Blood Sisters (54 page)

‘Do I know how to get there? We only used to fecking live there when I was younger. Two streets away from Roy Keane.’

‘Good. Then let’s go there.’

* * *

Iona Road was much smarter than Dunmore Gardens, although most of the houses were bungalows. These bungalows, however, were discreetly hidden from the road by well-trimmed hedges and white-painted walls, and there were new cars parked in the driveways.

They found the bungalow where Sister Virginia was living with her cousin’s daughter and Dermot parked about three houses away, on the opposite side of the road. There was no sign of any Garda patrol cars here, or any unmarked car from which protection officers might have been keeping an eye out. The sun was still shining and there was only the faintest cold breeze blowing.

Riona crossed the road and went up to the porch. The front garden was covered with pebbles, with a concrete cherub holding up a bird bath, and the steps up to the porch were shiny red with Cardinal polish.

She rang the doorbell and she could hear chimes inside the house. She had been calm before, with the other four sisters, but now she could feel her heart palpitating. It was beginning to feel as if time was running out. The breeze made her shiver, as if somebody had stepped on her grave.

The door opened and a young woman in a red jumper appeared, holding a chubby baby boy. The boy had chocolate mousse around his mouth.

‘Oh,’ said the young woman. ‘Can I help you?’

‘I hope I haven’t interrupted this little fellow’s lunch,’ said Riona. ‘Is Sister Virginia in by any chance?’

‘And you are?’

‘Sister Margaret Rooney, from the Bon Sauveur Convent. I’m visiting all of the sisters who used to be part of our congregation to check on their welfare. It’s part of our new outreach initiative, to make sure that none of our former sisters are neglected or abandoned, or need any kind of special care.’

‘Oh,’ said the young woman. ‘That’s strange.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Well, my great-aunt isn’t here. She’s been very frightened about those sisters from your convent being murdered and she thought the same thing might happen to her. I told her she had nothing to worry about and that she was quite safe here with us, but yesterday she packed a bag and went back to the convent. She said she’d be safer there.’

‘She’s gone back to the convent?’

‘That’s right. Didn’t you know? Tommy – not with your chocolatey fingers!’

‘I – ah – no, I didn’t know,’ said Riona. ‘But then I haven’t been back to the convent myself since Friday. Ah, well, then, that’s good. That’s very good, saves me a bit of trouble. It’ll be very good to see her again.’

‘I’m sorry for your bother,’ said the young woman with a smile and closed the door.

Riona stood in the front garden for a moment in her nun’s vestments and stamped her foot and said, ‘Shit!’

Almost immediately, the front door opened up again and the young woman was standing there, holding out a gilt medallion.

‘She forgot this,’ she said. ‘You wouldn’t be kind enough to give it to her, would you?’

Riona took the medallion and smiled. ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘God bless you. And God bless your beautiful boy.’

I used to have a boy like that once
,
she thought
. But my boy was never allowed chocolate, and who was to blame for that? Your beloved great-aunt
.

She held up the medallion as she walked back across the road. It bore the image of a sorrowful-looking woman on it and was inscribed
S. Perpetua Mater Misericordiae
– Saint Perpetua Mother of Mercy. Just before she reached Dermot’s car she dropped it down a grating.

‘Where’s Sister Vinegar?’ asked Dermot as she climbed back in.

‘Not there, Dermot. It turns out that Sister Virginia was so scared by all the news she’s been hearing about nuns from the Bon Sauveur Convent being murdered that she’s gone to seek refuge, guess where?’

Dermot waited for her to tell him, and when she didn’t, he said, ‘How the feck should I know? Jackie Lennox’s Fish and Chip Shop?’

‘The Bon Sauveur Convent, you fool. She’s gone back to the Bon Sauveur Convent.’

‘I just thought... you know... where else does vinegar end up?’

‘Jesus, Dermot. I despair of you sometimes. They should have kept you in Carraig Mor for the rest of your life.’

‘I’m only trying to look on the bright side,’ said Dermot. ‘If you can’t have a laugh, like, what’s the fecking point of anything? So, what do we do now?’

‘We go to the convent and get her, that’s what we do.’

‘Ah, come on, you may be wearing the habit and all but they’ll know you’re only mock-ee-ah, won’t they?’

