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Back The Secrets He Kept Save as PDF
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. Prologue
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty
  43. Chapter Forty-One
  44. Chapter Forty-Two
  45. Chapter Forty-Three
  46. Chapter Forty-Four
  47. Chapter Forty-Five
  48. Chapter Forty-Six
  49. Chapter Forty-Seven
  50. Chapter Forty-Eight
  51. Chapter Forty-Nine
  52. Chapter Fifty
  53. Chapter Fifty-One
  54. Chapter Fifty-Two
  55. Two Weeks Earlier
  56. A Letter From Jackie
  57. Acknowledgements
  58. About the Author
  59. Also by Jackie Walsh

Tossing Cian in his arms, Tom goes to leave the room when Aaron picks up the sheet of paper from the floor.

‘Jesus,’ he says pointing at the picture.

‘What?’ I bend down to Aaron’s side and watch his little finger land on the cross around the neck of the woman in the drawing. ‘Jesus.’

Tom plonks Cian down and walks over to Aaron’s side. Taking the paper from his hand he looks at the picture. Then holding it in front of Aaron’s face he says, ‘Is that the woman that was in the window, Aaron?’ Aaron nods and points. ‘Jesus.’

Chapter Thirty-Two

Burke is by the table, Michael Dunne by the door. Eyes glued to her lips, Tom and I sit and wait. Within a few minutes she informs us that Joyce McCarthy, the woman in the picture is Claire McCarthy’s sister. Both women grew up in Kilkenny. The cops in Kilkenny found out that Joyce, the sister, moved to the USA about fifteen years ago. They didn’t discover any other family. Joyce returned to Ireland for the first time two weeks ago.

Why? They don’t know. But they believe Joyce to be the woman who called to Claire’s house the day of the murder. Bad of me to think it, but I do. If Kenny has an aunty, maybe he can live with her.

Sadly my moment of bliss is short-lived. The woman is now the number one suspect in the murder case and is perceived to be ‘not of sound mind’. She may have been lurking around our house trying to see if Kenny was living here now.

Continuing in a low voice, Burke explains that Kenny didn’t know he had an aunty. His mother never mentioned her but she could have been the woman who was arguing with his mother when he left the house that afternoon. When he returned a few hours later he found his mother’s body lying in a pool of blood.

‘So why haven’t you arrested her?’ I say.

‘Currently, we don’t know where she is.’

I can’t believe what I’m hearing, anger rises in my voice. ‘Someone must know where she’s staying.’

‘We’re on the case, Sally. We will be releasing her photo to the public over the next couple of days and we’re contacting the hotels. If she comes anywhere near the house again, call us.’

‘I bloody well will call you.’

I get the feeling Burke is keeping something from us, telling us as little as possible. The fact that the woman was peering in through the window of our house and is also the woman I saw in the back garden last week is beginning to cause her concern. She repeats her request that we alert and contact her immediately if the woman shows up again.