There were more funerals coming. Lane’s five victims would be laid to rest one by one. And soon, the coroner would release Fiona Holland’s body.

Once they’d charged Fergus, he’d quickly given up the location of Fiona’s body. His parents refused to see him and despite his tough guy act, it was clearly affecting him. Perhaps he figured that if he cooperated, they’d forgive him.

He explained how he’d picked his sister up on the road just a half a mile away from their home. She’d been beaten and he demanded to know who’d done it to her. Instead of seeing his possessiveness for what it was – him, in his own way, trying to be a good brother – she’d thrown it back at him, accusing him of fancying her himself and being a sick bastard. Fergus had yelled at her and, while the car was still moving, she’d leaned over him to release the door locks, opened her side and jumped out.

He’d been driving slowly on the narrow road, so Fiona hadn’t hurt herself. But something about her reckless action caused Fergus to crack. He chased her and dragged her back to the car. She bit him as he tried to force her in and that had made him snap. He dragged her back to the river they’d just crossed.

‘I told her she was a filthy-mouthed bitch and I was going to wash her tongue clean,’ he said. ‘And I just held her head under until she stopped struggling.’

They’d found her body there, weighed down in the water with rocks, under the bridge not far from her home. She hadn’t been found earlier because, due to the lack of resources, the search teams had only had one guard assigned to each to coordinate the efforts of the locals. Fergus had ensured he was allocated that patch. He’d given it the all clear and nobody had double-checked the bridge.

The last Tom had heard, Bart Healy had been up to see Fiona’s parents to confess that he’d fathered her child. The inspector didn’t know what had motivated him – probably a misplaced sense of guilt. But things didn’t augur well for the sergeant. The Hollands didn’t want him to have anything to do with Cían and were seeking to have him dismissed from the force because of his relationship with their daughter.

Tom wondered if any of that would have come out if Fiona’s body had been discovered earlier.

It was such a strange confluence of events, Lane living so close to the Hollands and working for them.

Would they have caught Lane at all if they hadn’t met him because of Fiona’s disappearance, something in which he’d had no hand, act or part?