‘You asked was she seeing somebody. She was. Keeping it to herself, as always, but one of her girlfriends confirmed it for me. He’s a bad one. Older than her. Loves himself and the drink. By all accounts he could get a bit handy with Fiona. She never said it to her family or friends, but the odd bruise was noted and they told me she’s been subdued these last couple of months. The thing is, from what I know of her, she’d think she’d be well able for somebody like him. But Fi is a slip of a girl and this fellow is a strapping lad with a nasty temper on him.’

‘You know him, then?’

‘Aye. She was seen leaving his house in the village the afternoon she went missing. I haven’t mentioned his identity to the family yet. I’m afraid Fergus will be down there, stirring up havoc. But he was our main person of interest until all this serial killer business kicked off. Not necessarily that he’d murdered her – we just thought maybe she’d done a runner from him, or he’d promised her they’d go off together. I thought he might try to get money out of her folks or something.’

‘I see. What’s his name?’

‘Stephen McCabe.’

The inspector and Michael exchanged a glance before Tom turned back to Bart.

‘Stephen, you say? Not Steve? And he’s older than her? What age is he?’

Bart rubbed his jaw.

‘Thirty, I think. Maybe his mates call him Steve, I don’t know.’

The inspector felt a frisson of excitement. Could this be Steve Moore using a different surname? Moore would be about thirty-two now.

‘Has he always lived in the village?’ he asked.

‘No. He’s like most of us in this county, Inspector. Blowins from Dublin and elsewhere. The Hollands are native, but half the village is from beyond the borders. He moved to Luttrell a couple of years ago. He works in a restaurant here in Trim.’

‘Interesting,’ the inspector said. ‘We might catch up with him here then and have a chat. If he was abusing her, sure at least we can give him a scare.’

Bart smiled grimly.

‘I’d be in favour of that. Little toe-rag. She deserved better, Fi. Beautiful girl.’

‘There’s nothing else, is there?’ Tom asked. ‘Anybody who might have had it in for Fiona? We can’t rule out the possibility that her case isn’t related to the Glendalough discovery. We’re checking the sex offenders’ list to see if anybody has relocated here recently, but you’d have local knowledge of that, wouldn’t you?’

Bart shook his head.