Taken for Dead (Kate Maguire) (13 page)

Katie went up to the bed and laid her hand on Brenda’s sister’s shoulder. Her sister looked up and her eyes were red-rimmed and her mascara blotched.

‘She was one of our very best,’ said Katie. ‘She was brave and she was confident and everybody was fond of her.’

The nurse finished filling in her form and stood up, taking off her glasses. Katie was unsettled to see that she looked the bulb off her own mother – same dark red hair, same sympathetic expression in her eyes, as if she completely understood how much everybody in this room was already grieving, even if she didn’t share in their grief.

‘I’m afraid it’s time,’ she said.

Brenda’s sister started to sob and her shoulders shook. Father Burney stepped forward and made the sign of the cross.

Very quietly, he said, ‘May the Lord support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. There in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.’

The nurse gently lifted the oxygen mask from Brenda’s face. She looked so peaceful, like a young woman in a Pre-Raphaelite painting. It was difficult for Katie to believe that she wasn’t simply sleeping a dreamless sleep, but dying.

After a few minutes the nurse checked her heart rate, and said, ‘Brenda’s passed away. I’m sorry.’

***

Katie walked so briskly out of the hospital that Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán almost stumbled in her wedge-heeled shoes to keep up with her. She had felt angry many times before. The scummers she had to deal with every day were so cruel and stupid and thoughtless that it was very hard not to feel angry with them, although most of the time she was able to keep her temper under control. But she had never before fumed with such vengefulness as she did now. The inside of her head felt like a slow-motion car crash.

A precious young life had been taken away, for nothing more than a few thousand euros. She was determined to track down whoever was responsible, and against every principle that she had sworn to uphold when she joined An Garda Síochána, she even found herself hoping that the offenders would try to resist her when she came to arrest them, so that she would have an excuse to use deadly force.

As they reached Katie’s car, Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán’s iPhone rang and before she climbed into the passenger seat she stopped with her door still open to answer it.

Katie heard her say, ‘No’ and ‘
No
!’ and ‘Come back to me?’ and ‘
No
, you’re codding!’

‘Who was that?’ Katie asked her, starting up her engine and backing out of the parking space.

‘Patrick O’Donovan, and you’re not going to believe this. We’ve just picked up Derek Hagerty, alive and reasonably well.’

‘So, well, they actually let him go,’ said Katie. ‘I suppose that’s something to be thankful for. Where did we find him?’

‘Grand Parade. A member of the public tipped us off that he would be there. Some quite well-spoken fellow, that’s what Patrick said.’

‘Did he give us his name, this well-spoken fellow?’ asked Katie. She was keeping her attention on the traffic as she pulled out into the Bishopstown Road.

‘No. He wanted to remain anonymous. He said that his wife found Derek Hagerty lying in a very poor state by the side of the road up by Ballynoe. She brought him home because he told her he was afraid of what his kidnappers might do to him and his family if he contacted the Garda.’

‘That was very Christian of her. Pure stupid, but very Christian.
Jesus –
you eejit! Pull out in front of me without making a signal, why don’t you?’

Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán waited while Katie put down her window and remonstrated with the van driver who had just cut her up. Then, as they drove on, she said, ‘The caller said that he and his wife allowed Hagerty to take a shower and they also gave him a change of clothes.’

‘More than most people would have done. Then what?’

‘When Hagerty was in the bathroom, your man overheard him talking on a mobile phone and so he started to grow suspicious. Like – what kind of kidnappers would allow their hostage to keep his mobile phone? Not only that, Hagerty had shown this fellow and his wife that his body was covered in a mass of bruises. But when he sneaked a look at him in the bathroom, it looked like all of the bruises had washed off.’

‘They’d washed off? Serious?’

‘That’s what your man told Patrick. He’d agreed to drive Hagerty into the city centre, but before he left his house he called us up and told us where Hagerty wanted to be dropped.’

‘I don’t understand this, Kyna. Why wasn’t I told about this anonymous caller as soon as he rang?’

‘I have no idea. According to Patrick, Molloy took charge of it personally, so if anybody should have told you, it was him.’

‘What?
Molloy
took charge of it? He had absolutely no right to do that. This was my operation, and it still is, even if I have made a real hames of it.’

