The Drowned by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online Page B

registered with the RSA.’
    ‘So it’s probably not a real taxi,’ said Katie. ‘But we still need to know who picked them up in it from Barnavara Crescent, and if it is the same vehicle, why one of them was driving it instead of him? Presumably he drove them all down to Havana Brown’s that evening, and maybe he arranged to pick them up and take them home to Mayfield afterwards. If so, why wasn’t he in the car with them? And if they were driving themselves home, what were they doing here at the Shandon Boat Club? It’s not like it’s on their way and they accidentally took a wrong turn.’
    ‘That’s always presuming it’s the same car,’ said Detective Sergeant Begley.
    ‘If it wasn’t, whose was it, and how did they come to be driving it?’
    Detective Sergeant Begley looked at the five grey-faced boys lolling in the people carrier, their eyes still open, as if they were waiting to be driven off to Purgatory. ‘Like you say, ma’am, they’ll tell us, one way or another.’
    Fergus O’Farrell had taken off his wetsuit now and came up to them wearing a blue anorak and a black polo-neck sweater. Katie thought he looked much less miserable now that his face wasn’t so compressed.
    ‘Thank you for finding these lads, Fergus,’ she said. ‘I think the work that you and the rest of the team are doing is fantastic.’
    ‘Well, we all have some connection to a missing person, that’s what motivates us, like,’ said Fergus. ‘I lost my own daughter not long ago.’
    ‘Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.’
    Fergus nodded towards the people carrier. ‘Do you reckon these are the five missing lads I’ve been seeing on the telly?’
    ‘Strictly between us, Fergus, they probably are. But please don’t say anything until it’s been officially confirmed.’
    ‘No, no, of course not. From what somebody told me, those five had been up to all kinds of shenanigans. Them and some other young students from the university.’
    ‘Who told you that?’
    ‘Some feller I met in the pub, that’s all. You know what Cork’s like. Everybody knows what you’ve done before you’ve even thought about doing it yourself.’
    ‘These young students from the university... your man in the pub didn’t mention any names, did he?’
    Fergus frowned, and then he said, ‘Ruarí, that was one of them.’
    ‘Really? Ruarí?’ said Katie. ‘Well, that might help us.’
    ‘There must be half a dozen Ruarís at the uni,’ Detective Dooley put in.
    ‘Yes,’ said Katie. ‘It’s a Ruarí Barrett we’re interested in.’
    Fergus shook his head. ‘No, sorry, your man didn’t tell me any of their surnames.’ But then he nodded towards the people carrier again and said, ‘A terrible way for young fellers to die, like, drowned in the river. It’s not a peaceful way to go, either, trying to hold your breath like that and all the time your brain’s begging for oxygen.’
    ‘At least this will give their families closure,’ said Katie. ‘But on that cheerful note, I have to go. Thanks again for everything you’ve done, Fergus. But please remember this is all confidential.’
    ‘My lips are as tight as a duck’s behind, ma’am, you can count on it.’
    *
    At about eleven o’clock the next morning, when Katie was prising open the lid of her second cup of coffee, Detectives Dooley and Scanlan came into her office, along with Bill Phinner. Bill was carrying a large black vinyl folder.
    ‘I could have sent these up to your PC, ma’am,’ he told her. ‘But it’s worth looking at them enlarged.’
    They sat down on the couches by the window and Bill opened the folder on the coffee table. It contained twenty or thirty photographs of the five drowned boys, as well as schematics of their positions in the people carrier.
    ‘We’ve identified all the boys from the ID that three of them were carrying in their wallets and the photographs their relatives provided, and it’s those five all right,’ said Detective Scanlan.