‘That’s a risk I’ll just have to take. If the guards are after us now, we won’t have very much time before they realize that Sister Virginia’s on our hit list, too. I
want
her, Dermot! I want to see you stab her and stab her and stab her between her bones until all she wants to do is cut her own throat.’

Dermot’s mouth turned down. ‘Okay, then. If that’s the way you want it. You’re paying the piper.’

He started up the engine, but as he did so Riona’s iPhone rang. When she saw who was calling she touched his arm to tell him not to drive away yet.

‘What is it?’ she said. ‘What’s wrong?’

She listened and then she said, ‘How?’ Then she listened some more and said, ‘Mother of God, you can’t trust anyone these days. What a bastard! All right. Okay, Yes. Well, thanks a million. I owe you one. I’ll fix it.’

Once she had ended the call she said to Dermot, ‘Back to Clontead.’

‘What? I thought you wanted to go to the convent.’

‘Clontead, I said! And put your foot down!’

‘I don’t know,’ Dermot grumbled as he pulled out into the road. ‘It would help if you made your mind up now and again. With all due respect, like.’

‘It’s Gerry Brickley,’ Riona told him. ‘He’s only told the guards that we’ve been fixing races. He showed up at the Garda station in the city about half an hour ago and said that he’d seen Sparkle the Second and he was sure we’d used him as a ringer.’

‘The scummer! I can’t believe it! We should go and fix him up before we fix up Sister Vinegar!’

‘He’s said worse than that, Dermot. He’s identified you as one of the two men who dropped Sister Barbara into the fountain.’

Dermot said, ‘I’ll kill him! I’ll fecking kill him! I’ll cut his mebs off and shove them up his arse!’

‘First of all, we need to get back to the stud, load up Sparkle the Second in a horsebox and get rid of him. Then they won’t have any evidence that he was a ringer.’

‘Lord Jay Suck, that’s grand! That’s absolutely grand! And where are we going to find a knackery that’s going to take him without asking any questions? You don’t even have a fake passport for him, do you? Fitzgerald’s won’t touch him!’

‘We can get rid of him the same way Paddy Fearon got rid of all those other horses.’

‘Are you pulling my chain?’

‘Dermot,’ said Riona, ‘this is desperate. We’re going to have to take desperate measures.’

‘Oh, yes, to save
your
skin,’ said Dermot. ‘What about me? I’m going to be banged up back in the loony bin at this rate!’ He paused for a moment to calm himself down, grinding his teeth. Then he nodded towards the iPhone in Riona’s lap and said, ‘Who was that ringing you anyway?’

‘Just somebody who knows what’s going on, that’s all. Now make a bust, will you? The speed you’re going, this is going to take us till Doomsday.’

‘Never a truerer word spoken, Riona. Never a truerer word spoken.’

Dr Mazdani wanted Katie to stay for another twenty-four hours at least, to make sure that she was suffering no complications, but after she had eaten a ham sandwich and a strawberry yogurt at lunchtime she told him that she was going to discharge herself.

‘I think you are probably okay,’ he told her. ‘But, please, I beg you, take things very easy. Any bleeding, come back at once.’

An armed protection officer in a black windcheater had been posted in the corridor outside her room ever since she had been admitted. After she had dressed she asked him to bring his car round to the front of the hospital. While she was waiting she rang Detective Inspector O’Rourke.

‘Francis? What’s the story? I’m leaving the hospital in a minute and I should be home in half an hour.’

‘How are you feeling?’ he asked her.

‘Like I’ve been through a mangle, to be honest with you. But surviving.’

‘I was going to ring you anyway. It looks like we have a good lead on the nun case. A fellow called – hang on, I have his name here – a fellow called Gerry Brickley came into the station about eleven o’clock. He said he knew who that four-fingered hoodie was who tied that roasted nun up to the lamp post. He was sure that it was the same guy who helped to drop Sister Barbara into the Berwick Fountain.’

‘So who is he, this four-fingered hoodie?’

‘He’s some gom who does odd jobs at a stud farm in Clontead, just north of Coachford. His first name’s Dermot, but he doesn’t know his surname. The stud’s run by some woman called Riona Mulliken.’

‘I’ve heard of her. There was some article in the
Examiner
about her not so long ago. One of Cork’s most successful female breeders and trainers.’

