All Her Fault

The detectives arrive at Irene’s house. They tell her they are looking for the mother of Carrie Finch. Irene initially pretends not to know who that is, but she eventually admits to being Carrie’s mother. She tells them neither she nor Carrie’s father, Rob, has been in contact with her. She lies to the police that Rob is living in London, although she knows he lives in Co. Cork. She tells the detectives that Carrie was a “normal” child who had a “normal” childhood. She does not tell them about Kyle Byrde.

After they leave, Frank chastises Irene for not being more helpful. He is a middle-class, middle-aged bank employee who does not have the same hostile relationship to the police as formerly working-class Irene does. She tells him, “Only people who grow up in fancy houses like you did think you can [trust the police]” (122).

Jenny and Jacob go to Esther’s Tea Garden. That morning, the school told the children about Milo’s disappearance, and Jenny wants to make sure Jacob is alright. However, Jacob takes it in stride. Jenny recognizes Esther as the woman who helped Marissa the day Milo was kidnapped. Esther says she does not know why Carrie gave Esther’s address to Marissa. Esther tells Jenny not to feel guilty about hiring Carrie.

Jenny returns to the Irvine residence, Maple Lodge. She meets Brian, Peter’s brother, and Colin, Marissa’s business partner. Marissa asks for Jenny’s help getting the word out about Milo. Jenny advises Marissa to find a video of Milo to post on social media. Marissa begins to cry, looking at the video she has selected to post.

Peter tells Brian that their sister, Lia, is arriving from America on Saturday. Peter says Lia can stay at Brian’s house on their property. Brian rejects this idea because he is painting, and the fumes will bother Lia. Peter reluctantly agrees that Lia can stay in the main house. Jenny is struck by how bossy Peter is toward Brian. Jenny picks up some flyers and leaves.

Marissa feels “lost” after Jenny leaves. Her old friends came earlier to provide support, but she felt “they reminded her too much of life before this” (135), unlike Jenny, a relative “stranger.”

Detective McConville arrives. She has a child’s raincoat with her. Marissa recognizes it as Milo’s raincoat. McConville tells them it was found near the sea. They have sent out the coastguard to look for Milo. Marissa is shattered by the news.

Jenny returns home, shocked from having seen the detective entering Marissa’s house with the child’s raincoat. Adeline is there. Jenny tells Adeline and Richie that she met Esther. She remarks that Esther was very comforting and that Esther had told off the women at the café “giving [her] the evil eye” (139). Adeline comments that Jenny is somewhat to blame for Milo’s kidnapping, as she hired Carrie. Richie stands up for Jenny to his mother’s rudeness and tells his mother to leave.

After Adeline storms out, Richie and Jenny talk until Jenny gets a text from Mark. Richie goes to bed with a comment about how his work is “not as big a deal as your work” (140). Jenny reads Mark’s messages and thinks about how to dissuade him from pursuing her. Jenny turns on an American TV show called The Affair. The show features three brothers: Caleb, Cole, and Scotty. She realizes that Carrie lifted her life story from the show.

Two months earlier, at the school fundraiser, Jenny finds herself once again surrounded by “The Coven.” They tell her that Marissa and Peter “know everyone” and are very wealthy. They make snarky comments about Marissa’s plastic surgery, which she had done after “some kind of accident a few years ago” (144). They see Mr. Williams enter with his much-younger fiancée, May, who works at Rayburn Estate Agents. They note that May left her husband for Mr. Williams. 

Before she leaves the party, Marissa tells Jenny they must arrange a playdate for their boys.

Irene goes on Facebook to look for pictures of her ex, Rob Murphy, on Facebook. She sees a picture of him with a younger blond and assumes it is Sienna. She feels jealous that Rob is seeing someone. She notes that he seems to be doing very well for himself based on the pictures of boats, fancy cars, and the like. She compares Rob’s life with her own sagging looks and beautiful home. She wonders “when it all went wrong” (148).

Peter encourages Marissa to take a sleeping pill and relax, but she refuses. Ana arrives at the house. She is distressed. She tells Peter and Marissa that she was the reason Carrie knew Milo. She explains that she used to take Milo to the playground after school with Carrie and Jacob. Carrie asked a lot of questions about Marissa and Peter, and Ana became friends with Carrie. Carrie had bonded with Milo, which is why he willingly went with her after school.

Detective McConville arrives and questions Ana. Ana tells the detective Carrie asked a lot of questions about the Irvines’ work, including about Colin Dobson, Marissa’s partner. She reports she told Carrie about the family routine, including Milo’s food allergies (Marissa and Peter believe Milo might be allergic to shellfish because Peter has a shellfish allergy). Ana says she did not report her contact with Carrie to the police sooner because Carrie had told her that “police arrest people like me [foreigners] all the time” (159). Peter is furious with Ana.

Detective McConville gets a call. A witness saw a man throw Milo’s raincoat on the hill near the sea a few days ago. The police believe this was done to throw the police off the trail of the kidnappers by making it seem as if Milo had drowned. Marissa wonders about the kidnappers’ motives. She worries that Milo will be “trafficked and sold and abused” (162).

Irene goes shopping. Her card is declined. She is frustrated that her husband, Frank, does not give her a bigger allowance. In the store, she sees tabloids with pictures of Caroline and Milo on them. She decides to sell her story to a tabloid for some money.

