Black Water, page 13
Tyrell leaned forward and watched Hall, who remained bolt upright. He looked impressive in a dark grey suit and blue tie.
‘Phone taps are showing up some noise, commissioner, but very little of any use, so far. We are also examining what calls or texts were made in that area at that time through mast dumping. We are monitoring the movement of known mobiles at the time.’
Hall paused briefly, for effect, it seemed to Tyrell.
‘We have some assets in the area and, as we speak, we are gathering information from them. This could yield results.’
Tyrell shot a look at the Chief, who pulled at the collar of his shirt. Tyrell glared back at Hall.
‘Our intel would suggest,’ Hall said in a measured voice, ‘that a criminal network run by Ghost and Cracko is worth examining. The Canal Gang as they are known, or click, as they like to call themselves.’ He looked towards Tyrell and nodded. ‘I’m sure the investigation team are already on to them. We are examining further use and deployment of our assets.’
Hall tilted his chin, signalling an end to his contribution, and patted down his tie. The commissioner’s complexion seemed to lighten a bit.
‘I would suggest, Detective Inspector Tyrell, you bring yourself up to speed with what ISD has.’
Tyrell couldn’t avert his gaze much, but spotted Nessan eyeing Hall, a satisfied look on his face.
‘We are not going to allow whoever did this to get away with it, nor the gang bosses they work for,’ the commissioner said. ‘No fucking way. Not on my watch. I want to see suspects nominated for our next meeting. And I want to know how we are going to nail them.’
He paused as he placed his hands on his hat. ‘I have to meet the Justice Minister now. He intends to speak to the media at the Department and wants me at his side. Then I’m travelling to meet the parents of that Williams girl and Garda Ciara Grant, and will then go to the hospital to see the family of Garda Peters. There will be a full State funeral for Garda Grant later in the week, once the pathologist is finished and the family confirm their intentions. I expect to see doors kicked in soon after that.’
He rose, setting off a ripple effect around the table.
As soon as the three commissioners left, the Chief walked over to Hall, followed by Tyrell. Hall could see them coming, but showed no anxiety.
‘Any particular reason you didn’t tell us last night what you had?’ the Chief said, his belly almost touching off Hall he stood so close.
Hall smiled at him. ‘Our information has only crystallised in the last couple of hours. This was our first opportunity.’
‘You could have told us before the meeting, not in front of Number One,’ Tyrell said.
Hall looked at him. ‘Don’t worry about how you look. As I said, this was our first opportunity. I’ve asked the National Criminal Intelligence Unit to supply you with any relevant information.’
‘What about these assets?’ Tyrell asked, knowing he wasn’t going to get an answer. ‘Crims or undercover or what?’
‘In my area, the slightest bit of information one way or the other could be misinterpreted,’ Hall said, doing up the button of his jacket. ‘Better there is complete separation between intelligence and investigation. Leave us to gather the intel and let you get on with your job, which is to investigate.’
Hall walked leisurely to the door.
Tyrell disliked him even more now. Hall had a reputation. For arrogance, deviousness, even ruthlessness. But he was also smart.
27
Shay summoned his courage as he opened the door and peered into the sitting room. Lisa walked into view. She had a yellow glove on one hand, a second was draped over her other arm. Her hair was wet and sweaty.
She must have been cleaning all morning, he thought.
‘Well?’ she asked.
He took a breath. Best not exaggerate things, he told himself. But the desperate look on her face unbalanced him.
‘We could be on the way out of here,’ he said.
‘What?’ she said, the tension in her face easing. ‘You mean it?’
He smiled tentatively and headed for the kitchen.
What the fuck did I say that for?
Turning on the radio, he awaited the questions.
‘How will we be out of here?’ Lisa asked, a slight doubt in her voice.
I need to recover this.
‘I do my job on this one and they’ll recommend that I get back in, with a clean slate, and us out of here.’
He opened the fridge, took out the water container and poured himself a glass.
‘What do you have to do?’
‘You know I can’t say too much, Lisa. There’s a national crisis here. Those guards were just in their twenties. And that little girl.’
Lisa dropped her eyes.
‘I know,’ she said, looking at a photograph of their children on a kitchen shelf. ‘The parents of that poor girl.’
‘Lisa. This is my chance, our chance.’
She placed the loose glove on the table and reached out a hand, holding Shay’s arm softly. He relaxed.
At least we’re talking, not shouting.
‘The kids heard on the radio about a girl being shot dead,’ Lisa said. ‘Charlie’s still too young, but Molly was all upset, asking why someone would shoot a child. How do you explain to a child why a child has been shot?’
Shay nodded, sensing the anger rising in Lisa.
‘The people behind it are scum,’ she said. ‘But we know that. We live here.’
Shay rubbed his arm. It was still sore from the fall.
‘You trust them?’ Lisa asked.
Shay didn’t respond straight away. The ghostly rattle of the Luas echoed through the open windows.
‘Well, that’s what they said.’
Lisa’s eyes widened at the distinct lack of certainty in his voice. She knew him too well. But what could he say? He didn’t trust them.
‘Will what you have to do put us in danger … the kids?’