‘Well, she might be the most successful because she’s been cheating,’ said Detective Inspector O’Rourke. ‘This Brickley fellow said he paid an unannounced visit to the stud this morning to look at the horse he’s the owner of, and he only saw an identical horse. He reckons Riona Mulliken’s been ringing. Brickley’s horse was entered for the O’Grady Insurance Group Steeplechase at Mallow last Sunday but the horse that ran didn’t even finish, and now Brickley’s convinced that it wasn’t his horse at all.’

‘There’s something else I read about Riona Mulliken, too,’ said Katie. ‘
That’s
why the name of Sister Bridget Healy rang a bell with me! Riona Mulliken tried to sue Sister Bridget Healy for the abuse that she had suffered while she was living at Saint Margaret’s Mother and Baby Home and for having her child adopted without her permission. But Sister Bridget said she had signed away all her parental rights on the birth certificate and so the district court judge dismissed her action and awarded costs against her. I remember the story because Riona Mulliken said that Sister Bridget was a criminal in crow’s clothing and that just stuck in my mind.’

‘I like that,’ said Detective Inspector O’Rourke. ‘A criminal in crow’s clothing. That would apply to most of the clergy I’ve ever known. That Father Jenkins, he was a terror. Rosary in one hand and you can guess where the other hand was.’

‘Right,’ said Katie. ‘First of all we need to pick up this Dermot. Brennan will be the man for it. Do you want to send him out there with a couple of uniforms? Then we can make some more enquiries about Ms Mulliken and her race-fixing. If Dermot works for her he must know something about it. It may not be easy to prove it, though, and you know what the racing fraternity are like. Tighter than the stonecutters.’

‘Wait just a moment,’ said Detective Inspector O’Rourke. ‘When he was at Mallow, Brickley saw Riona Mulliken having what looked like something of a heated argument with, guess who?’

‘Francis, I’m not really in the mood for guessing games and there’s a protection officer waiting downstairs to take me home.’

‘Sorry. It was Paddy Fearon.’

Katie gave a wave to the nurse who had come to tell her that the protection officer was ready for her and mouthed ‘
Two minutes
!’ Then she sat down on the side of the bed and said, ‘Paddy Fearon? You’re not serious.’

‘It all fits together, ma’am. Some of the racehorses that were found on the beach had their coats dyed. We strongly suspect that it was Paddy Fearon who dumped them there. Riona Mulliken has been accused by this Brickley fellow of ringing. You don’t need to take your shoes off to count to eleven.’

‘All right, Francis. That’s grand. I’ll ring you as soon as I’m home. In the meantime can you find out as much as you can about Riona Mulliken? Horse Racing Ireland and Weatherbys should be able to give you most of what you need. And Ashley Iveson from the
Examiner
. Oh, and ask Dooley to have a word with his friend Michael O’Malley. He knows everybody in the racing game.’

‘I will, of course,’ said Detective Inspector O’Rourke. ‘But there’s just one more piece of jigsaw that might fit in. Gerry Brickley is the owner of Brickley’s Welding and Construction in Castletownroche.’

‘Is he now? I see. And?’

‘When he visited the stud this morning he was expecting to see a new horse barn that Riona told him she would be building, but she hadn’t even made a start on it. That surprised him because she’d bought several cylinders of helium from him, for the welding. Allegedly for the welding, anyway.’

Katie let out a breathy little whistle. ‘Oh, yes, Francis, you’re right. This definitely has that fitting-together feeling. But let’s get as much background information on Riona Mulliken as we can before we take this any further. Just make sure that we collar this Dermot, asap.’

‘I’ll talk to you after,’ said Detective Inspector O’Rourke. But then he said, ‘Ma’am?’

‘What is it, Francis?’

‘You’ll make sure that you take it easy, won’t you? I’ll keep you informed, but I can handle this, no bother at all. That was a fierce bad blow that Karosas gave you. It’s going to take some getting over, in more ways than one.’

‘Thanks, Francis. That’s appreciated. I’ll ring you later.’

* * *

As the protection officer drove her home to Cobh, Katie tried three times to call John but still he wouldn’t pick up.

She found it hard to believe that he wouldn’t even talk to her. Even if he had decided that her pregnancy meant an end to their relationship, didn’t he even want to shout at her, or tell her she was a slut, or know who the baby’s father was and where he was and why he wasn’t around any more?

The protection officer helped her out of the car. He was only in his early forties but his hair was beginning to go grey at the sides already, his eyes looked like sun-faded agates, and he was very taciturn. He hadn’t said a word to her all the way from CUH.