“Nicely done,” I said. I squared off the edges of the files and stashed them in my case. “I won’t forget this. Now let’s hear you summarize Detective Kennedy’s theory of what happened.”
Stephen’s eyes followed my hands. “Tell me again how this is ethically OK.”
I said, “It’s ethically OK because it’s done and dusted, kid. Summarize.”
After a second his eyes came up to meet mine. He said, “I’m not sure how to talk to you about this case.”
The waitress smacked down my coffee and our sandwiches and flounced off to get ready for her close-up. We both ignored her. I said, “You mean because I’m connected to just about everyone and everything involved.”
“Yeah. That can’t be easy. I don’t want to go making it worse.”
And bedside manner, too. Give the kid five years and he’d be running the force. I said, “I appreciate your concern, Stephen. But what I need from you right now isn’t sensitivity, it’s objectivity. You need to pretend this case has nothing to do with me. I’m just an outsider who happened to wander in and needs briefing. Can you do that?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Fair enough.”
I settled back in my chair and pulled my plate towards me. “Wonderful. Hit me.”
Stephen took his time, which was good: drowned his sandwich in ketchup and mayo, rearranged his crisps, made sure he had his thoughts in order. Then he said, “OK. Detective Kennedy’s theory goes like this. Late on December fifteenth 1985, Francis Mackey and Rose Daly are planning to meet at the top of Faithful Place and elope together. Mackey’s brother Kevin gets wind of it-”
“How?” I didn’t see Imelda pouring her heart out to a fifteen-year-old kid.
“That’s not clear, but obviously someone did, and Kevin adds up better than most people. That’s one of the factors backing up Detective Kennedy’s theory. According to everyone we’ve talked to, Francis and Rose had kept the elopement totally under wraps, no one had a clue what they were planning. Kevin, though: he was in a privileged position. He shared a room with Francis. He could have seen something.”
My girl Mandy had kept her mouth shut. “Let’s say that’s out. There was nothing in that room to see.”
Stephen shrugged. He said, “I’m from the North Wall. I’d say the Liberties work the same way, or anyway they did back then: people live on top of each other, people talk, there’s no such thing as a secret. I’ve got to tell you, I’d be amazed if no one knew about that elopement. Amazed.”
I said, “Fair enough. We can leave that part vague. What happens next?”
Concentrating on giving his report was relaxing him a little; we were back in his comfort zone. “Kevin decides to intercept Rose before she meets Francis. Maybe he arranges to meet her or maybe he knows she’ll need to pick up her suitcase, but either way, they meet up, most likely somewhere in Number Sixteen Faithful Place. They get into an argument, he snaps, he grabs her by the throat and hits her head off the wall. From what Cooper says, that part would’ve taken no time; a few seconds, maybe. When Kevin gets his temper back, it’s too late.”
“Motive? Why would he intercept her to begin with, never mind argue with her?”
“Unknown. Everyone says Kevin was pretty attached to Francis, so it could be he didn’t want Rose taking him away. Or it could be sexual jealousy-he was just at the age to cope really badly with that. She was gorgeous, by all accounts. Maybe she’d turned Kevin down, or maybe they’d had something on the side-” Stephen suddenly remembered who he was talking to. He blushed, shut up and shot me an apprehensive look.
I remember Rosie, Kevin had said. That hair and that laugh, and the way she walked… I said, “The age gap was a little wide for that-we’re talking fifteen and nineteen, remember. But he could have fancied her, all right. Keep going.”
“Well. The motive doesn’t even have to be anything big; I mean, as far as we know, it’s not like he was planning on killing her. It looks more like it just happened. When he realizes she’s dead, he drags her body to the basement-unless they’re down there already-and puts her under the concrete. He was strong for his age; he’d worked part-time on a building site, that summer, fetching and carrying. He would’ve been able for it.” Another quick glance. I picked ham out of a back tooth and watched him blandly.
“At some stage in all this, Kevin finds the note Rose was going to leave for her family, and he realizes he can use it to his advantage. He stashes the first page and leaves the second where it is. The idea is, if Francis leaves anyway, everyone will basically tumble to the original plan: the two of them have gone off together, and the note’s for her parents. If Francis ends up going home when Rose doesn’t show up, or if he gets in touch with his family at some stage, everyone will think the note was for him and she’s gone off on her own.”
“And for twenty-two years,” I said, “that’s exactly what happens.”
