The House by the Liffey (13 page)

‘I don't believe any of this. It must be some sort of joke, Uncle Sean. It
can't
be true.'

‘Mageen, darlin', not one of us would joke about such a thing. That would be such insensitivity and bad taste! I haven't got the full details yet but, as I've shown you, there's no doubt as to his involvement. He's asked for a solicitor and we've to wait for the rest until that's been arranged.' He hesitated for a moment then decided to tell the part that would prove beyond all doubt that Freddie was guilty as hell. ‘I haven't told anyone else this yet but as he was leaving the interrogation room I heard him mutter: “Bloody kid. Pity they didn't kill her off.” You know how acute my hearing is – he had no idea that I'd heard!'

She didn't scream; she didn't become hysterical; she didn't even cry. She seemed to become frozen. She was sitting on the sofa beside Noola, who put her arms around her and she laid her head on Noola's shoulder.

‘Mum, oh Mum. Whatever am I going to do? I love him so much. I might as well die 'cause I don't think I can live without him.'

‘
We
all love
you
so much, my darling, and we want you around for a very long time yet. Dad and Granny and I can all understand something of what you're feeling. As you know, Dad lost both his parents, his mum when he was only eight. I can remember exactly how I felt when I thought Dad had been killed in the war. And Granny has lost two men she loved deeply: Grandpa Billy and Grandpa Tom.'

That produced a reaction.

'Granny? You loved Grandpa Tom? I didn't know.'

‘No reason you should, darlin'. On the day I accepted Grandpa Tom's proposal, sitting down there beside the river, he had a massive heart attack. Uncle Paddy tried to save him but not a hope. None of this helps you now, but we do sympathise with you.'

Milo poured a large glass of the champagne.

‘I want you to drink this, Mageen. It's said to be good for shock and you've had about the biggest shock anyone could have had.'

‘Not only have I lost someone I loved more than life but it turns out he was really evil and I never suspected. I'll never get over this. Losing him
and
being made such a fool of.'

‘We've all been fooled. And you
will
get over it. It'll take time, and you'll have to fight, but you're a Butler and you'll win.'

‘I don't think so, Dad. I'm not interested anymore. Life seems to stretch ahead of me like a monotonous grey nothingness.'

‘I'm so, so sorry, Mageen. I don't know when I've hated more having to tell rotten news to someone.'

‘It's not your fault, Sean.'

‘That doesn't help, Noola, but I must get back to the station now.'

He gave Mageen a hug and a kiss.

‘We're all behind you, girl!'

‘I know, Uncle Sean.'

Milo went to the car with him.

‘Watch her like a hawk for a while. Don't leave her on her own and especially down near the river. Put Paddy in the picture as soon as possible, he may suggest sedating her.'

‘You don't seriously think…?'

‘The girl is completely shattered! Heartbroken! What's happened is actually worse for her than if he'd been killed. She's in love with someone who's turned out to be a big-time crook. She's not capable of any sensible thought or decision. Believe me I know. You see it in my line of work.'

‘Okay, Sean. When we tell the rest of the family they'll all rally round. And … thanks again.'

On the understanding that it would help to lighten his sentence, and with the encouragement of the solicitor, Freddie eventually told all. In time Sean gave a summary of it to Milo, Noola and Maggie in his own words and adding his own interpretation in places:

‘Freddie has been mixed up in various unsavoury episodes in his life and has spent time in prison. While he was there, he met a member of a group that raised money by various illegal means, including holding people to ransom. They became close friends. Seduced by the allure of vast amounts of money he agreed to join them. It seems crime was second nature to him. Being exceptionally clever and obviously completely without morals or conscience, he was good at it and rapidly become one of the top members of the group. They accumulated impressive resources, but, as so often happens, their greed was never satisfied and they wanted more and more money.

