads: 41802885
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2019-04-02T05:00:00+00:00

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OUR PLAINCLOTHES HAVE found their way to Conor Sheridan’s place. Jimmy Lynch is secure. On my way to Whitehall, I take a detour by my flat to step under a hot shower. Drive tiredness from my eyes, the dead from my skin. The image of Conor Sheridan on the beach lives under my eyelids. Dark hair glowing in the moonlight. The stench catches my breath anew, as if I was still standing on that beach. I dry off, go to my bedroom. It’s a mistake to sit down. Exhaustion wraps its thick arms around my chest. I force myself up, go to the wardrobe. Another pair of work trousers, the same as before, another sweater to fend off the wind. Then it’s food. Fuel, tasteless. A frozen meal of some sticky chicken curry. Not breakfast fare, but the mornings, days, and nights have melded into one. I eat the meal like it’s meant to be eaten, without thinking, without sitting. Standing over the kitchen counter. I throw the container in the bin, take up my bag to leave.

But on the breakfast bar, a white envelope that I found in my postbox. The package from Owens. I take it up, sit on the sofa, and tear it open. As promised, the remainder of Hennessy’s file. A cassette tape and another C4 envelope marked WSP in Owens’s stiff handwriting.

I flick through the thin folder. There’s not much. Maybe ten to fifteen pages, transcripts of the confession interview. I think of Conor Sheridan, whose words written for a local rag so many years ago are reaching out again. Linking his name to Hennessy’s. The past unfurling.

Taking up the cassette, I turn it over, read Interview with Seán Hennessy 13 August 1995 on yellowing tape across the back. I get up, go back to my bedroom. In the bottom of the wardrobe, I find a cassette player. Bringing it back to the living room, I put it on the coffee table, blow dust from the buttons, and plug it in. I set my phone to record and press play.

The tape squeals to a start then with a deep warble I make out the sound of crying.

A voice speaks out. The senior investigating officer at the time, Derek Ríordan.

Seán, you know why you’re here? We talked about it in the car?

A cough, a jagged breath. “Yes.”

It’s okay, it will be okay.

There’s a garbled sound then another choking cry. “I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t there.”

Okay. Okay. We’re just going to have a chat.

A sniff. “Okay.”

We need to ask you some questions, all right?

“Yes.”

And you’ve already agreed to that?

“Yes.”

Seán, so we’ve spoken about how you can have a lawyer, if you’d like one?

“I don’t know anyone.”

We can assign one for you, if you’d like, but you’ve said you are happy to talk to us without one, right?

“I think so.”

You know that at any time you can stop and we can get you a lawyer, right?

The voice calms. “Yes.”

Okay. Interview with Seán Hennessy on 13 August 1995, conducted by Detective Derek Ríordan.

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