‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Vincent, you understand bail was denied to you today? You’re going to be remanded in custody until your trial. We can try to get that sped up for you, if you can tell us anything, anything at all that will help us find Fiona.’

The other man stared at Tom. The inspector could see him retreating into himself, his expression vacant.

‘Interview terminated at 8 p.m.’

Tom and Ray left the room.

‘What now?’ Ray asked.

The inspector could see he was itching to be somewhere.

‘I don’t know,’ he answered, truthfully. ‘We’ve nothing to go at Healy with. There’s zero coming up in his work history bar that connection to the Mary Ellen case. He never worked in Kerry and his car hasn’t ever been spotted outside his jurisdiction. His record is exemplary. Ultan Doyle remembers nothing unusual about him and says he hadn’t been in Glendale before the missing persons case. And Carney is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Linda spent some time with him this morning and she’s saying that in her professional opinion, he has a very low IQ and wouldn’t be capable of committing the crimes we’re investigating. We’re stuck, Ray.’

Tom felt his shoulders sag.

‘What did Carney’s medical records say?’ his deputy asked.

‘We haven’t got them yet. Linda spoke to a psychiatrist who dealt with him at the time of his parents’ death. She got her off the record, so none of this can be repeated. The doctor said Carney was traumatised by their deaths. She felt he was blaming himself because he was “slow” and got into trouble a few times, even though the whole concept of debt and his parents’ problems were explained at length to him. A solicitor helped him with the sale of the farm afterwards and some money was left in a small trust for him from his parents’ insurance, so they didn’t leave him without.’

‘Hmm, interesting,’ Ray remarked.

‘Why “interesting”? Did you get hold of the file on his attempted rape prosecution, by the way?’

‘I did, actually. And that’s what has me curious. I was hoping Linda would come back and say he was faking everything.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Well, the way he described that rape attempt yesterday, it all sounded fairly innocent on his part. But the details of that assault complaint were far more sinister than he tells it. Carney followed the girl into her house, dropped his trousers and grabbed her. He forced her onto the ground and tried to get her jeans down, holding her by the neck while he did it. She’d taken some self-defence course and managed to knee him in the balls. That’s when he backed off.’

‘Not pleasant, but where are you getting sinister from?’ Tom asked.