Shay refused to think about this too much. It wasn’t clear yet what he would have to do.
‘Just the usual eyes and ears.’
He felt her probing him as he poured out more water.
‘How long more do we have to stay here?’
Shay said nothing, and swallowed another gulp.
‘Not long,’ he said, putting the glass down.
He moved to hold her, but she avoided his touch. That coldness had returned and she stepped into the sitting room. She stood there with her back to him and stared out the window, the yellow glove still on her right hand.
‘They still holding what you . . . did . . . over you?’
Shay flinched. Lisa had never directly referred to it since they moved here. He couldn’t gather his thoughts quickly enough to respond. There was a pull and a smack. Lisa flung the other glove onto the sofa.
‘I’ll collect the kids,’ she said, moving for the door.
Shay was nailed to the floor. His brain was firing wildly and memories came crashing through.
‘Look at the ass on that. What do ye think her husband likes to do with that now? Ha?’
‘Jesus, Jamie, I tell ye what I’d like to do. But it’s not for, what do ye call it, public consumption, like.’
Shay glared back along the queue at Jamie and Tommy McCabe.
‘Why don’t you fuck off,’ he shouted back at them.
‘The boyfriend’s got spunk,’ Tommy said.
‘He does alright, and I bet ye I know where he likes to put it,’ Jamie said.
They broke out laughing, loud and obnoxious.
Lisa grabbed Shay’s arm.
‘Shay, don’t.’
‘I likes what you’re wearing there, Lisa, tight jeans and high heels,’ Jamie shouted. ‘Oh, I likes that.’
Lisa pulled at Shay. His face was pale with rage.
‘Just ignore them.’
‘You should tell the manager of the project about those fucks,’ Shay said, ‘get them barred from the centre.’
‘That’d just give them more attention and end up giving me more hassle out there. Anyway, they come from a horrible family.’
‘So that means they can abuse community workers like you, people who are actually trying to help them?’
Shay got the tickets for the film. He was raging.
‘Listen, when we get home you can let your frustration out on me,’ she said, sneakily putting her hand against his crotch. ‘Okay?’
Shay almost jumped when his phone rang, the memories evaporating. He held his hand against the kitchen counter, his wrist throbbing.
28
Lisa braked hard in the playschool car park, her car straddling two spaces. She shouldn’t have mentioned to Shay about that night, she told herself. But now that she had, the memories of it consumed her.
She’d pulled the bins out for collection as Shay went upstairs to have a shower.
Maybe the boys were just showing off to each other, she thought. Boys were like that, all macho bravado. There was no real malice in them. Anyway, she liked her job, even if it could be difficult. She was good at it. And she did good. She wasn’t going to let Jamie McCabe, or his brother, ruin it.
She heard the noise of the shower upstairs. Shay had said he needed to cool down.
The sensation of the wool against her cheek baffled her at first, until it gripped around her mouth. A finger and thumb pressed against her cheekbones. She tried to scream, but the sound was muffled. Her attacker responded by shoving her against the wall and smacking her head against it. Pain ripped across her forehead. She momentarily lost balance and felt sick. She could feel the man pressed behind her, his penis bulging into her.
‘Make a sound, bitch,’ he said, clasping her mouth even tighter, ‘and I’ll drive your head through the fucking wall.’
The voice was familiar.
The shower droned away upstairs.
She froze for those brief seconds, waiting for some horror to unfold. Another hand slid down onto her bum, rubbing it, squeezing it.
Lisa’s mind roared.
Shay, help me, please help me.
But no words came.
‘Tight jeans, high heels. Always does it for me,’ the voice spat into one of her ears.
Her eyes pulled back in horror. It was Jamie McCabe.
‘What I don’t understand,’ he said, rubbing his groin against her, ‘is why ye strut into the centre in those heels and that ass, knowing I be looking at ye. But ye ignore my looks. You’re a community worker like, but ye kind of look down on us. The community. That’s not fucking right, is it?’
He yanked her back by the hair. He opened the button of her jeans and pulled at the zip. He heaved on the jeans with his free hand, forcing them down.
God. Please. No.
Just go, Jamie. Leave me alone. I’ll tell no one. This never happened.
His left hand went down her underwear, grabbing her bum again. He grunted against her. He pressed his thumb against her bum and pushed it in. Lisa felt part of her brain shut down. He pulled his thumb around roughly, took it out. She heard his zip. His gasping became frenzied.
No, this can’t happen, won’t happen. No.
She pulled her eyes up and to the right. The light from the narrow window at the top of the stairs shone out.
‘Shay,’ she tried to roar, but he just pressed his hand harder against her mouth.
He licked her neck and reefed her back by the hair again.
‘You won’t ignore this, you snotty bitch. Not this nasty bastard up your tight ass.’
The shower turned off. Lisa sensed him distracted. He had slightly eased his clasp on her. Her brain sparked.
Now, it screamed. Now.
She lashed wildly back with her elbows. He let out a shout and pulled his hand from her mouth. She heaved away. He grabbed her neck, catching her right earring, ripping it down and through her lobe. She screamed and half fell against the wall.
‘Bitch,’ he shouted, his teeth clenched.
