of her mother. They had the same wild red hair, the same dogged determination and the same healthy cynicism at times.
‘Dympna’s thinking about joining the guards,’ John chipped in. ‘She’s been coming to me for advice.’
Dympna raised her eyebrow. How easily the lie had slipped off her father’s tongue. She would have to up her game if she wanted to keep Roz’s predicament from her mother.
Ann’s face lit up with delight. ‘Ah sure that’s grand. You’ll make a great ban garda. Aren’t I always saying . . .’
‘They don’t call them that any more. It’s just garda,’ Dympna said, referring to her mother’s term for female police.
‘What does it matter?’ Ann said, reaching for a bottle of wine from the fridge. ‘It’ll be enough to wipe the smile off that old biddy next door.’ She poured herself a glass of white, looking more than a little smug. The jingle of a television ad filtered from the TV in the living room, momentarily distracting her.
Dympna sighed. ‘Don’t go telling everyone. There’s all sorts of exams to pass, and they might not even be taking on . . .’
‘They’re taking on.’ Her father paused to sip his tea. ‘If not now, soon. You won’t have long to wait.’
Dympna had enjoyed spending time with her father and was genuinely coming around to the idea of joining the police. But she had Roz to think of first. Everything else could wait. Her phone flashed with another missed call from Seamus. She couldn’t bring herself to speak to him right now.
‘I’ll leave you to it.’ Ann raised her glass in a salute. ‘Fair City is starting – they’ve got the wedding tonight. Something’s bound to go wrong!’
Dympna returned her smile. It was nice to have both her parents under the same roof for a change. If her mother wasn’t off event-planning, her father was usually at work. She waited for the audible click of the living room door before she leaned in towards him. ‘I’ve not been able to find any pregnant celebrities on my list. Have you had any joy?’
He nodded, sliding a folded piece of paper from the pocket of his jeans. ‘It took a while, but I managed to get some information from the Miracle-Moms site.’
‘That’s great,’ Dympna said, feeling a spark of hope. ‘Did they tell you who the mystery couple were?’
John shook his head. ‘I don’t have the justification nor the jurisdiction for that.’ He slid the paper across the plastic table cloth her mother had just wiped down. ‘The couple used fake names when talking to Roz. Here’s a printout of the last messages between them.’
Dympna hungrily scanned the page, her concern growing as she read:
Julie: I’m sorry to lay this on you at such short notice, but I can’t progress. I’m pregnant. It’s been a wonderful shock for us both.
Roz: Oh. Congratulations. That’s wonderful news. Don’t worry about me. I’ve got some other couples to talk to. Can I still use the hotel room?
Julie: Of course, that goes without saying! And please, have your meals and room service with my compliments too. Look after yourself while you’re over here. I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to help you interview the couples as I’d prefer to keep my identity private. I hope you understand.
Roz: No worries. Thanks a million for the hotel room. I’ll be grand. Congrats again on your baby. It’ll be lucky to have you as a mom.
‘Hang on a minute . . .’ Dympna jabbed at the printed page. ‘This isn’t right.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ John replied. ‘They were deleted from the main folder, although they were able to recover them easily enough.’
Dympna reread the messages, hearing Roz’s voice in her mind. But the voice in the emails was wrong.
‘Roz didn’t write that,’ Dympna said, a sick feeling rising in her throat. She knew that Roz was in danger. Now it was written in black and white.
‘It’s the use of the word “mom”, isn’t it? Very American. But the other words – “grand” and “thanks a million” . . . Whoever wrote this is trying to sound like Roz.’
She gazed at her father. ‘Will the NYPD investigate this?’
‘They’ll say it was a slip of the tongue. That Roz has been talking to this Julie so long that she’s repeating her words.’
‘But that’s not true,’ Dympna said. ‘When Roz left Dublin, she was a hundred per cent sure she was meeting this couple. Remember I told you that she rang me when she got there? She