The fire trucks were lined up on the main road and traffic was being diverted. Lottie walked onto the site. The smell of smoke and soot choked the air. Lynch and Garda Gilly O’Donoghue had replaced Boyd and Kirby. Lynch looked worse than yesterday. Lottie was glad she didn’t have to face Boyd. The vodka she’d downed after her confrontation with Chloe was lodged in the pit of her stomach. The pill hadn’t helped either. No, she didn’t want to see Boyd.

She looked up to find Paddy McWard running at her like a bull at a matador. Tears streamed down his face, smeared by his blackened hands.

‘This is your fault. Your fucking fault, you pigs.’

‘Mr McWard, Paddy, I’m sorry …’ Lottie reached out to him but he swiped her hand away. He’d been nowhere to be found last night. How the hell had he accessed the site?

He kept ranting. ‘Don’t you dare say you’re sorry. Don’t even begin to talk to me. Pigs poking around brings nothing but trouble. My wife and my son. Dead. Mark my words, you’ll pay for this.’ He spat at Lottie’s feet, then turned swiftly and stormed back to the smouldering remains of his home.

She couldn’t bring herself to move until she felt a hand on her arm. Boyd.

‘I thought you’d gone home?’ She buried her chin in the collar of her jacket and her hands deep in her pockets.

‘Couldn’t sleep. Decided I’d be better employed back here.’ He dropped his hand.

Had he sidestepped away from her? Shit, her imagination was in overdrive. She turned her attention to the SOCOs. McGlynn and his team were moving about at the periphery of the site, waiting for the fire chief to give them the go-ahead.

‘What in God’s name happened here, Boyd?’ she said.

‘Revenge? For something Paddy was involved in?’

‘Or for Bridie talking to us?’

‘But she didn’t tell us anything that could point us to Elizabeth’s killer, and the body was found by accident. Don’t go blaming yourself for this.’

‘A mother and baby. Burned to death in their own home. I can’t get my head around it.’

‘Don’t even try until we have all the facts.’

‘She was only a kid herself.’ Lottie found herself thinking of Katie and Louis and the text she’d got earlier from her daughter, full of the joys.

The fire chief eventually gave the SOCOs the nod, and they began their work.

‘Is Jane Dore on the way?’ Lottie asked McGlynn.

‘We have to locate the bodies first.’

‘We’re not even sure anyone was at home,’ Boyd said with a shrug.

‘The husband says they were here and no one else has seen them since yesterday around five.’ McGlynn consulted soot-smeared notes. ‘I’m fairly certain we will find the remains.’

Lottie moved away, unable to witness the sight of Paddy kneeling on the wet ground outside the inner cordon, keening. She thought of the young woman who had come to the station and had then suffered an assault in her own home. Bridie, so beautiful, articulate and intelligent. Was Paddy correct in his assessment? Had his wife made herself a target by speaking to the guards? She hoped not, otherwise they’d have a whole new scenario to consider.

She turned to Boyd. ‘It must be something Paddy’s involved in. And if that’s the case, much as I hate to say it, we need to hand it over to another team.’

‘Don’t go making any assumptions yet. McMahon will have his say on it.’

‘Oh no. I’d forgotten we have to pick him up before we head to Rochfort Gardens.’

She instructed Lynch to keep Paddy McWard in her sight at all times and to notify her if McGlynn had anything to report. ‘And then find Matt Mullin. I’m sick of waiting for him to crawl out from under a stone when all the time he could be behind this … this … catastrophe.’

She shoved her hands into her pockets in exasperation. Or for fear that she might hit someone?

As they made their way out, the hoses were being rolled up and the fire crews were packing away their equipment. A train rumbled and slowed down on the tracks behind the site, making its way into town.

‘Still no sign of Mollie Hunter?’ Lottie asked.

Boyd shook his head and walked ahead. ‘And I’ve yet to get Wednesday evening’s CCTV footage from the train station. Shit.’

It was going to be another one of those days.