He drove his foot into her stomach, catapulting her forward.
Lisa jolted hard as the flashback snapped shut.
She was clasping the steering wheel. Her knuckles were white. Her heart hammered against her chest bone.
She roared out and banged the wheel with her head, elbowing the door with her right arm and the air with her left. Tears poured down.
After the rage expired, she desperately looked out the windows in case anyone could see her.
She shook as she recalled the rest from that night.
She’d told Shay to bring her to the garda station. She wouldn’t say any more until they got there. If she’d told him back at the house, he could have gone and done something stupid. By telling him at the station, he couldn’t.
Soon after that, she went on the sleeping tablets and the anti-anxiety medication. The nightmares and the screaming were exhausting. She couldn’t go around the side of the house any more, not on her own. She had panic attacks and they sucked the confidence out of her.
One day she summoned up the willpower to ring the manager of the centre. She offered her sympathies, but explained that the centre couldn’t ban Jamie. He was innocent in the eyes of the law, she said. But Lisa suspected it was more because of Jamie’s family. They had everyone intimidated in the area. Even still, Lisa couldn’t accept that the centre wouldn’t stand up for her. She felt victimised a second time. And betrayed. She had spent years in that community, doing her best to help people, working all hours, earning buttons. The bitterness of that dug deep.
Months later, detectives called her and Shay in for a meeting. They explained that the DPP had directed no prosecution against Jamie McCabe. Although the DPP wouldn’t say why, the detectives said that the forensics and DNA had come back inconclusive. There were no eyewitnesses. And Jamie’s family, including his mother, made sworn statements that both he and his brother had come straight home from the cinema and stayed with them all night.
Lisa felt like she had entered a thick, cold fog and night had descended.
She recalled how Shay remained unruffled during that meeting, as if he knew what the detectives were going to say.
Soon after, she realised she was pregnant, something that must have happened shortly before the attack. No matter how much she told herself that the attack and her pregnancy were unconnected, she couldn’t get rid of a feeling, crawling inside her skin, that the purity of the pregnancy had been sullied, invaded in some way.
Before the year was out, she had given birth to a baby girl. Coping with Molly took over her life. Shay was working a lot, away from the house almost every day. She didn’t feel she was bonding with Molly. She didn’t love her as she should have, as she expected she would.
She convinced herself that having another child would change things: that by loving the second child properly she could learn to love Molly better. And things would be as they should be for her as a mother. She convinced Shay of it too.
But he often seemed distracted. Shortly after Charlie was born, she discovered why.
She had seen news reports of a violent feud that had reignited between the McCabes and another family. That’s when he did something stupid. Shay had just been biding his time all along, Lisa realised. That, after all, was what he was trained to do.
He did it for her. Not that he said it in words. He was too careful for that. But she could see it in his eyes. No you didn’t, she screamed back with her eyes. You did it for yourself. You didn’t think of the consequences for us, our family.
Because of his actions, they had ended up here, with this life.
After all the shit, she was, at first, glad at the prospect of leaving Cork. She wouldn’t have to see Jamie McCabe on the street, which she had done once. That had catapulted her into a full panic attack. She was terrified of being seen, of the kids coming face to face with her attacker. She pushed the buggy, hunched over, across the road, oblivious to traffic. She flagged down a taxi and bundled the kids in. She would have left the buggy on the path, had the driver not got out and folded it up and put it in. She cowered in the back until they were on their way.
The move to Dublin would be a fresh start, Shay had reassured her. She didn’t ask too much about where they were going or what Shay would be doing. She just needed to get away.
She soon realised it was a lot different working in a community with problems and living in one with problems. And this community had fractures far deeper and wider than the one she had worked in.
Having Charlie didn’t improve things. In fact, her son seemed to make things worse, as if he confirmed some flaw in her, one she never knew existed, a fissure that the assault had prised open. When that black realisation sunk in, her outlook darkened. She leaned on the pills more, and as soon as she could, got a job as a care assistant. They needed the money, but, more than that, she needed to get out of the house.
Shay kept saying they would only be there short term; they would move soon enough. But there was no time period, no plan. After a while, she felt they were stuck. At the same time, she couldn’t just leave. She owed him that much. And, where would she go? Back to her parents, like a child? Move out and get a place on her own? With the kids? She didn’t have enough money. And she knew she wouldn’t be able to cope. Not yet anyway.
She twiddled at her wedding band as she looked around the car park. She did still love Shay. But some bone deep inside her had snapped – maybe in Shay, too – and had never healed. Having the children didn’t bolt it back together.
She didn’t blame Shay for their life. More, she just held it against him.
The way she saw it, there was one thing he loved more than her, than the kids. That was his life as a garda.
And, though he wouldn’t admit it, even to himself, she knew her husband would do anything to get that life back.
29
Crowe squinted at the glare of the morning sun. Hopefully, the shop owner will be here soon, she thought. She kicked the back of her runner against the wall and yawned. She had been working pretty much straight through for almost three days. No sleep the first night and just a couple of hours on a sofa in the station on the second. Tyrell had ordered her home at one this morning to get some proper sleep. Not that he seemed to take any break at all.
