Back at the station, Boyd checked in with Superintendent Corrigan, who had activated a district-wide search for Lottie. He left Corrigan on the phone to McMahon, who was at the hospital trying to extract further information from the recovering Lorcan Brady.

Pulling off his suit jacket, Boyd said, ‘So, Kirby, what’s this information you have?’

‘Number one, you need to check those printouts on your desk. They came in via your email yesterday. I got Lynch to print them off but forgot to tell you.’

‘I’ll have a look in a minute. What’s number two?’

‘After we got Tessa and Mick’s birth certificates, the boss told me to find out if the Belfields had any kids.’

‘Go on.’

Kirby chewed on the end of his e-cig, twirling it from one side of his mouth to the other as he searched his desk. ‘I got the Belfields’ marriage cert. Guess what Kitty’s name was before she married Stan Belfield?’

‘O’Dowd?’

‘Nope. King.’

‘King?’ Boyd rushed over to Kirby’s desk and took the page from him. ‘Any relation to Carrie King?’

Kirby held up another page. ‘Kitty King had a child before she was married, called Carrie. Born out of wedlock, as they used to say.’

Boyd said, ‘What happened to Carrie?’

‘Have a look at the printouts on your desk. Records from St Declan’s Asylum.’

Boyd sat down and scanned through the documents, his mind swirling with thoughts of Lottie. God, he hoped she was okay.

‘Carrie King was in and out of St Declan’s for most of her life,’ Kirby said.

Looking up, Boyd said, ‘These are just for the seventies. How do you know she was in and out all her life?’

‘I rang the HSE records office, pulled in a few favours. They’ve emailed me the relevant pages. From what I can see, Carrie King was incarcerated in that hellhole in the sixties until she was nineteen and on two other occasions in the seventies. I’ve also traced that she lived in the cottage that was burned down the other day.’

‘Let me get this straight,’ Boyd said. ‘Kitty Belfield was Carrie’s mother. So did Tessa help cover up Carrie’s indiscretions? If so, she was paid in land by the Belfields. Kitty did say land was currency.’

‘And Marian Russell’s mother was Carrie and Mick O’Dowd was her father.’

‘Therefore O’Dowd was Emma’s grandfather,’ Boyd said.

‘That’s the way it looks,’ Kirby said.

‘But signing over all their land in payment?’ Boyd scratched his head. ‘What exactly did Tessa have to do?’

‘Look at the two entries I’ve highlighted in the St Declan’s records.’

Boyd flipped over the page. ‘Carrie was signed into St Declan’s in 1973 by Tessa Ball and… Jesus, Kirby!’

‘I know. The town sergeant. Lottie’s dad, Peter Fitzpatrick. Read on.’

‘Signed out by Peter Fitzpatrick and Kitty Belfield. Okay, so she spent a couple of months inside that time.’

‘Yes. Having already spent most of her childhood there. Now read on.’

‘Another order was signed by Tessa Ball in November 1974 and Carrie was sectioned again. No record of a release date. Why?’

‘She tried to burn down the cottage with her twins inside,’ Kirby said.

‘Jesus, Kirby, this isn’t straightforward at all.’ Boyd marched around the office, pulling at his chin. ‘Last night we found an old file in Moroney’s house. The name on the cover was Peter Fitzpatrick. Maybe it relates to the incarceration of Carrie King. Carrie gave birth to Marian. And now you say she also had twins. What happened to them?’

Kirby checked his notes. ‘I don’t know. I’ve just had a chat with my old friend Buzz Flynn and he told me they were born about a year after she was released from St Declan’s the first time.’

Boyd shook his head. ‘This is a bit of a minefield, isn’t it?’

‘Yup.’

‘I think the Belfields, because they were well off, thought they were above placing Carrie in a mother-and-baby home.’

‘And the asylum was the lesser of two evils?’

‘Seems that way. They were prepared to shed their wealth to keep their family lunacy hidden.’

‘But why?’ Kirby said.

‘This was the early seventies. Things were different then. Rich families didn’t like to have their dirty linen washed in public.’

‘So they locked away their shame in the asylum.’

‘Did Kitty have just the one child? Carrie.’

‘Nope,’ Kirby said, and waved another page. ‘After she married Stan, she had another daughter—’

The door pushed open and McMahon rushed in. ‘Brady’s been talking.’

‘We’re in the middle of sorting this mystery out,’ Boyd said, without raising his head.

‘Yes, but you’re going to want to hear this. I know who killed Tessa Ball and abducted Marian Russell.’ McMahon shoved his hands into his pockets and stuck out his chest.

‘Lorcan Brady and Jerome Quinn?’

‘They killed no one. They were paid to abduct the two women. But the person who was bankrolling them, that’s who did the killing.’

‘Go on then, tell us,’ Boyd said.

‘You’re not going to believe it…’