The Dead Ground by Claire McGowan Read Free Book Online

pro-choice, I take it?’
    ‘Yes.’ Said defiantly. ‘I don’t see why some girl in London can get help if she needs it, but ’cos I live in Ballyterrin I’d have to go all the way there. Anyway, we put them on the Friday night plane and they stay in a hostel in London.’ She suddenly stopped, as if she’d shared too much. ‘Why’re you asking anyway?’
    ‘Oh.’ Paula had forgotten where she was. ‘Listen, I work with the police – you know, the unit for missing people.’
    ‘The one that’s always in the paper?’
    ‘Yeah.’ Bloody Aidan and his so-called exposés. He’d do whatever he could to stick the boot into the unit – he thought it was a waste of money that should have gone to prosecuting former terrorists. ‘If Dr Bates can’t be located by the end of today, you should call this number.’ She managed to find a dog-eared card in her bag, under a litter of pens, sweet wrappers, and tampons. Wouldn’t be needing those, not unless she did something fast. ‘The police won’t usually act before twenty-four hours are up, but if as you say there’ve been death threats, we need to be fast. If you come straight to us we can get moving on it right away; you don’t have to go through the PSNI switchboard.’ It wasn’t strictly speaking protocol, but Paula thought Corry could stand to lose a case or two.
    The girl looked uncertain as she took the card. ‘You think something’s happened to her?’
    ‘Chances are she’s fine, but it doesn’t hurt to check.’
    Erin clutched the card, clearly realigning her world view. ‘Eh – do you want to reschedule your appointment?’
    ‘Let’s see what happens for now. Is there any way you could find out if she’s at home?’
    ‘Her partner – she works in the hospital, in accounts. I could ring her. She’s nice to me.’
    ‘Good idea.’ The hospital again. And Paula had noted the ‘she’ – if the doctor was a lesbian who advocated abortion, chances were she wasn’t too popular in Ballyterrin. She hoped Alison Bates was just sick at home, but if not, they wouldn’t have to look too far to find someone who would wish her ill.
    Ignoring a certain feeling of relief at the cancelled appointment, Paula dashed back to the office to immerse herself in work. As she went in Guy was on the phone, and gestured to her through the plate glass. He put the receiver down and came to the door. A thin crease of annoyance had taken up permanent residence between his eyebrows. ‘She’s only bloody called a press conference for this afternoon.’
    ‘Who, Corry?’
    ‘Who else? We’ll have to shift it to get our initial report done. She’s insisting we have the conference up there. I tried to argue, but – oh, you know what she’s like.’
    Paula was shrugging her coat off. Helen Corry was one of the few people she’d met who actually cowed her into silence. Guy looked pointedly at his watch. ‘Get your thing done?’
    ‘Yes thanks.’ Bloody cheek of him, interrogating her, when it was most likely his fault she was in this mess. She thought about mentioning the missing doctor, but decided it was too soon, and in any case it would be too hard to explain what she’d been doing there.
    ‘OK. Well, Corry wants your profile now, basically.’
    ‘I’ll do my best. She does realise I don’t actually know who did it?’
    ‘Knowing her, she thinks it’s our fault we can’t personally see through time and space and have an arrest already. Just do your best.’

Chapter Five
    ‘Inspector Guy Brooking. Yes, Brooking, as in Sir Trevor – oh, never mind. You know me. I’ve been up here pretty much every other day for a year. Can you let us in now?’ Paula could hear the irritation in Guy’s voice as they waited in the reception of the PSNI station. Someone had hung a ‘HAPPY HOLIDAYS’ banner over the desk, which must have seemed a rather grim irony to the criminals and victims who passed by it every day. Lacking security passes for the main station,