Taken for Dead (Kate Maguire) (50 page)

‘I’d say we ought to be fair cautious about this,’ said Superintendent McCostagain. ‘Maybe we should hold off paying this ransom until the High Kings of Erin can give us further proof that they’re still holding Whelan and Carroll as hostages.’

‘It’s a hoax,’ said Inspector Fennessy. ‘They tried to pull the same kind of a stunt with Derek Hagerty. There he was, making out that he’d escaped, while all the time he’d colluded in his own kidnapping right from the start. They only shot him because he messed the whole thing up and was going to give evidence against them.

‘This sounds to me like the same trick backwards. Somebody calls pretending to be Pat Whelan and says that he and Eoghan Carroll have escaped, but we can’t be sure that he’s telling the truth because they’re in hiding, so what do we do? If we don’t pay the ransom money according to the arrangements they’ve given us, the two of them will probably end up dead, if they’re not dead already, and then we’ll be blamed for causing their deaths from incompetence.’

He imitated a high woman’s voice. ‘“Oh, but Pat Whelan rung us up and told me the two of them were still alive.” “Oh – how did I know it was really Pat Whelan who was calling?” “Because he said he was.”

‘Listen – if we
do
hand over the money and Whelan and Carroll are set free unharmed, then at least we’ll be given
some
credit, for being humanitarian, if nothing else.’

‘Wait a minute,’ said Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán. ‘Suppose we hand over the money but it turns out that they’re dead already?’ She was trying not to show how angry she was at Inspector Fennessy mimicking the way she spoke and trying to suggest that she was naive and gullible. ‘Suppose we hand over the money and the High Kings of Erin set them free but then they kill them later, like Derek Hagerty, so that they can’t give evidence against them?’

‘What if the moon drops into Cobh harbour and the whole of Cork is drowned by a tsunami?’ Inspector Fennessy retorted. ‘We can’t deal in fanciful theories, Kyna. We have two men here whose lives are in jeopardy and we can’t afford to take any unnecessary chances. We already have the cash wrapped up, according to the High Kings of Erin’s instructions. Superintendent MacCostagáin and I are meeting here now to go over the best way to maximize our chances of arresting them and at the same time minimizing the risk to the hostages.’

‘So that call I just answered, you’re going to ignore it completely?’

‘Like I say, the overwhelming likelihood is that it’s a hoax. Either that, or the High Kings of Erin are trying to make us look like fools when it comes to the media coverage. They did it with Derek Hagerty. They did it with the Pearses. I don’t want to give them the opportunity to do it again.’

Inspector Fennessy laid his hand on her shoulder and said, as reassuringly as he could, ‘After Superintendent MacCostagáin and I have finished our discussion, Kyna, I promise you that I’ll listen to the conversation you had with this fellow. If it sounds even remotely like your man might be authentic, I’ll ask the sound technicians to see if they can match it to the voice of the real Pat Whelan. But I have to tell you that I’m very, very sceptical. Once bitten, like. Especially with these High Kings of Erin. They’re laughing at us, all the way to the bank.’

Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán nodded towards the green folder she had left on his desk. ‘Those drug-arrest statistics you asked for.’

‘Great. Thank you. I won’t be able to look over them today, though. The ransom money for both hostages is supposed to be handed over at eleven this evening. We have a hell of a lot of preparation to do in a very short space of time. We’ll be holding a general tactical meeting at thirteen hundred hours, so I’ll talk to you again then.’

He paused and smiled at her, and said, ‘Sorry if I’m stressed, Kyna. Thank you for fielding that call. Don’t worry. If we plan everything carefully, tonight may see the end of the High Kings of Erin.’

***

Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán was walking back along the corridor when the lift doors opened ahead of her and Katie stepped out.

‘Kyna,’ said Katie. ‘I was hoping to see you. I wanted to thank you for telling your dad about my suspension. His friend Gary Cannon called me and gave me some sound information. I can’t tell you all about it now, but I think it might make all the difference.’

‘You haven’t been in to see Molloy, have you, ma’am?’

‘No, not yet. I’ve just come back from a meeting with my solicitor and he’s advised me to say nothing at all to Molloy – or to Jimmy O’Reilly, either.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘Well, my solicitor is going to be getting in touch with the Ombudsman for me, requesting an urgent review. Other than that, all I can do is go home and watch TV. I just came in to the station to hand in my gun. Is Liam Fennessy in? I thought I’d try and get a quick update on the High Kings of Erin.’

Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán glanced up and down the corridor to make sure that nobody else was there and then she said, ‘There was a phone call for Inspector Fennessy, only about ten minutes ago. He wasn’t in his office so I took it. The fellow on the other end said he was Pat Whelan and that he and Eoghan Carroll had managed to escape from the High Kings of Erin.’

‘
Serious
? Do you think it was genuine, this call?’

‘It sounded like it to me. He said that he and Eoghan had got away and they were hiding somewhere, although he wouldn’t say where. He said he’d told his wife to leave home until the High Kings of Erin were caught. Eoghan had told his parents to do the same.’

‘And of course you told Inspector Fennessy?’

Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán nodded. ‘He came back almost as soon as I’d put down the phone. I don’t know why, but he seemed to be sure that it was only somebody wheeling me. Either that, he said, or else the High Kings of Erin were trying to make fools out of us again, like they did with Derek Hagerty.’

‘So what’s he going to do about it, this call?’ asked Katie.

‘Nothing at all, as far as I can make out. He’s having a meeting with Superintendent MacCostagáin right now about how they’re going to set up the handover of the ransom money this evening. He said he’d have a listen to the phone call after, but he didn’t seem to set much store by it.’

‘You mean he’s still planning to hand over the money even though there’s a chance that Pat and Eoghan could both have escaped?’

‘It looks like it. Unless he listens to the phone call and decides that it’s not mockeyah after all.’

‘I need to have a word,’ said Katie. ‘I don’t care if I’m suspended or not.’

‘Ma’am – ’ began Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán, but she could see that Katie was determined. She lifted both hands as if to say,
Go ahead, then, good luck to you so
, and watched as Katie walked briskly along to Inspector Fennessy’s office.

Katie knocked once, opened the door and walked straight in. Inspector Fennessy and Superintendent MacCostagáin were standing over a side table which had a large-scale map of Cork City spread out on top of it. They both looked at Katie in surprise and then they looked at each other, plainly at a loss as to how they should react.

‘As I understand it, Katie,’ said Superintendent MacCostagáin, ‘you shouldn’t officially be here. Not while you’re under suspension.’

He said it kindly, not as an admonition, shrugging his shoulders at the same time to make it clear that her suspension hadn’t been any of his doing and that he didn’t agree with it.

Inspector Fennessy said, ‘He’s right, I’m afraid, ma’am. This makes things kind of awkward, like, to say the least.’

Katie approached the table and looked down at the map. She could see that there were red circles and arrows and rectangles drawn around the English Market.

‘Is that where you’re going to hand over the ransom money?’ she asked.

‘I’m sorry, ma’am,’ said Inspector Fennessy. ‘I can’t tell you what the arrangements are.’

‘I’ve just been talking to Detective Sergeant Ni Nuallán,’ Katie told him. ‘She told me about the phone call she took from Pat Whelan.’

‘
Allegedly
from Pat Whelan, but I doubt very much if it was really him.’

‘Why do you doubt it? What makes you so sure that the call wasn’t genuine?’

‘With respect, ma’am, the High Kings of Erin have form when it comes to “escaped kidnap victims” – in inverted commas.’

‘Have you told Jimmy O’Reilly about the phone call? He’s ultimately responsible for all of that money, after all.’

‘Assistant Commissioner O’Reilly and Chief Superintendent Molloy are both insistent that we get the hostages released unharmed. The surest way to do that is to pay the ransom. We can worry afterwards about how we’re going to get the money back.’

‘Yes, but have you told them about the phone call?’

‘I will be, of course. At the moment the superintendent and I are working on how to keep tracks on the High Kings of Erin once they’ve been paid.’

Before Katie could answer, Detective O’Donovan appeared at the door. When he saw Katie his eyes darted from side to side as if he was uncertain whether he should say anything or not.

‘What is it, Patrick?’ asked Inspector Fennessy. ‘We’re right in the middle of things here.’

‘Bill Phinner’s just called me,’ said Detective O’Donovan. ‘They extricated the remains that were found under the road surface at Lisheens and brought them back to the lab. Well, he said that there was more asphalt than body, but they’ve managed to identify him. It’s a he, and he’s headless, and the saw marks on the neck match the saw marks on Micky Crounan’s head. So it was Micky Crounan all right.’

