Stop Dead (DI Geraldine Steel)

a few hours. A hire car was waiting for her at the end of her short flight. She set off to the small town where her father had settled, about fifty miles from Shannon airport. She drove along a well maintained motorway, bypassing the city of Limerick, and turned North towards her destination. Reaching her father’s small town, she gazed appreciatively at the picturesque scene that spread out in front of her.

     
    The town had grown up on two banks of a river beside a large lake. The square tower of a church appeared above the trees behind her. In front of her a row of boats bobbed gently up and down in a marina on the lake. Before going to her hotel, she parked the car and explored the streets on foot. It didn’t take long to do a circuit of the main roads on her side of the river. Traffic lights on either side of a narrow bridge allowed cars to cross singly, in one direction at a time. Even with little traffic on the roads, there were a few cars waiting to cross. She dreaded to think what the queues must be like at busy times. But gazing around, she wondered if the place was ever busy, it appeared so sleepy and quiet. A few people sauntered in and out of the shops, occasionally stopping to greet one another on the pavement. No one seemed to be in a hurry.

     
    There were several pubs offering accommodation in the town, but only one hotel. Studying the choices online, she had plumped for the most expensive option. Catching sight of the hotel from the bridge, she was pleased with her choice. With landscaped gardens leading down to a marina, and windows facing out over the lake, the setting couldn’t be more beautiful. Her pleasure was complete when she checked in and was shown to a spacious room with large windows overlooking the lake. No wonder her father had chosen to spend the rest of his life here.

     
    Although he had been married to Molly for longer than he had been with Geraldine’s mother, she had never met her father’s second wife. Soon after they met, Molly had taken him back to the town where she had lived as a child, and they never left. Celia and Geraldine had ignored his letters, begging them to visit him. Without mentioning his name, it was clear their mother would regard any contact with him as a betrayal. Even now, Geraldine had been reluctant to tell Celia when she decided to visit Ireland. In the end, she had merely told her sister she was going away for a few days. She hoped Celia wouldn’t realise her trip coincided with their father’s birthday celebration.

     
    ‘Where are you going?’
    ‘I haven’t decided yet. I’m due some time off –’
    ‘You can say that again!’
    ‘And if I don’t take it soon there’ll be another investigation and then I’ll never get away.’
    ‘It sounds like a good idea. You could do with a break from all those dead bodies! Tell you what, do you fancy going somewhere together? Just for a few days. One of my friends knows this fabulous retreat …’
    It sounded wonderful, but Geraldine had her own plans.
    ‘Not this time.’
    ‘Don’t tell me you’re going with someone else?’ Celia wanted to know. ‘You dark horse. There’s a man involved, isn’t there?’
    Geraldine sighed. In a way, Celia was right. But she didn’t suspect the man was their father.
    ‘No, I’m not going with anyone else. I really need some time to myself right now. It’s a great idea to do something together, just not right now. Let’s do something together soon.’

     
    The woman at the door had grey hair and sad blue eyes. She smiled nervously when she saw Geraldine on the doorstep, and greeted her by name as though they weren’t strangers.
    ‘You must be Molly,’ Geraldine responded.
    She tried to inject as much warmth into her voice as she could. She hadn’t travelled all this way to be hostile to the woman her father had fallen in love with over twenty years ago.
    ‘I brought you these.’
    ‘Thank you, they’re beautiful.’
    The flowers between them resolved any awkwardness about whether they should shake hands or attempt an embrace.

     
    Geraldine’s overriding feeling on seeing her father was sadness; he looked so old. She could have passed him in the street without recognising him. It was odd to think that he hadn’t been much older than she was now when he had left her mother for Molly nearly a quarter of a century ago. She looked for the father she remembered in the old man rising stiffly from his chair to greet her. Everything about his