“I was getting ready for work and I went to get my coat out of the press in the hall and then I knew why she was mad. Erin’s leather jacket was hanging there. I recognized it immediately. I didn’t know how long it had been there because I hadn’t gone in the press for a while. But I saw it. I knew it was hers immediately. I didn’t say a word.”
I watch him for a moment, waiting for him to say it. He doesn’t.
“You thought she’d left it there when she was at your flat another time.”
“Yeah. It’s … Bláithín was in France one weekend visiting her family and a group of us from the café went out and Erin got langered. I was worried about her and I brought her home with me. She slept on the couch. There was nothing … nothing happened. But given the way Bláithín had gone crazy the night Erin went out dancing with us, I just decided not to tell her. When I saw the jacket, I assumed that Erin had left it that night.”
“When was that? When she stayed over?”
“A couple of weeks before she went missing.”
“So, what happened?” I watch him. He’s not meeting my eyes and he’s tearing a napkin into tiny pieces while he talks.
“She didn’t say anything. Neither did I. We were going down to her parents’ holiday house that weekend and we did and we just … went back to the way things had been. And then Erin didn’t show up for work and I went to the flat and, well, you know the rest.”
“What happened to the jacket?”
He sighs. He still can’t look at me. “I panicked. The first interview with the Guards was really scary. They thought I knew something. They were sure I had a romantic interest in her. If they searched my flat and found the jacket … I shoved it in my rucksack and took it into college. I stayed at the library late one night and then I went into the bathroom and put it down in the bottom of the bin.”
I stare at him for a second. I think I believe him, but I don’t know what to say.
He finally meets my eyes. “I’m sorry. I know it’s…”
“You’re going to have to tell the Guards,” I tell him. “They’ll have to bring you in and interview you and everything. That was evidence. Conor, this is…”
“I know, I know.” There’s something more, though. I wait. “The thing is … I always wondered if she had left it. The more I thought about it, the more I became sure that it hadn’t been in the press. I wondered if … I don’t know. It was a little thing that was between me and Bláithín, all those years. Sometimes I wondered about Bláithín, if she’d actually stolen it or if she knew something …
“A couple years ago, things were really bad. It wasn’t too long before we split up, maybe a year. We had been going to a counselor and it just shook all kinds of things loose. In a good way, I suppose, but we were fighting all the time. And one night she said, ‘You’ve never loved me. You’ve always loved that American girl. She even came here. She sat right on your couch and she pretended there was nothing between the two of you. She left her jacket and you never said a word!’”
He looks down at the table for a long moment before he goes on. “And I saw it. How the jacket got there. Bláithín told me that Erin had come to the flat, looking for me. She said she was upset and she came in and asked to use the toilet and that was when she must have taken off her jacket and left it in the bathroom.”
“When did she come to the flat?” I demand. “What day did she come to the flat?”
He hesitates. “As far as I can figure out, it was the day she went down to Glenmalure.”
“Did she say anything to Bláithín?” Her name feels strange in my mouth, like glue. “Did she tell her why she was upset?”
“I don’t think so. Bláithín said Erin was a bit vague, like she was thinking. She asked if I was there. When Bláithín said no, Erin asked could she use the toilet. She came out, still sorta … spacey, Bláithín said, picked up her rucksack, and took off. Bláithín noticed that she’d left her jacket and she hung it in the press so I’d see it. I think that’s it.”
“She’ll have to talk to the Guards, too,” I tell him. “She should have told them. You should have told them.”
“I know it.” He looks awful, his face pulled down in worry.
There’s something that still isn’t making sense here. I hesitate. “Were you in love with her?”
He looks up. He looks so sad I have to look away.
“No,” he says. “No, it wasn’t that.”
But I don’t think I believe him.
“Can I ring you later?” he asks when I get up.
“I don’t know yet.”
“I’m sorry,” he says. His face is crumpled in shame and disappointment. My last glimpse is of his dark eyes, pleading with me. Outside, the river is choppy. The wind has come up and it looks like rain. I hunch into my jacket and head west again, following the Liffey.
38
MONDAY, JUNE 6,
2016
I call Roly and tell him I need to talk to him.
“D’arcy. We’re right in the middle of—”
“Now,” I say. “It’s important.”
Something in my voice convinces him. “I’ll come to the hotel,” he says. “There are fucking reporters everywhere.”
* * *
“You need to interview Conor Kearney and his ex-wife,” I say as soon as he’s closed the door behind him.
“Why?” His eyes are lined with exhaustion, his suit is wrinkled, and there’s a stain on his white dress shirt. For Roly, this is as bad as wearing his pajamas to the office.
“I ran into him a few days ago. I’ve been … spending time with him,” I say. “A lot of time.” I tell him about what Bláithín said, about Conor’s story. “I’m sorry, Roly.”
He just stares at me for a minute, as though he can’t believe this is happening.
“Fuck. This looks bad, D’arcy. You were seeing someone who’s a person of interest and we let you get close to the investigation. He fuckin’ lied to us. We let you in the files.” He stands up and starts pacing. “Did you say anything to him about the investigation?”
“No, Roly … No. He knows the body isn’t Erin, but…” Suddenly I remember Conor asking me about the case, about whether the body was Erin’s. “I didn’t say anything about evidence. You don’t have to worry about that.” But now I’m thinking back. What did I actually say to him? “But it shows that Erin was … that she was upset about something, right? It’s new information, you know? Right, Roly? She was upset about something. I think there’s something more there.” I take a deep breath. “More than he told me.” I have to say it. “Roly, what if the reason she was so upset when she went to Conor’s was that she had just killed Katerina Greiner? We’ve been trying to explain how the scarf and the necklace got there.”