The Killing House by Claire Mcgowan

Author:Claire Mcgowan [Mcgowan, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472228253
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2018-04-04T23:00:00+00:00

They broke new ground at the farm at first light, a grey Irish dawn, rain sleeting down on the diggers and workers in their high-vis jackets. June in Ireland. Paula had gone to see it start, her hands shoved deep in her trench coat, red hair damp through as she watched the clods of soil being turned up. Declan Tozier was there too, strands of dark hair plastered to his head with the rain, his glasses steamed up. He wore a high-vis jacket with the logo of the Commission on it, sensible and dull, and Paula was internally mocking him to keep from thinking about what was going on.

‘You sure you want to be here? We’ll tell you as soon as we know anything.’

‘I just needed to see it begin.’ How long had she thought of this moment – someone to take her seriously, someone to actually look for her mother? Say that she’d been a person who mattered, who was worth searching for even twenty years on? It meant a lot, she realised now. ‘I won’t watch all of it.’ Because they might turn something up – a bone, a shred of cloth – and then what would she do? She looked away from him, blaming him for all of this, knowing that was unfair.

He took off his glasses and polished them on his jumper. ‘I know it’s hard about your case, that this might affect the investigation. I’m sorry. The police officers we work with often find it difficult. And with your witness missing as well.’

Paula sighed, relenting. ‘It was all my fault. I persuaded Mairead to go and meet her brother and now look. He’s got her.’

‘She knew the risks. It was worth it to her to get her daughter safe, I’m sure of it.’

She looked at him from the corner of her eye, surprised at his perspicacity. ‘How many of these have you done?’ She nodded to the diggers, the Commission’s own.

‘Five. We’re still looking for one – not sure if the information was bad or they just couldn’t remember exactly where the burial was or what. That happens, you know. People can’t always remember. It was a long time ago.’

‘I know. You used the GPR here, though, right?’

He hesitated. ‘Yes. It did show disturbed ground. But it doesn’t always mean there’s a burial site. Like I say, people forget, or they call to assuage their conscience but they don’t give the right info, or they ring to make mischief. We get a lot of crank calls, if you can believe it.’

She nodded again. She was trying to keep her emotions in check as best she could, view it as another case to crack. She’d told her father the night before, while Pat put Maggie to bed, in measured tones with the TV muted behind them, men hitting each other with hurling bats. PJ had taken it in, in that quiet way of his, like rain soaking into the ground. ‘They’ll be digging, then?’

‘Yeah. They have to at least look.

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