Free The Drowned by Graham Masterton Page B

wastes of space, twice over.’
    *
    Katie was buttoning up her black hooded raincoat, ready to go for lunch, when Detective Dooley knocked at her door.
    ‘Oh, Robert,’ she said. ‘How’s it going with Danny Phelan? Has he given you any more information on those stolen cars yet?’
    ‘Not yet, ma’am, but we’ll wheedle it out of him before too long, I can promise you that. If he had two brains, that fellow, he’d be twice as stupid. No – what I came up to tell you about, there’s five young men been reported missing from their homes in Mayfield. They’re all friends, all about the same age – seventeen, eighteen, and a pair of twins, both nineteen. Their families are all downstairs in one of the interview rooms and Ó Doibhilin and Scanlan are taking down their particulars now.’
    ‘ Five of them? How long have they been missing?’
    ‘This is the second day now. The last they were heard of was about half-past ten on Tuesday evening when they were all going down to Havana Brown’s to see what girls they could pick up.’
    ‘Has anybody checked if they actually went to Havana Brown’s?’
    ‘The twins’ father went down there late last night and showed a photo of them to the bar staff. Like, it’s not easy to identify anybody in Havana Brown’s because it’s all flashing lights, and the music’s so loud it makes your eyes wobble. But because they were twins one of the girls behind the bar definitely recognized them. So they were there at least, the twins, even if the other three weren’t.’
    ‘All right,’ said Katie, looking at her watch. She was due in the circuit court at 3.15 p.m. and she wanted to have something to eat before then. Her breakfast had been nothing but an oat and honey bar which she had eaten while she was driving in from Cobh. ‘I’ll come down and make myself known to them. If it looks like it’s appropriate to put out a news bulletin, we still have time to make the Six-One News this evening and tomorrow morning’s Examiner .’
    Together she and Detective Dooley went down to the interview room. Detectives Ó Doibhilin and Scanlan were facing the mothers of the missing teenagers across the table – Mary Buckley, Shelagh O’Reilly, Brenda O’Connor and Margaret Martin. The twins’ father, Jim Martin, was sitting against the right-hand wall with Donal O’Reilly, Aidan’s stepfather. Jim Martin was stocky and grey-haired. Donal O’Reilly was thin and ginger, although his hair was turning grey at the sides. Both men looked as if they were twitching for a smoke, biting their nails and jiggling their knees.
    Detective Ó Doibhilin stood up and offered Katie his chair. He had brushed-up hair and looked almost too young to be a fully qualified detective. Detective Scanlan looked young, too, with her long brunette hair tied up with a scarf, but she always spoke crisply and with authority, as if she wasn’t prepared to tolerate any contradiction.
    ‘Everybody,’ she announced, ‘this is Detective Superintendent Maguire. She’ll be in overall charge of any search that we set up to find out what’s happened to your boys.’
    Brenda peered at Katie and said, ‘Didn’t I see you on the telly a couple of nights back? You was talking about that riot over the water charges.’
    ‘Yes, that’s right,’ said Katie, sitting down. ‘That’s all quietened down now, thank God. People have a right to protest about what they pay for their water, but they don’t have a right to toss rockers and turn cars over.’
    She looked at each of the parents in turn and then she said, ‘I expect Detective Ó Doibhilin and Detective Scanlan have been taking down all the details about your boys – when you saw them last and when you expected them to come home. What they were wearing. Can I ask you if they’ve ever gone missing like this before? Even for just one night?’
    ‘Well, for one night sometimes, now and then,’ said Mary. ‘But my Tadgh always comes back in the morning