Broken Harbour

Scorcher and Richie talk about the motive they’ve identified: Conor was in love with Jenny. Richie isn’t convinced it is enough to be certain. He argues that Pat could have found out Conor was leaving Jenny presents, like the Jojo’s badge, and gotten angry.

They call Kieran, the computer tech, to see if he’s found anything else online. He sends a link to Pat’s postings about the animal on a home and garden website. His requests for advice indicate he was getting increasingly upset about it. He mentioned that Jenny hadn’t heard the animal, and Richie is concerned about what the posts suggest about Pat’s mental health, but Scorcher is less interested.

Scorcher goes home and is startled but relieved to find Dina there. They talk about their memories of Broken Harbour. Dina says she hated it, except for the fact that their mother was happy there. Scorcher says, “[Y]ou make it sound like you were already having problems” (341). She replies that her mental health issues preceded their mother’s death. He argues, suggesting that there would be no reason, but she responds that there doesn’t have to be; it is just the way she is.

Dina tells Scorcher she’s worried about him and the case’s effect on his mental well-being. He tries to get her to agree to go back to Geri’s, but she argues that she needs his support instead. He says he can’t give it to her, and she suggests that if he dumps her at Geri’s she might jump in the river. He finally loses his temper with her, and she leaves. She tells him to find her by the next night or he’ll “be sorry.”

Scorcher tries to calm himself and slips into memory. When his mother died by suicide, she had almost “taken Dina with her” (348). He remembers waking to find two bunks empty and a note from his mother that Dina was too young to be without her mother. He remembers searching for them on the beach with Geri and his father and finally finding Dina. Later, their mother’s dress was found in a fishing boat’s net. Scorcher went to identify it because their father couldn’t get out of bed. He recalls that Dina never said anything about what happened that night.

Scorcher surprises himself by not going to look for Dina. Instead, he goes into work and finds Richie calling pest control companies to substantiate Pat’s claims that he had called an exterminator. They also find signs of Pat on another website, this time a hunting forum. Another poster on that site suggested a serious trap and sent him a link. Richie and Scorcher talk about what it means that Pat selected a foothold trap, the least humane option. While waiting for it to arrive, Pat described the animal getting into the walls, and he said that he made the holes in the walls to try and see it.

Pat then posted that the trap arrived but didn’t catch anything. Another poster asked why he hadn’t used poison yet, and he said he needed his wife to see the animal so that she wouldn’t doubt his mental health. He eventually tried live bait—a mouse trap on a glue board—which completely disappeared without triggering the trap.

Richie and Scorcher decide they need to talk to Jenny. When they ask her about the break-ins, she downplays them because only minor things were missing or different. She didn’t tell Pat because she didn’t want to bother him. They ask about Pat’s state of mind, but she is evasive and finally asks the detectives to leave.

After they leave, they speculate on what she might be hiding. They wonder if the break-ins weren’t a big deal because she knew it was Conor. They wonder if she and Conor were having an affair. Richie asks if they should speak to Conor about it, but Scorcher says they need to talk to the Gogans again.

Scorcher is abrasive with Sinéad Gogan, insulting her intelligence and telling her that she has to tell them what she knows. She eventually says that sometimes the frequencies of the baby monitors got crossed, and she could hear things inside the Spains’ house. Most notably, she remembers a time when Jenny was talking to the children, telling them to be happy when Pat returned from a walk. It reminds Scorcher of the way an abused person talks. Sinéad also says she heard whistling in the house once, when the Spains weren’t home.

Richie and Scorcher interview Conor again. They ask about his relationship with Pat and Jenny; he describes his close friendship with Pat and how special Jenny was. The detectives ask what happened to their friendship, and Conor confirms it was a disagreement over them buying the house. He went to see the house with them right after they’d paid their deposit and asked if they were sure about it. Pat and Jenny both grew angry and yelled at him. Conor says he hadn’t seen the Spains since, but he had started to miss them when the economic downturn started and his freelance work dried up. He came to Brianstown to see how they were doing and watched them from a nearby house. He felt peaceful watching them, so he came back.

Conor describes starting to spend more time in the hide, finding the back door key, and entering the house when they were out. He describes how Pat changed after he lost his job but defends his friend, saying that he was still fine. He says that Pat still left the house but did like to be home to watch for the animal he thought was in the walls. Scorcher and Richie realize Conor shouldn’t have known about that by just watching. He says he listened at their kitchen window one night: They were talking about a trap not working, but it wasn’t an argument.

Scorcher and Richie suspend the interview and talk. Scorcher is pleased that Conor appears to have a motive, but Richie is still skeptical. Scorcher speculates that Conor could have been gaslighting Pat that there was an animal in the attic. Richie points out that isn’t the simplest solution, but Scorcher persists, suggesting that maybe Jenny was in on it as well.

When they go back in, Scorcher confronts Conor with the JoJo’s badge and asks how it got into the Spains’ house. He says he left it on the kitchen counter in the hope that Jenny would find it and know she wasn’t alone. They question Conor about the timing, and he finally admits that it was because Pat was getting worse, and Jenny seemed so lonely. He tells them that he left it on Sunday, the day before the murders.

Scorcher starts badgering Conor, accusing him of having an affair with Jenny and almost assaulting him. Richie steps in and continues questioning Conor. He suggests that Conor saw Pat attack Jenny from his hide and went to step in. Conor seems about to tell the truth, but then he shuts up again.