Page 29 of The Trap by Catherine
Finally, there was Caroline. She was approaching Lucy now and making a face, unseen by the others, that silently said,Good luck with this lot.
Out loud she said, “Is there anything I can do?”
“I’m all set here,” Lucy said. “And you’ve already done enough.”
It was Caroline she’d called when she knew she needed to get the family members together, and Caroline who’d got everyone here, and quickly.
She’d been an old school friend of Tana’s and had, by chance, seen her waiting at the bus stop in Kildare town on the evening she disappeared, having got off a commuter train from Dublin. It would turn out to be the last positive sighting of Tana Meehan. Since then, Caroline had become Sarah and Tommy’s unofficial helper, doing things like managing social-media accounts and fielding media requests: the logistics of having a missing daughter that neither Tommy nor Sarah was in good enough health to do themselves.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Caroline whispered. “Are you still...?” She raised her eyebrows meaningfully.
“What?”
“You know... Going outthere, at night?”
She was the only person Lucy had told about what she’d been doing these last few weeks.
She hadn’t meant to; it had just slipped out on a night when Caroline had called over with a birthday card for Lucy from Sarah and Tommy and a bottle of wine from her, and they’d sat in the uncut wilderness of the back garden, talking about the case until the sun set.
But Caroline hadn’t reprimanded her, or tried to persuade her to stop. She hadn’t pointed out that it was stupid and pointless and possibly dangerous. She’d just said, “You do whatever you feel you have to do,” and then told Lucy to call her, any hour of the day or night, if she got in trouble out there and needed help.
“Last time was the night before last,” Lucy said, her eyes on the three around the tea chest, making sure they couldn’t overhear. “And thatwasthe last time. I’m going to stop. It’s not going to achieve anything. But if I can get everyone to agree to do this interview, that actually might.”
“Just a heads-up,” Caroline said, “but I don’t think Sarah and Tommy have the stomach for it. But then, at the same time, I can’t see them outright refusing your request, you know? Not if it’s something you’re telling them will help.”
“Did they get a card from Jack too?”
“If they did,” Caroline said, “I didn’t see it when I came round to pick them up, and they didn’t mention it to me. I just mean in general. They’re both exhausted. And now with all this stuff about the Polish girl...”
Lucy nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
She actually didn’t know if Lena PaczkowskiwasPolish or if that was just an assumption Caroline was making, but she let it go.
“Sorry, Lucy?” Margaret called out, tapping her spoon against her cup like she was asking for quiet before a speech. “Could we get started, do you think? I have to be in Donnybrook in half an hour. What’s this all about?”
* * *
“Yes, yes, yes,” Margaret said impatiently before Lucy had even finished explaining why she had gathered them here. “The card from Jack Keane. I presume we all got it?” She looked around and either didn’t see or chose to ignore Sarah’s and Tommy’s blank faces. “But it’s just amateur dramatics. He doesn’t know anything.”
“Actually, he does,” Lucy said. She turned to Sarah and Tommy. “He said there were things the guards weren’t telling us, and he was prepared to share them with us because he wants us all to go on the news tomorrow at six and give him an interview. A joint one. Together.”
Sarah looked alarmed. “Things like what?”
Margaret scoffed. “What kind of person would withhold details from the families of missing women in order to get something in return? It’s preposterous. And it’s all a manipulation. Jack Keane is a charlatan. He doesn’t know anything.”
It was no secret—because she kept mentioning it—that Margaret’s brother was a friend of Superintendent Colin Hall’s. That was one of the reasons why, Lucy believed, Jennifer’s case had got immediate and plentiful attention, and how Margaret always seemed to have more details than anyone else.
She claimed it was because Patrick, her FLO, just did a better job than Denise of keeping her in the loop, but Lucy had her doubts. Margaret was getting information by other channels.
How was that different to talking to the likes of Jack Keane, who must have got it from the same place?
It wasallcoming from the guards, after all.
“He hasn’t withheld it,” Lucy said. “He told me what it was when I met with him this morning.”
Margaret rolled her eyes.
Everyone else in the room leaned forward, waiting.
