The front door of Colin’s house opened and he appeared. Head still down as she had last seen him in the courthouse, his chin on his chest. Kitty’s heart hammered wildly and she realised she couldn’t do it. She turned and walked away quickly, hat low over her face, feeling once again an interloper in Colin’s life.
Not one of her voicemails was returned. Those she had called hadn’t answered, or weren’t home, messages were to be passed on but she couldn’t be sure if they would be. Besides, increasingly people screened their calls and refused to answer if they didn’t recognise a number or it was withheld. Kitty decided that the best way to approach this story was not to contact all one hundred names via the telephone but to try a face-to-face approach.
On day one of her personal visits she went to Sarah McGowan’s address in Lucan, a ground-floor red-brick block of flats built in the seventies, which looked like it belonged in a retirement community. The balcony door opened beside her at the front door to the flats and a woman in her twenties in a nurse’s uniform stepped out.
‘Are you Sarah McGowan?’
The girl looked her up and down. Made a decision. ‘She moved out six months ago.’
Kitty couldn’t hide her disappointment.
‘No jobs for her here,’ the nurse shrugged, ‘which I understand, but she was supposed to give me three months’ notice. Which she didn’t.’
‘Where did she move to?’ Kitty asked hopefully.
‘Australia.’
‘Australia!’
‘Victoria, I think. Or at least that’s where she went first. She had friends out there working on a watermelon farm. They got her a job picking watermelons.’ The nurse rolled her eyes.
‘I don’t know, that sounds kind of fun,’ Kitty said, thinking picking watermelons on the other side of the world would be quite the remedy for her situation right now.
‘For a qualified accountant?’
Kitty took her point. ‘Do you have her new number?’
The nurse shook her head. ‘We weren’t exactly friends. She set up a forwarding address with the Post Office and I sold her crap on eBay. The least she could do for me.’
‘Do you know her friends or family?’
The girl gave Kitty a look that answered everything.
‘Thanks for your help.’ Kitty backed away, knowing there was nothing more she’d get from this girl.
‘Hey, are you that woman?’
Kitty stopped. ‘Depends which woman you mean.’
‘The TV woman. From Thirty Minutes.’
Kitty paused. ‘Yes, that’s me.’
‘You left a message on my phone.’
It didn’t warrant a response.
‘I’ve never seen your show. I just know you from the court case.’
Kitty’s smile faded.
The girl seemed to think about it. ‘She’s a good girl, you know. Sarah. Despite what I’ve said about her. Don’t do anything horrible on her.’
‘I won’t.’ Kitty swallowed and made her way out of the quiet apartment complex. Perhaps she would use the name Kitty in future after all.
On the bus to her next destination, Kitty tried to ignore the parting words of the previous exchange by making notes in her notepad.
Story Theory: People who’ve had to move abroad.
Recession story?
Kitty hoped that wasn’t the case. She’d had enough of those stories – the media was inundated with the subject – and unless the situation was unique, she knew Constance had believed the same.
She stared out of the bus window. She had hoped to follow the list in the exact order Constance had catalogued the names, but as Kitty was cold calling door to door, and hadn’t use of a car, she had decided to start with the Dublin addresses first. Sixth on the list, but second on Kitty’s, was Bridget Murphy.
Number 42 was a terraced house in Beaumont, with nothing in particular to distinguish it from the line of identical pebble-dash houses on that row, opposite it, or around the maze that made up the estate. In an effort to inject colour into the estate some homeowners had painted their houses, though they clearly hadn’t pulled together. There were clashing lemons and oranges, snot greens beside mint greens, pretty pinks beside unpainted murky pebble dash. The house number was displayed as a novelty happy-faced sticker on the wheelie bins out by the front gate, the driveway was littered with abandoned toys and bikes, but there was no car inside the gates or outside on the path. It was 5.30 p.m., people were returning from work and the evening was already closing in. Next door an old woman was sitting at her front door on a kitchen chair catching the last of the evening sun. She was wearing a knee-length skirt, thick tights on her bumpy bandaged legs, and tartan slippers on her feet. She watched Kitty closely and nodded at her when she caught her eye.
Kitty rang the doorbell to Bridget Murphy’s house and stepped down from the doorstep.
‘They’re having their dinner,’ the old woman said. On Kitty’s displaced interest in her, she continued, ‘Chicken curry. They always have it on Thursdays. I can smell it in my house every week.’ She ruffled up her nose.
Kitty laughed. ‘You’re not a fan of chicken curry?’
‘Not of hers, I’m not,’ she said, looking away from the house as if the very sight of it offended her. ‘They won’t hear you out here, they’re a noisy lot.’
Kitty could hear that from where she stood. It sounded like there was an army of squealing kids dropping knives and clanging glasses. She didn’t want to be rude by ringing again, particularly as she was disturbing a family dinner and she had the old woman as her audience.
‘I’d ring again if I were you,’ the neighbour said.
Happy to receive permission, Kitty pressed the doorbell again.
‘Who are you looking for anyway? Him or her? Because he’s not in, doesn’t get home until seven most days. A banker.’ She rolled up her nose again.
‘I’m here to see Bridget.’
The old woman frowned. ‘Bridget Murphy?’
Kitty checked her notepad again even though she had memorised practically the entire list, but she did that now, checked everything twenty times and then still wasn’t sure.
‘Bridget doesn’t live there any more,’ the old woman said just as the front door opened and a flushed-looking mother of the army stared at a confused Kitty.
‘Oh. Hello,’ Kitty said.
‘Can I help you?’
‘I hope so. I’m looking for Bridget Murphy but I’ve just learned that she might not live here any longer.’
‘She doesn’t,’ the old woman said. ‘I told you that. I already told her that, Mary.’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ the mother said, ignoring the old lady.
‘See?’
‘Do you know how I could contact Bridget?’
‘I don’t know Bridget at all. We bought the house last year but perhaps Agnes here could help.’
Kitty apologised for disturbing her dinner, the door closed and they heard Mary’s ironic shout for silence rattle through