‘You couldn’t have known about the bomb. Nobody could have seen that coming.’

‘It’s my job, Kyna. I’m supposed to look after my team. That means I need to take precautions against every eventuality that I can think of, and a few more that I can’t.’

‘I know. But you can’t blame yourself for what happened to Brenda McCracken.’

‘I can, Kyna, and I do.’

‘There’s one more thing, though,’ said Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán as they stopped at the traffic lights at Victoria Cross. ‘The caller said his wife found Derek Hagerty at approximately one-fifteen. He told her that he had escaped from his kidnappers by climbing out of a toilet window.’

Katie turned to frown at her. ‘One-fifteen? That means that he managed to get free more than three quarters of an hour before the ransom was due to be paid. So there was no need for us to pay the ransom at all, and Brenda McCracken needn’t have died. What time did this anonymous caller get in touch with us?’

‘About twenty minutes ago, give or take. He didn’t say where he was calling from.’

‘Get in touch with Tony Brennan. Tell him I need to see today’s CCTV footage from Grand Parade as soon as I get back to the station.’

‘Anything else?’

‘Yes. Make sure that Bryan Molloy is still in his office and hasn’t sloped off to play golf. I’m going to have that man’s mebs for earrings one day.’

Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán looked at her and shook her head. ‘Don’t,’ she said, very seriously. ‘They wouldn’t suit you.’

‘I’m not saying that you’re incompetent, Katie, not for a moment,’ said Acting Chief Superintendent Molloy. ‘I’m simply pointing out that you might have considered a different approach to handling the money drop … one that gave Derek Hagerty’s abductors some credit for intelligence. They were bound to suspect that you were going to bug Mrs Hagerty’s car.’

‘I took that into account, of course,’ said Katie. ‘That’s why Garda McCracken was following him, and that’s why I had five other cars in position all around the city, just in case he swapped vehicles. I even had officers watching the Passover and all of the other pedestrian bridges in case he abandoned her car altogether and tried to get away on foot.’

‘But it never occurred to you that they might blow the car up?’

‘To be honest with you, no. But then I don’t suppose it occurred to
you
, either.’

‘Maybe not, Katie, and I can’t deny that I gave this operation the go-ahead. But I wasn’t in charge of the tactical details, was I? Perhaps if I had been, things might have turned out different. As it is, we’ve lost a young garda’s life and a quarter of a million of taxpayers’ euros, and all for nothing. No arrests, no leads, and to cap it all the hostage had already managed to escape before we handed over the ransom money. The very least damage it’s done is to make us look like a bunch of clowns.’

‘Bryan – I disagree with you entirely,’ Katie told him. She was trying very hard to keep her temper, but her voice was strained. ‘I think it shows how much dedication we put into this job. There was no possible way we could have foreseen that they were going to blow up Mrs Hagerty’s car, or that Derek Hagerty would have got himself free. We’re not psychic.’

Bryan Molloy looked at his Rolex. ‘Oh well, I’m holding a media conference at five-fifteen. That’s what I’ll tell them, shall I? A garda was killed and two hundred and fifty thousand euros of public money has gone missing because we’re not psychic?’

‘Before you do that, I want to talk to Derek Hagerty myself.’

‘If you think it’ll do any good, go ahead. He’s in the first-aid room on account of the leathering they gave him. So far he’s refused to say anything at all. He won’t even admit to being Derek Hagerty, even though we’ve had his wife in and she’s identified him.’

Katie stood up. ‘You say you’re not blaming me, Bryan, but it sounds very much as if you are.’

‘It was your operation, Katie. Your idea. You have to admit that.’

Bryan Molloy stared at her with those bulging eyes, one eyebrow suggestively raised. Katie was sorely tempted to tell him that the responsibility for what had happened at the Merchants Quay car park was ultimately his, and that Chief Superintendent O’Driscoll would have accepted that he was personally accountable even if he hadn’t been involved in the finer points of planning the operation.

However, she kept her lips tightly closed. She was quite aware that Bryan Molloy was doing everything he could to undermine her – partly because she had made no secret of the fact that her detectives were looking into his political and financial connections, but mostly because she was a woman.

