‘She’ll be back. She’s just making some sort of point.’

‘Why would she do that?’

‘Dunno. Looking for attention or something. Fi is never happy unless we’re all running around after her. Cleaning up her mess. She doesn’t give a shit about how her carry-on affects us.’

‘How does it affect you?’ Tom asked. Beneath the harshness, he could hear a quiver in Fergus’ voice.

‘It’s not easy being the brother of the town slut.’

The inspector was taken aback. He turned to Ray, whose expression was just as shocked.

‘Aren’t you concerned that something might have happened to your sister?’ Ray asked, unable to keep the incredulity from his voice. ‘Do you really think she’s capable of running away, of leaving her son like that? Did she say anything to you to make you think she was planning that, the last time you saw her?’

‘Her son?’ Fergus snorted. ‘She might have squeezed him out from between those legs she can’t keep shut, but she’s no more his mother than I am. That pair of idiots up at the house are his mammy and daddy. Hopefully, they don’t make as much of a balls with him as they did with Fi. And to answer your question, when I last spoke to my sister, she was telling me to keep my, and I quote, “fucking fat nose out of her fucking business”. She has a way with words.’

‘So, you argued,’ the inspector said. ‘Over what?’

‘Yeah, we argued. And then we went our separate ways, just in case you’re getting any notions. It was the same old row. What man she was screwing this week and how humiliated I should be the next time I was in the pub.’

Neither detective said anything.

Fergus grimaced.

‘I wasn’t … I didn’t start out trying to fight with her. Not that time, anyway. I’d noticed she was coming home with the odd bruise. I asked her what was going on and she just laughed in my face. But whoever she was with, he was hitting her. I mean, how stupid can you get? As angry as I was with her, if she’d been scared of some bloke, I’d have sorted it, you know. She only had to ask.’

‘Your mother said she thought Fiona was unhappy in her current relationship but she didn’t know who she was seeing. Do you know?’

The inspector watched as the fire danced in the young man’s eyes. He could feel the heat from the blaze where he was standing, but Fergus was closer. So he didn’t know if the man was tearing up from the smoke or from sadness.

‘No, I don’t know. But if I find him and he hurt my sister – I’ll kill him.’

CHAPTER 9