Taken for Dead (Kate Maguire) Read Free Page B

was with her?’
    ‘Some man. The friend couldn’t really describe him, because she was too busy trying to catch Roisin’s attention. She thought he was wearing a blue tracksuit top because it had the two white stripes down the sleeves, but that was all she could remember.’
    ‘At least Roisin’s still alive, thank God. I thought we’d be after finding her drowned in the river. But if she was laughing, it sounds like she’s run away, and that could make her much more difficult to find. I’ll have the press office get in touch with the Begleys and see if they can’t put out an appeal on the Six One News. You know – “Please come home, darling, we aren’t cross with you at all, and Woofy misses you.”’
    ‘Woofy?’ asked Inspector Fennessy.
    ‘Well, you know, whatever they call the family dog.’
    She told him about the wedding cake. He listened, shaking his head. ‘Jesus. That’s nearly as bad as that woman in Curraheen who fried her old feller in lard and fed him to her cats.’
    ‘The technical boys are doing an ultrasound scan and maybe then we’ll be able to see who it is.’
    ‘How do you bake a head in a cake, for the love of God? And why would you?’
    Katie closed the file in front of her and pushed her chair back. ‘The day we can answer questions like that, Liam – that’ll be the day that you and me are out of a job.’
    ***
    She went home early that afternoon. This would have been her day off if she hadn’t had to appear in court. She had planned to go shopping at Hickey’s for new curtains and a new living-room carpet, but that would have to wait until the weekend now. She had almost finished redecorating her living room. All the Regency-style wallpaper that her late husband, Paul, had chosen had been stripped off and all the gilded furniture had gone. Maybe she would never be able to forget Paul’s selfishness, and his unfaithfulness, and his self-pity, and how their marriage had gradually disintegrated, especially after the death of little Seamus – but at least she wouldn’t have to live with his idea of luxury decor any more.
    She lived on the west side of Cobh, overlooking the River Lee as it widened towards the harbour and the sea. The sun was still glittering on the water as she arrived home, but a chilly wind was rising and the trees along the roadside were dipping and thrashing as if they were irritated at being blown about.
    When she turned her Focus into her driveway, she saw a man in a long grey raincoat standing in her porch. He turned around as soon as he heard her and raised his hand in greeting.
    ‘Perfect timing,’ he said, as she opened her car door.
    She reached across to the passenger seat for her shopping bag, and then she said, ‘You haven’t come to sell me double-glazing, have you?’
    He laughed and said, ‘Nothing like that. We’ve just moved in next door and I came to say hello, that’s all.’
    ‘Oh, okay then. Hello. Welcome to Carrig View. Let me just open the door and put down this shopping.’
    ‘Here,’ he said, and took the bag from her.
    She unlocked the front door, switched off the alarm and beckoned him inside. As soon as she opened the kitchen door, her Irish setter, Barney, came bustling out to greet her, wagging his tail.
    ‘Well, now, there’s a fine fellow,’ the man said. ‘And what’s your name, boy?’
    ‘That’s Barney,’ said Katie. ‘Oh, just dump the shopping on the table, if you don’t mind. Thanks. That’s grand.’
    The man held out his hand. ‘I’m David ó Catháin, but most people call me David Kane. I’m a vet, so from next week you’ll start to see a lot of people coming and going during the day with various animals. Dogs and cats mostly, and parrots, but I have had to treat the occasional alligator.’
    ‘Katie Maguire,’ said Katie.
    She liked the look of David Kane. He reminded her a little of John, who had left her in the late summer to go back to live and work in America. He was tall, like John,