A June of Ordinary Murders (41 page)

For a moment Mallon looked relieved. Swallow reasoned that he was afraid he would hear that the instruction to stay off the Sarah Hannin case had been disobeyed. He sat down and indicated to Swallow to do likewise.

He rapidly summarised the results of his visit to St Brigid's.

‘Detective Mossop reckoned that the address taken by the railway policeman at Chester wasn't quite right. As it turns out, St Brigid was right, but it wasn't St Brigid's on Abbey Street; it was St Brigid's Abbey, out beyond Chapelizod.'

A faint smile of comprehension showed momentarily on Mallon's face.

Swallow recounted the visit to the abbey, the conversation with the Mother Prioress and the search of the guest-room that yielded the letter to Louise Thomas, telling her to come to Dublin.

‘I'll let you read it for yourself, Sir.' He passed over the envelope. Mallon studied it for a moment, then he drew out the letter and flattened it on the desk. When he had read it he whistled silently.

‘Bloody unbelievable. I'd heard it said that Ces had a son somewhere in England, but I knew nothing about a daughter.'

‘I knew her husband, Tommy Byrne, fairly well,' Swallow said. ‘I charged him a couple of times for serious assaults. I never heard him talk about having any children.'

‘So Ces Downes must have had the child before she met Tommy,' Mallon mused. ‘We never found a marriage record for her. And she always used her own name, Downes, rather that her husband's name.'

He picked up the letter and read aloud.

‘
I am very poorly these days and my time is short and you must come now to claim what is meant for you and for the boy.
'

‘What do you make of that, Swallow?'

‘She was dying, of course. I'd read that as a call to the daughter to come to Dublin to get something to her advantage – and the boy's advantage – while Ces was in a position to give it to them.'

‘Money, I'd assume,' Mallon said, ‘whatever she'd put together.'

‘Probably. If you read on, Chief, she says, “
you will be safe with the sisters … disguise yourself so nobody will know you when you come here. You would be in great danger if you did not do so.
” It explains a lot: the man's clothing, and the fact that we couldn't find a trace of them anywhere in the city.'

Mallon glanced again at the letter.

‘She tells the daughter to come to the house at Francis Street. “
Come to me here as soon as you are safe at St Brigid's.
” I wonder did our men on surveillance notice anything significant?'

Swallow grimaced. ‘I'd be sure that Mossop would have gone through all the intelligence reports. I've told him to do it again, Chief.'

Mallon nodded.

‘The Mother Prioress was very clear that Louise Thomas believed herself to be in danger,' Swallow said. ‘She told the nun there was a man following her on the tram. I also got a quiet word that Vinny Cussen had his people around the city on the lookout for some woman last week.'

Mallon raised his eyebrows in interest.

‘If Ces Downes had money or something valuable to dispose of we'd have a strong motive for murder. And we'd have a few suspects, with Vinny Cussen among them,' he mused.

‘Yes, Chief. More suspects than I'd like.'

‘Money could just be a partial motive,' Mallon said. ‘There might be other factors. There could a revenge angle. Ces Downes made a lot of enemies. We both know a lot of people who would have been quite capable of murdering her daughter and grandson.'

Swallow nodded in agreement. Either Charlie Vanucchi or Vinny Cussen would fit the category. They would both feel that they had served out their apprenticeship loyally and that they were entitled to the fruits of their labours after Ces's death. Or who could guess at the unknown slights or resentments that had built up over many years of collaboration?

Nor would the list of possible suspects be exhausted with Vanucchi and Cussen. Each man was surrounded by a coterie of thugs who would not scruple to kill in order to preserve a cash hoard or to get control of a lucrative criminal business.

‘There's a long list of candidates,' he agreed. ‘But which of them knew about the daughter's visit?'

‘Somebody had inside knowledge,' Mallon said. ‘Somebody knew enough about their movements to waylay them inside the Chapelizod Gate.'

‘We might have an advantage for the moment, Chief,' Swallow said. ‘Whoever killed them probably doesn't know that we've now got an identification. It gives us time to find out a bit more about Mrs Thomas through the Liverpool police. If they have any local knowledge on her, we might be able link her with somebody who knew her plans.'

