Page 51 of The Trap by Catherine
“No,” Lucy answered firmly. “I wouldn’t say that at all. I mean, it took three women to vanish before we evengotan investigation. Tana Meehan had been missing for a full year and my sister for six months before either of them got upgraded from a missing person report that nobody cared about. And here we are now, eight months after the establishment of Operation Tide—which has all the resources, the budget, the personnel they could possibly need, led by Superintendent Colin Hall—”
“This might be the first mention of his name on TV that he doesn’t like,” Don muttered.
“—and westillhaven’t had a single arrest.We’re not even any closer to getting answers. No one has found anything.” Lucy took a breath before adding quietly, “Or anyone.”
“Well, this is a right fucking shitshow,” Denise said, folding her arms.
Angela opened her mouth to try again to ask what was going on but this time Don shushed her before she even got out a syllable.
“But I want to say,” Lucy said on screen, “there are three families involved here, and we don’t all feel the same way about everything. We couldn’t possibly. Even within families, there are differences of opinion. So I don’t want to put words in anyone’s mouth. I want to be clear: I’m only speaking for myself tonight. And for my sister, Nicki.”
“Tonight,” the anchor said, “as we sit here, searches are ongoing in the Wicklow Mountains, near to where Lena Paczkowski was hit by a car after—allegedly—managing to escape an abductor who may or may not be related to the other three cases. Before she died—”
“Shedied??” Angela said. “When?”
“—we believe she was able to give some detail to the paramedics who attended the scene.” The anchor paused, as if she was going to come up with her next question on the spot and not read it from the list on her trusty iPad. “Does that give you hope?”
Lucy said, “Not if Operation Tide are in charge, no.”
The anchor frowned, concerned. “And why do you say that?”
“Because it seems like they don’t know what they’re doing. We hear things—the families, I mean—outside of, you know, proper channels, and what I’m hearing is that there’s a fatal problem with Operation Tide. That they were more concerned—thatSuperintendent Hallwas more concerned—with collecting enough missing women to get himself a special op than he is with actually investigating their disappearances. So I’m calling on the Minister for Justice to meet with us and answer our questions about the professionalism and efficacy of Operation Tide. Because, based on what I’m hearing, we don’t even really know how many missing women there are—or even if the three they have are connected to each other.”
“Fucking fuckfuck,” Denise said.
“Now, now, your mother wouldn’t like that language,” Don said to her.
“What? TheEnglishlanguage?” she spat back.
During this exchange, neither of them tore their eyes from the TV.
“That’s a very serious—” the anchor started.
But Lucy was in full flow now. “And are they going to admit if one or more of them isn’t connected? Or are they mostly just concerned with keeping the budget for their special op? I mean, my first question is: why wasn’t Lena Paczkowski included in their tally? Her phone was found at the side of the road too. She went missing two weeks ago. If shehadbeen included, would she still be alive today?”
Don winced.
Angela tried again. “Is Lena Paczkowski dead? Since when?”
But this time, no one even bothered to shush her, let alone answer.
“That’s a very serious accusation,” the anchor said on screen, her eyes gleaming.
“WhatIthink is serious,” Lucy said, “is that in this day and age, three adult women can go missing—and a fourth can be abducted—in a country of this size, in this age of technology and surveillance and forensic science, and here we are, eighteen months after the first woman was last seen, and we’re none the wiser about what happened to any of them. It just beggars belief, doesn’t it?”
There was the briefest moment of dead air.
“And it means...?” the anchor prompted.
“It means,” Lucy repeated, her eyes straying to the camera lens, “if something did happen to them, whoever’s responsible is still out there. He could be out there, right now, looking for another woman to take. He could take her tonight. How is any woman in Ireland, and especially in the Dublin area, supposed to feel safe, knowing that?”
The anchor took a beat and then looked directly to the camera herself.
“We’ll have more on this,” she said, “and the rest of the day’s headlines, when we return.”
“Fuck,” Denise said again.
There was silence in the meeting room as all three of them digested what had just happened. Angela bit down on her lip to stop herself from asking all the questions that were bubbling up inside her.
