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Back Before You Were Gone
Chapters (58)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-one
  24. Twenty-two
  25. Twenty-three
  26. Twenty-four
  27. Twenty-five
  28. Twenty-six
  29. Twenty-seven
  30. Twenty-eight
  31. Twenty-nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-one
  34. Thirty-two
  35. Thirty-three
  36. Thirty-four
  37. Thirty-five
  38. Thirty-six
  39. Thirty-seven
  40. Thirty-eight
  41. Thirty-nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-one
  44. Forty-two
  45. Forty-three
  46. Forty-four
  47. Forty-five
  48. Forty-six
  49. Forty-seven
  50. Forty-eight
  51. Forty-nine
  52. Fifty
  53. Fifty-one
  54. Acknowledgements
  55. An Eastbourne Murder Mystery
  56. Canelo Crime
  57. About the Author
  58. Also by Sheila Bugler

She thought about phoning Emer, then changed her mind. At this time of day, Emer would be working and probably wouldn’t be able to answer Dee’s call. Besides, Dee didn’t see any point in giving her cousin false hope. There was every chance this woman would be exactly who she said she was. It was better to wait until Dee had as much information as possible before giving Emer an update.

Instead, she opened the email she’d received from Emer last night and read it again. Emer had replied to the list of questions Dee had sent her. She’d asked Emer to give her some background information about her parents and stepfather, as well as anything Emer could tell her about Lucy Ryan’s family.

In the email, Emer told Dee that her mother had married her second husband in 1999. Which was just two years after Emer’s father had walked out on the family. Dee knew that divorce had been very difficult in Ireland back then, but Emer hadn’t given any explanation for how her mother had been able to marry again so quickly.

Through an internet search, Dee found an archived story that mentioned the marriage of ‘entrepreneur Robert O’Brien to Ursula Doran’. Dee assumed Emer’s mother must have got her marriage annulled, and she wondered how much influence the ‘entrepreneur’ had been able to wield to make this happen.

Emer had also included links to some online articles about her stepfather. Reading about Robert O’Brien was fascinating. A local Ballincarraig boy who’d made his money in property and retail, he was now a prominent member of Ireland’s liberal-conservative Fine Gael party. He was also, according to several articles Dee read, widely considered to be the party’s next leader. If that happened, and Fine Gael won a future election, that would make Emer’s stepfather the most powerful man in the country.

Most of the articles highlighted the work Robert had done over the years with Ireland’s Travelling community. He ran an apprenticeship scheme, creating job opportunities for travellers they wouldn’t otherwise have. From everything Dee read, Robert O’Brien seemed that rare breed – a politician who actually cared about something other than himself.

There were also plenty of photos of Robert on the internet. In some, he was alone in the photo, but in most of them his wife was by his side. Several of the articles referred to O’Brien’s devotion to his wife. One of them had a direct quote where he described her as ‘the love of my life’.