Mallon nodded. ‘You'd need to keep the identification to yourself and Mossop for the moment. If it gets out we could lose the element of surprise. I'm assuming you'll want to take Cussen and his boys in for questioning, probably Vanucchi too.'

‘I think that's a bit in the future yet, Sir. We'll keep the information tight and then move in on them when we know more. We could expend a lot of manpower and a lot of time working on the wrong suspects.'

He hesitated. ‘There is one other aspect to the case I'd like to put to you at this stage, Chief.'

Mallon's brow furrowed. ‘Yes?'

‘You know that I've been taken off the investigation into the death of Sarah Hannin, the servant from Alderman Fitzpatrick's house. The investigation has been taken over by the Security Secretary's office.'

‘I'm aware of that,' Mallon said icily. ‘I discussed it not an hour ago with Mr Smith Berry and his Major Kelly.'

The tone was not lost on Swallow.

‘I'm beginning to believe very strongly that there may be some connection between all these deaths, Chief.'

‘Tell me more,' Mallon said guardedly.

‘The evidence is thin and I'm going partially on instinct. We have two women of similar age and circumstances murdered within 48 hours of each other – maybe less. The killers have attempted concealment in each case. We know that one of the women, Louise Thomas, came in from Liverpool and we know that the other woman was in possession of a new lady's bag from a Liverpool store. And I have a report – unconfirmed but plausible – that a woman and child who seem to match the description of Louise and the boy made a visit to the Merrion Square house on Wednesday evening.'

Mallon looked worried again.

‘It's thin. All the same, I wouldn't rule it out. But we're blocked off from the Hannin case. I believe that'll be so at least until after the royal visit is over.'

‘Not only are we blocked off,' Swallow said, ‘but it seems that I've been put under surveillance – I can only assume it's by Kelly's people. I'm followed around the city, even to the gates of the Castle.'

For a moment Swallow thought that Mallon was about to tell him he was imagining things. Instead, he closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.

‘Tell me, Sergeant Swallow, if you weren't blocked off from the Hannin inquiry, what would your next steps be? How would you advance your investigation at this stage? I ask this theoretically, of course.'

Swallow knew this was the point, if he were to be honest with his superior, at which he should recount his conversation on Tuesday evening in Naughton's public house with Hetty Connors. This was the time to tell Mallon that he had secured information that Sarah Hannin was probably raised at an orphanage called Greenhills House in Queen's County.

But he could hardly admit that he had used official notepaper to notify the orphanage that an inspector from the Board of Educational Charities was on the way. And he could not tell him that he planned to impersonate that inspector on the following day.

The opportunity for disclosure passed. He could answer Mallon's question without stating anything that was untrue. It had been, after all, a hypothetical question. So his answer would be hypothetical.

‘I'd be all over the Fitzpatrick house like manure off a farm-cart. I'd want to examine the dead woman's belongings. I'd want to know all about her: where she came from, how she came to work there, who her friends were. Did she have a boyfriend, or maybe more than one? I'd want to interview the servants and other members of the household individually. And because I think there might be a link to the Chapelizod Gate deaths, I'd be searching for a murder weapon. I'd be searching for a firearm and ammunition of the type that was used to murder Louise Thomas and her son. That's all hypothetically, Sir.'

Mallon appeared to become interested in some papers scattered about his desk. He was no longer looking directly at Swallow.

‘Still speaking hypothetically, Sergeant, if you were going to go in and turn over Alderman Fitzpatrick's house, when would you do it? And how would you do it?'

‘I think I'd want to question the servants first, Chief,' Swallow answered cautiously. ‘I'd search the place from top to bottom. After that, I'd talk to the Alderman if necessary.'

Mallon nodded. He shuffled the papers on the desk to no apparent purpose.

‘I think that if Major Kelly and his so-called crack team were going to undertake an operation like that, they'd probably do it on Sunday afternoon.'

Now Swallow was wary.

‘I don't follow you, Sir.'