‘They realized that they needed to let things cool off in mainland Britain, so they moved their operations over to Ireland. One of the inmates in the prison had been Irish and they had picked his brains about well-known wealthy families that could be worth targeting. Butler was one of several wealthy ones mentioned. They set to work, did their research very thoroughly and discovered that the Butlers were ideal for their purpose. They tapped every possible source of information and soon put a comprehensive picture together.'

‘Ah! I see. Then they needed to get someone “inside” to get the maximum information about the everyday running of the house and intimate details about the family.'

‘Absolutely right, Noola. Getting the general information was easy, but, for their planned abduction to succeed, they needed to get those kinds of small details that can be make or break. Of the three of them at the top of the organization Freddie was the ideal candidate. They found out that Mageen was at Trinity and so Freddie, with a completely new stolen identity; with false documentation such as exam successes; applied for and was offered a place and set out to ensnare her. He knew how to make himself seem very cultured and attractive to someone from her background and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Oh, and incidentally, he's quite a bit older than he'd led you to think. It was almost too easy. Ironically he did come from an educated background and could have done well had he not turned to crime. But he obviously enjoyed the fantastic adrenalin rush created by breaking the law.' Sean paused in his story at this point.

‘And the three at the top? Freddie, Ben, the pilot of the helicopter and . . . Katie.'

‘No! But why am I surprised? The whole thing is unbelievable.'

‘You haven't heard it all yet, Milo! Freddie and Katie, not her real name either, are married.'

‘
What
?'

‘Yes. She's his wife.'

‘So he would never have married Mageen anyhow?'

‘Oh, yes. The plan was that if the abduction went wrong, and they lost the money, he would go ahead and marry her. He knew she had inherited quite a lot of money. He was certain that you would give her a very generous marriage settlement too. And he was right wasn't he?'

‘Yes!
Very
generous!'

‘So one way or another, if not a million, he would get quite a lot of money, enough to make it worth the risk.'

‘Commit bigamy? With our daughter! But the money would be hers.'

‘He knew that, in her besotted state, she would almost certainly be persuaded to part with it, give it all to him. Then he would divorce her or simply disappear. Well that's what he
says
, but I wonder if he wouldn't have got rid of her some other way! He's evil enough!'

‘Go on. I'm shaken to the core but we might as well hear it all.'

‘The others involved in the kidnap were locally recruited and extremely well trained. But the three had no intention of letting them go alive. They knew too much. Willie and Mac were to kill Bob, Eddie and Shamus on the helicopter and dump them overboard out to sea. Then when it landed Mac and Willie were to be disposed of too. The four in Enniskerry were to wait at a rendezvous to be picked up and given their share. They weren't going to live either. Same fate. You wonder how some of these people can be so naive. Or maybe they think they know too much to be left without their reward. Fools!

‘Anyhow we've got the names of all survivors involved and we've already picked them up. They don't know what's hit them.'

‘Katie?'

‘She and Ben had rented a place quite close to Trinity, where Freddie could hop in and out easily. I suspect he often spent the night there. We've got her in custody too.'

‘Brilliant! What about Eddie?'

‘He's recovering all right. Until I went to see him he had said nothing except “How's the little girl?”. I've been to see him and told him that Izzy is fine, has recovered well. She knows he saved her life and hopes he's all right too.

‘It's a sad story. He qualified top of his year and set out on a career as a doctor with the brightest prospects. He started off really successfully but then a family he knew well asked him to help a young girl of fourteen who had been raped by her uncle and was pregnant. He felt desperately sorry for the poor kid and eventually agreed to terminate the pregnancy. Something went wrong: she had to be taken into the emergency department of her local hospital and the whole story came out. She didn't actually lose the baby but, nevertheless, he was taken to court, convicted and sent to prison for five years. He was, of course, struck off.

‘Since then he has scratched a living doing all sorts of casual labouring jobs. His family doesn't want to know him. He was the perfect recruit for this gang. That kind of information isn't difficult to come by. There's no question that he bitterly regrets what he did – regretted it from the moment he saw Izzy, but by then it was too late to back out. By all accounts he did his best to look after her.'