Jenny and Marissa go out together to distribute flyers door-to-door. Jenny is struck by how much Marissa has changed over the course of this ordeal. Marissa had seemed so “friendly, confident, privileged” (169) when they first met, but Jenny realizes now her first impression did not account for Marissa’s inner strength. 

They knock on the door of Alex Fenelon. He owns a series of betting shops called Shamrock Sports. Marissa is a solicitor for his estate. He tells them he did not see anything on Friday afternoon or evening. He also reports that his wife, May, has left him for Mr. Williams. After they leave, Marissa comments that she finds Alex very unpleasant.

Jenny and Marissa knock on the door of an older man. He tells them he saw Milo and Carrie walking past on Friday. He did not report this to the police. He tells them Milo did not seem at all distressed. After they leave, Marissa becomes emotional thinking about her son being missing. Jenny embraces her and comforts her.

Marissa collapses onto the pavement. Jenny calls Peter from Marissa’s phone for help. Peter and Brian arrive to pick her up in the car. Brian tells his brother he will walk back to his own car. He says he has a meeting with a social media specialist at the pub at eight o’clock. 

Jenny walks back to her own car and heads home. As she approaches her house, she sees someone she thinks is Brian Irvine enter a show home in a nearby development. She wonders why he is there instead of at the meeting he had mentioned.

At home, Jenny reads more news coverage of the case. The online commenters are not kind to the Irvines. One notes that “if people looked after their own kids instead of farming them out to ‘nannies’ FFS, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen” (183). Jenny is disgusted by these comments.

On Thursday morning, Irene meets with a tabloid reporter named Faye Foster at a café. Faye tells Irene she is interested in pictures of Caroline as well as taking photographs of Irene herself. Faye asks about Caroline’s father, Rob, and his criminal record. Irene tells Faye that Caroline was “trouble” like her father. Irene makes derisive comments about Caroline’s love of writing poetry. She says Caroline did not have any friends at school because she was too “creepy.” 

When Faye presses Irene on why Caroline would resort to kidnapping, Irene makes up a story about Caroline being obsessed with a film about a missing child. Faye does not appear to find Irene very credible.

On Thursday morning, Jenny is at work. She reads the news to see if there are any updates on Milo’s case. She reads a news story about a dead man found in north Dublin, but there does not appear to be any news about Milo. She tells Mark about the strange interaction she had with Alex Fenelon. Mark tells her that there are rumors that the Shamrock Sports franchise is in trouble. Jenny tells Mark she has to leave early to pick up Jacob. Mark offers to help, but she thinks such an offer is “starting to sound like a thing people say” (193).

Jenny returns home. She sees her neighbor, Joe Downey, smoking outside. He tells her that he saw Carrie’s boyfriend, Kyle Byrde, enter the Kennedy home a few times. He did not tell the police because he does not trust them. Jenny resolves to tell them herself.

Two months before Milo’s kidnapping, Jenny wakes up hungover. She had too much to drink the night before at the school fundraiser. She comes downstairs to find Richie reading a note, which he quickly puts in his pocket after he sees her noticing it. He seems upset with her. She tells him she is going to work from home to spend time with Jacob. Richie makes a snide comment that she “should do it more often” because it would be “good for Jacob” (197).

Carrie seems surprised to see Jenny at the house in the morning. Jenny tells Carrie about meeting Marissa and their plans to arrange a playdate between Milo and Jacob. Carrie feigns a lack of interest.

Meanwhile, Marissa is telling Peter about meeting Jenny and her hopes that Milo and Jacob will be friends.

That afternoon, Carrie picks up Jacob from school. She returns home. She tells Jenny that she talked to Ana at school. Ana had asked for Jenny’s number so Marissa could arrange the playdate, and Carrie had given it to her.

On Thursday afternoon, six days after Milo’s kidnapping, Jenny picks Jacob up from school. He is upset because another boy at school told him that “Carrie is a baddie. That she tooked Milo and killed him” (202). Jenny tries to reassure him.

When she returns home, she is surprised to see that Richie is home early from work. She finds him frantically searching for something in his office. Jenny is frustrated that she had to take off early from work to pick up Jacob when Richie could have done so. She asks him, “Why is it always down to me to pick up the pieces when we have no childcare?” (204). They argue, and Jenny storms out. She wonders if Richie is resentful of her recent promotion, which has resulted in Jenny making more money than her husband.

Jenny gets a text from Marissa asking her to come over.

While driving to Marissa’s house, Jenny hears on the radio that the dead body found in South Dublin has been identified as Danny Vaughn. Jenny feels she recognizes the name from somewhere.

Jenny arrives at Marissa’s home at the same time as Colin. Peter tells them that they have learned an associate of Kyle Byrde’s was just arrested for child trafficking. The police have not yet found Kyle. Jenny tells Peter and Marissa that she learned from her neighbor, Joe Downey, that Kyle Byrde had been visiting Carrie at Jenny’s home. Peter is angry that Jenny did not mention it sooner. Jenny leaves.

Marissa asks Colin why he has come over. He tells her he needs the Downey and Fenelon files to complete the audits. She tells him she will go to the office and find the files he needs.

That evening, Marissa goes to the office with Peter. She explains to Peter that there is something odd about the Downey and Fenelon accounts. Peter helps her look for the files. He finds some pages behind the printer that seem to surprise him, but he does not tell Marissa what they are. Marissa puts out the Downey and Fenelon files for Colin.