But it wasn’t Bryan Molloy who concerned her the most. It was what appeared in the media that mattered most – that, and how Assistant Commissioner Jimmy O’Reilly would react. After all, it was Jimmy O’Reilly who had authorized the release of all that untraceable cash, and it was Jimmy O’Reilly who would have to explain to Phoenix Park how Katie had let Derek Hagerty’s kidnappers get away with it.

She said, tautly, ‘I’ll see you before the media conference, after I’ve talked to Derek Hagerty.’

Bryan Molloy pulled a face, as if to say, Do whatever you want, girl, I don’t give a fiddler’s …

She left his office. While she waited for the lift at the end of the corridor, she took several deep breaths, as if she were about to dive deep underwater.

***

Detective O’Donovan was waiting for Katie outside the first-aid room. He was halfway through eating a Mars bar and when he saw her coming he quickly wrapped up the rest of it and dropped it into the pocket of his dark blue windcheater.

‘I don’t mind if you want to finish that, if you’re hungry,’ said Katie.

Detective O’Donovan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘No, you’re all right. I’m trying to lose weight anyway.’

‘Well, don’t blame me if it goes all melted. What’s the story here?’

Through the circular window in the first-aid room door, Katie could see Derek Hagerty lying on one of the two recovery beds, still wearing the yellow zig-zag sweater and olive corduroy trousers that Norman had given him. His grey hair was neatly parted and his hands were pressed together over his chest like a figure on top of a tomb. His eyes were closed, but Katie had the feeling that he was not really asleep.

‘Doctor Murphy came in about a half-hour ago and gave him a bit of a check-up,’ said Detective O’Donovan.

‘Oh yes? And what did the good Doctor Murphy have to say?’

‘He’s not in such a poor condition as he looks. His mouth’s a total mess and he has a few minor bruises on him, but nothing’s broken. As far as Doctor Murphy could tell, he’s perfectly fit, apart from a fierce bad case of dhobie itch, and that’s probably caused by stress and not being able to wash himself for a couple of days.’

‘So, what with those fake bruises that your informant told you about, it looks like he’s been after making out that he was much more seriously hurt than he really was?’

‘Who knows?’ said Detective O’Donovan. ‘Until he starts talking to us, your guess is as good as mine.’

Katie pushed open the door and they went inside. A young garda was sitting in the opposite corner of the room. He stood up when Katie and Detective O’Donovan came in and put down the copy of
Irish Car + Travel
magazine that he had been reading.

‘How is he?’ asked Katie.

‘Surviving, I’d say,’ said the garda.

‘He hasn’t said anything?’

‘Not a sausage.’

Katie went up to Derek Hagerty and stood over him. She could see his eyeballs darting from side to side under his eyelids, so he was either in REM sleep and dreaming or else he was awake.

‘Derek,’ she said, loudly. ‘Derek, this is Detective Superintendent Maguire. I need to have a few words with you about your abduction.’

Derek Hagerty’s eyelids remained closed, although his eyeballs continued to move.

‘Derek, it’s important that you talk to me. This isn’t just a case of kidnap any more, it’s a homicide investigation. A garda was killed by a bomb when your ransom was handed over.’

Derek Hagerty opened one eye, and when he saw Katie standing there he opened the other.

‘
What
?’ he blurted

‘I think you heard what I said. A bomb was planted in your wife’s car. When it went off, a young woman officer was fatally injured.’

‘Oh, Jesus, no,’ said Derek Hagerty. ‘So that was what it was – that explosion?’

‘You knew about it?’

‘We heard about it on the car radio when we were driving into the city.’

‘What – you and the fellow who dropped you off at Grand Parade?’

‘That’s right. There was a newsflash, like, about some kind of a detonation at Merchants Quay. They didn’t say what had caused it, though, and they said nothing at all about anybody getting hurt. A bomb! Jesus, and in Shelagh’s car!’

‘I’m afraid it’s true, Derek. A garda by the name of Brenda McCracken was caught in the blast, and she died about an hour ago.’

‘That’s terrible. That’s truly terrible. Oh God.’

‘That’s why I need to talk to you, Derek. I need to know as many details as possible about who it was that abducted you, and how you got away from them, and who it was that rescued you. We’re talking about murderers now, not just kidnappers and extortionists.’