‘Heavens, Sean, you almost make me feel sorry for him.'

‘In a way I actually do feel a bit sorry for him, Noola. I don't think he's basically a bad person. He's just been incredibly foolish and unlucky. I know what he did was unforgivable, but he did look after Izzy; made sure she was as comfortable as possible in the circumstances, and protected her from the others. In the end he risked his own life to save hers. By all the laws he should be dead.'

‘Are you suggesting that he's absolved himself to some extent?'

‘I suppose I am, Milo. But as you pointed out, how would I feel had it been my child? The answer to that is I honestly don't know.'

‘But why did he, once a good doctor, agree to do something so awful?'

‘He was desperate to have enough money to go somewhere far away and make a fresh start. Not in medicine but at least a regular job, of some sort, where nobody would know his background. He was living a miserable hand-to-mouth existence here. I'd like to know how you feel about letting him slide quietly away?'

‘We'd need to think about that, Sean. At the moment I, for one, feel like stringing up anyone who had anything to do with this whole ghastly affair and I'll be absolutely furious if Freddie gets away with anything less than the death sentence.'

‘Well that, at least, I can sympathise with.'

‘There's something I'm curious about, Sean. What if they'd got away with all that money?'

‘The plan was to leave the country. You'd never have seen him again.'

‘And Mageen?'

‘He'd have abandoned her without another thought, Maggie.'

‘It's such a shame you can't tell him it was counterfeit. I'd love to see the look on his stupid face!'

‘We can't even tell the rest of the family, but I've had a thought. How about telling Mageen? She'd not give the game away.'

‘What a great idea, Sean. She could do with knowing he'd been duped and would have been caught had they got away with the cash. That he wasn't so smart after all.'

Sean, Milo and Noola grinned.

‘Would you like to tell her yourself, Maggie?'

‘I'd be just delighted. That poor girl could do with something to make her smile, even if only briefly.'

‘She'll smile even more when she hears how those two scruffy individuals were instrumental in the whole thing!'

‘So she will, Sean. I can tell her that too?'

‘Why not? Pity we can never tell the others.'

Mageen did smile, at long last. Since being told of Freddie's treachery, not only had she not smiled, she had eaten almost nothing and had hardly slept, adamantly refusing to accept even the mildest sleeping pills from Paddy. She looked really ill. What worried everyone was she didn't cry. They knew the healing effect of tears, and that if someone can't cry the shock is very likely to come out some other way. The others in the family were equally incredulous when they heard the story and, after the first shocked reaction, had been furiously angry. Izzy did cry, not for Freddie but for her beloved big sister. They all closed ranks around Mageen and did everything they could think of to help her cope with her extreme distress.

Since there was no longer any worry that she might throw herself in, Maggie took her for a walk down by the river and told her the rest of the story. Then came the smile.

‘Oh, Granny. I hope Uncle Sean tells him it was counterfeit.'

‘I suspect he may not be able to without giving too much away.'

‘And Jack and Bertie doing so much for us, and not even members of our own police force. Oh dear! I was very rude to them too. But they really were so scruffy when they arrived.'

‘They were, darlin'. All part of the disguise.'

The smile suddenly turned into tears. Maggie took her into her arms and the floodgates opened. They sat down on the riverbank together.

‘Granny, Granny, whatever am I going to do?'

‘Mageen, darlin', you're going to grieve but, in time, your heart and soul will heal. You're young and you've your whole life ahead of you. Get well and live it to the full. It's much too precious a thing to throw away for the likes of that Freddie! You wouldn't want to think he had the satisfaction of laughing up his sleeve, knowing he had destroyed you?'

‘No! Come to think of it, I wouldn't.'

‘Well come on then. Let's see some of that Butler grit.'

So Mageen began her slow recovery, but it was to be a considerable time before she trusted a man again, other than those in her family.