‘It doesn’t matter whether we do or don’t like him – he’s the boss,’ Tom replied, even though it pained him. ‘You heard him. We need to get something solid on Healy. And unless we catch him leaning over a shallow grave with a dead body in his arms, I don’t think we’ll be allowed a second go at him.’

‘Can we get a warrant to search his house?’

‘Like that’s going to happen. We’ll have to lean on Carney again, see if he knows something. When will he be back?’

‘Not for a few hours. I spoke to the uniforms who brought him to court; there’s a backlog of cases up there.’

‘Let’s have a chat with that chap Doyle down in West Cork,’ Tom suggested. ‘Maybe he remembers something about Healy that could help. We’ll get the others to look up his phone records for yesterday. And we’ll go over the Pauline O’Hara details again. Waterford is where it all started and it’s Healy’s hometown. Maybe we can pin something down there.’

CHAPTER 27

Pauline, 2008

Even when her kidnapper’s hands were wrapped around her throat, she hadn’t thought she was going to die.

It was painful, yes. Distressing.

But violence was something Pauline was used to.

Steve had liked to hold her neck sometimes when they had sex. He used to claim, back when he felt the need to explain himself, that it turned him on and that he thought it turned her on too. Neither of them wanted to admit what it actually was. He was raping her. Nearly strangling her was part of the fun – her powerless beneath him, crying and gasping for breath.

But Steve hadn’t wanted to kill her. He never took it that far. What would be the point when she so willingly let him beat her, the thing he got his real kicks from?

So when her kidnapper sat on her stomach and pinned her to the bed, then started to choke her, Pauline thought he’d stop. Maybe when she’d passed out, or perhaps just before. The trick was to struggle and, to be honest, it came naturally. If he was like Steve, he’d enjoy that.

She had been surprised at the sudden attack, even if she had provoked him by screaming and yelling. At the start, when he brought her to the house, he’d been kind. She had still been terrified, but his consideration had unnerved her. He claimed he just wanted her to stay with him for a while. He talked nonsense about them having a life together. She didn’t even know him, for God’s sake!