Unti Lucy Black Novel #3 by Brian McGilloway Page B

itself was attached, via further pipes, to a machine next to it, which thudded mechanically every few seconds as it pumped fluid into the body.
    Behind the chemical stench of the room, which burned at Lucy’s nostrils, she could smell iron.
    â€œYou’re not to—­” Ciaran Duffy appeared behind her, obviously having been in the other room. Lucy turned to see the man, wearing an apron and face mask, carrying a long T-­shaped metal object. Involuntarily, she raised her hand, stepping back.
    Duffy looked at the object in his hand and quickly put it on the table next to the body. “It’s a . . . don’t worry, it’s only a trocar. We use it for . . . well, you don’t want to know. You shouldn’t be here. Did my father tell you to come down here?”
    â€œYour father’s upstairs,” Lucy said. “I want to speak to you again about Stuart Carlisle.”
    Duffy moved past her, his voice sullen. “That again? I told you, I don’t know what happened. I left here and went to Belfast with him. They must have made a balls-­up with the bodies in All Hallows.”
    â€œYou left here at 2 p.m.? As soon as the ser­vice was finished?”
    â€œYes.”
    Lucy took out the picture of the girl. “Who is she?”
    â€œI don’t . . .” Duffy glanced at the stairs beyond, his expression hard to read behind the mask he wore. “She’s a friend. My girlfriend.”
    â€œWhat’s her name?” Lucy asked.
    â€œWhy? What difference does it make?”
    â€œShe was with you when you took the remains of Mr. Carlisle to Belfast, is that right?”
    Duffy nodded.
    â€œYou left here at 2 p.m.?”
    â€œI told you that already.”
    â€œYou reached the other side of the Glenshane at 4:33 p.m.,” Lucy said. “Which means it took you two and half hours to make a journey that should have taken one.”
    Duffy reddened, but still did not remove his face mask.
    â€œThat would have given you plenty of time to swap over one body with the other.”
    â€œI don’t know what . . . Look, I honestly . . . I don’t know what happened.”
    â€œWhere were you for that hour and a half?” Lucy persisted, moving closer to Ciaran who, in turn, backed up against the table, inadvertently putting his hand on the shoulder of the remains which lay there.
    â€œI was . . . we were shagging, all right?” Duffy said. “I stopped at Lisa’s house and we had sex. I’d told her I was going to Belfast and she said she wanted to go shopping. I said I’d pick her up. I called at the house, we went to bed, had a shower, and then left. That’s it.”
    â€œWhat’s her name?” Lucy asked, taking out her notebook.
    â€œLisa Kerns,” Duffy said.
    â€œWhere was your van while you were in her house?”
    â€œParked in her drive,” Duffy said.
    â€œWhich is where?”
    â€œClearwater, over in the Waterside.”
    Lucy knew it. It was a housing development that ran down to the river’s edge.
    â€œWould anyone have had access to it?”
    Duffy shrugged. “I locked it, so they shouldn’t have had. I wasn’t keeping an eye on it to be honest so, you know . . .” His voice trailed off as he looked at Lucy.
    â€œI’ll have to check that story with Lisa.”
    â€œYou can’t tell her I said we were . . . you know. She’ll be angry at me telling.”
    â€œI’ll be discreet,” Lucy said.
    â€œOkay,” he said without conviction, seemingly unsure what “discreet” meant.
    â€œWhy didn’t you tell us this the last day? You could have saved us a lot of time.”
    â€œMy dad would have gone nuts.”
    â€œWhat age are you?” Lucy asked.
    â€œI’m twenty-­two,” Duffy said.
    â€œYou’re old enough to have sex.”
    â€œI met Lisa here. We