‘Do we know who laid the asphalt?’ asked Inspector Fennessy. ‘That wasn’t a small job, like, and it was professional. Somebody must know who did it.’

‘We’re working on it,’ said Detective O’Donovan. ‘Bill Phinner said they would have needed a roadroller as well as an asphalt paver. The body was pressed about as thin as a paperback book, that’s what he said. Even without its head it was over two metres tall and one point eight metres wide.’

Katie said nothing. Although she knew that Kilshane Tarmac had laid the asphalt, she still didn’t know who the informant inside the station was. She had a very small edge over everybody else involved in this investigation and she didn’t want to give it away just yet – at least until she was officially reinstated. It was significant, though, that the body under the road surface had been positively identified as Micky Crounan. That meant that the High Kings of Erin had arranged the body’s interment, and that increased the likelihood that Acting Chief Superintendent Bryan Molloy was somehow connected to them.

‘Okay, Patrick, thanks,’ said Inspector Fennessy. ‘I’ll see you at thirteen hundred so, at the tactical meeting.’

When Detective O’Donovan had gone, Katie said, ‘Liam, is it okay if I have a quick personal word with you in private before I go? You don’t mind, do you, Denis?’

‘Not at all,’ said Superintendent MacCostagáin. ‘I need to go to the jakes in any case. Too many cups of green tea this morning.’

He left and closed the door behind him. Inspector Fennessy went over to his desk and pulled out a chair so that Katie could sit down, but she stayed standing.

‘Is this about Caitlin?’ he asked her. ‘She hasn’t been bothering you again, has she? I can have a word with her if you like, although I’d rather not, to be honest with you.’

‘No, Liam,’ said Katie. ‘It’s not about Caitlin.’

‘You’re all right, are you, ma’am? You’re sorting out this suspension business? I know that O’Reilly had to do it, as a formality, but what a time to lose you.’

‘Don’t worry about my suspension, Liam. This is more important. I’m pretty sure now that I’ve worked out what’s happening here, with these High Kings of Erin, and who they are.’

‘Really?’ he said, frowning at her. He sat down at his desk and the pale grey light from the window reflected in his glasses so that she could no longer see his eyes.

‘I haven’t tied up all the loose ends yet and I’m not quite ready to take it to the GSOC, but you need to be aware of this – although how you’re going to handle it, I’m not entirely sure.’

‘Why would you want to take it the GSOC?’

‘Because I’m one hundred per cent certain now that the High Kings of Erin are the Duggan gang from Limerick. And I’m ninety-nine per cent certain that they’ve been able to get away with so much because Bryan Molloy is obstructing everything we’re doing to catch them.’

Inspector Fennessy said, ‘Molloy! Come on, ma’am. I know you’re allergic to Molloy. You have every reason in the world not to like him. I can’t stand the scobe myself. But why would he undermine his own investigation? It doesn’t make any sense.’

‘He’s undermining it because the Duggans are blackmailing him.’

‘What?’

‘You know that the Duggans and the Quaid family were at total war with each other for years before Molloy took over as superintendent?’

‘Of course. But Molloy stopped that war overnight. You don’t have to
like
the man to recognize that he’s one of the best cops that Limerick ever had. But what are they blackmailing him for?’

‘It was the way he stopped the war between the Quaids and the Duggans. He secretly paid one of the Quaids to kill Niall Duggan. It was a Garda-financed hit.’

‘You’re codding me. How did you find that out?’

‘It was Donie Quaid who did it. He’s been dead a few years now, but before he died he left a letter admitting that he was the killer. To cut a long story short, the Duggans found out about it only a few weeks ago – just before the High Kings of Erin arrived here in Cork, coincidentally, and “kidnapped” Micky Crounan – in inverted commas.’

‘That’s still no proof that Molloy is being blackmailed.’

‘You’re right, and that’s why I’m not quite ready to take it to the Ombudsman. But I have other evidence that Molloy set up a racket some time ago that was also called the High Kings of Erin. No gangs involved – it was all senior gardaí soliciting bribes in return for dropping criminal charges and for wiping penalty points off driving licences.

‘The Duggans must have known about this racket, which is why they’ve called themselves the High Kings of Erin, too. It’s deliberate mockery. They’re challenging the Garda to take action against them, but they know we won’t because too many high-ranking officers were involved in it.’