Mallon still pretended to re-order the documents.

‘I see that we're providing a security detail on Sunday afternoon for Alderman Fitzpatrick. He's departing his house at noon for the Jubilee regatta at Kingstown. So if Major Kelly wanted to question the servants, for example, or search the house without the risk of being confronted by the Alderman himself, that would be the time to do it.'

He looked up from the desk. For the second time in the conversation, Swallow thought he saw the flicker of a smile.

‘But of course,' Mallon said, ‘we know that Major Kelly isn't thinking in these terms, even hypothetically.'

THIRTY-FOUR

Swallow did not particularly enjoy
La Fille de Madame Angot.
Although he had looked forward to the outing, he was not in the best mood to appreciate comic opera. He had no time to return to Thomas Street to secure a change of clothes after the sweaty drive in and out to St Brigid's Abbey. He refreshed himself as best he could with soap and cold water at Exchange Court before making his way to the theatre. He would have been glad of a fresh shirt in the warm evening.

Lafeyre's invitation was a gracious gesture, and Swallow felt he should enter into the spirit of the occasion. He had invited them to meet for drinks at the Queen's before the performance. The foyer was crowded and lively, as was usual. Dubliners loved their theatre nights, and the interior was pleasantly cool after the heat of the day. When the final curtain came down, Lafeyre offered them more champagne. Swallow had already decided it was not an occasion for excessive restraint.

It was the first evening in which he could even partially relax since the discovery of the bodies at the Chapelizod Gate. He made the most of it, putting away four or five glasses of Lafeyre's Veuve Clicquot in rapid succession.

They took a late supper at the grill room of Jury's Hotel on Dame Street. Swallow appreciated Jury's with its dark wood and polished mirrors. Even though it was not a place he could afford to frequent very often on a detective sergeant's pay, it remained a good location to watch some of the city's more influential people.

Two silk-hatted, overweight clergymen crossed the lobby. Swallow saw a flash of purple indicating that one was a monsignor or perhaps even a bishop. He surmised that they had dined well.

He saw James Scott, the editor of the pro-establishment
Irish Times
entering the grill room with a corpulent, full-bearded man he recognised as Richard Piggott, a journalist known for his nationalist associations. They made an unlikely twosome, Swallow reckoned. But in Dublin journalism, he supposed, as in many other walks of life, even rivals might sometimes have to engage socially.

Maria and Lily excused themselves to visit the powder-room. Swallow took the opportunity to tell Lafeyre about the visit to the convent and the discovery that the Chapelizod Gate murder victims were the daughter and grandson of Ces Downes.

Lafeyre was astounded. He saw the implications at once.

‘Dear God, that's going to make for trouble in one form or another. Isn't it likely that the unfortunate woman and her child were murdered by one of Ces Downes's criminal associates?'

Swallow shrugged. ‘That could be so. We still don't have a clear motive. Somebody could have had a grudge perhaps? Or was it for money? We'll probably start by questioning the obvious suspects like Cussen and Vanucchi when we have a bit more information in from Liverpool CID.'

Maria and Lily appeared from the ladies' room. ‘I don't want this to go beyond us for the moment,' Swallow said quietly. ‘It would upset the ladies. And it just might get out inadvertently.'

Lafeyre led the way to their table. There was some discussion of the operetta, but the talk soon turned to the murders that had shocked the city.

‘Is our reconstruction of that poor young woman's face really going to solve this crime for you, Joseph?' Lily Grant asked. She usually addressed him as ‘Joseph' in serious matters.

‘I hope so,' Swallow answered as he savoured his second glass of Chablis and started on a grilled black sole. ‘I've circulated copies of the photograph to every officer on the case. By the time the afternoon shift came on duty there should have been copies at every police station in the city. And, of course, it's been in the morning newspapers as well as in yesterday's
Evening Telegraph.
'

‘And if you don't succeed in catching the murderer…?' Maria asked.

Swallow understood the unspoken question she was posing. She knew the pressure he was under. She was asking about their future together. If he failed to solve the case would it mean an end to police work for him?