Thank you guys for the lovely reviews on the last chapter :) Yes, John and Clara's date went well, but they shouldn't forget about the case, right?
Chapter 23
As he made his way into the police station the following Monday, the evening with Clara was still on his mind and it made him smile – namely that he had made her smile. No matter how often Clara claimed that she had found John's performance embarrassing, there was no way she could deny that she had enjoyed herself. And so had he. Maybe one day, Clara would tell him why she had really left London, but in the meantime, John was quite content just making her laugh because she seemed to need it as badly as he did.
However, what lay ahead of him was certainly no laughing matter. John knew that he couldn't possibly postpone the conversation any longer and the longer he waited, the more furious Kate would be because he had done something a detective should never, ever do. But the identity of the dead woman was revealed at last and he knew the reason for the note, so he had to tell his boss about it and he had to do it now.
Yet as he made his way towards Kate Stewart's office, John noticed her almost run up the corridor to meet him and whatever it was, it seemed a lot more urgent than his confession.
"I need you in the interview room right now," Kate announced when she had reached him. Instead of stopping to catch her breath, she instantly walked right back in the direction she had come from and John had no other choice but to follow.
"Why? What is it?" he wanted to know.
"It's the man you've described a few days ago," Kate replied breathlessly. "A couple of officers picked him up when he was having breakfast this morning. He agreed to talk to us."
"What are we waiting for then?" John shot back and sped up his pace. If he had to be completely honest, John had half expected the man to never show his face again. The fact that he was still on the island and that he was willing to talk to the police was exciting news, even though a voice in the back of his head urged him to keep calm. If he was here on his own free will, the man obviously felt like he had nothing to hide, but if he did, John would find out what it was.
"I heard you delivered quite the performance on Saturday," Kate said as they approached the interview room.
John's head shot around and noticed the smirk on her face. "Who told you?" he wanted to know.
Yet Kate merely shrugged. "You've been away for too long," she remarked, grinning. "Have you forgotten that there's always someone who knows someone who was there?"
John uttered a groan before they stepped into the interview room because he had indeed forgotten that nothing on this damned island went unnoticed. By now, half the people in the town would know he had been to the pub with Clara Oswald.
When he walked into the room, his focus shifted instantly. Inside the scarcely furnished space that held only a table and a couple of chairs, the man named Ciaran was already waiting and he smiled at them as they entered.
"Good morning," Kate greeted the man in a friendly manner. "Thank you for agreeing to talk to us."
"No problem," the man replied and by now, his self-satisfied smile was beginning to irritate John a little. He looked almost smug and he understood why Clara had been freaked out when the man approached her.
John watched Ciaran closely as Kate explained to him that their conversation would be recorded and Ciaran agreed to everything in a manner that made John think he didn't have a single care in the world. He seemed almost happy to talk to them.
"Of course," Ciaran said after Kate had finished. "I mean, I'd be happy to help in any way I can even though I doubt that what I'll say will be of much use. I've only just arrived here, really."
Kate seemed utterly oblivious to his creepy nature and smiled at him in return. If she noticed anything, she was doing a very good job at hiding her reaction. "Thank you," she said and started the tape recorder. "Let's start with your full name."
"Ciaran O'Neill," the man replied.
"And does the name Bonnie Moore mean anything to you?" his boss wanted to know.
Ciaran O'Neill considered his answer for a moment, as if he was making a point to look as if he was thinking hard about the question before he shook his head. "No, I don't think so."
"Are you sure?" John asked gruffly. He didn't believe it. There had to be a connection somewhere.
"Well, I don't memorise the name of every person I meet. It's possible that I know her, but it would be only a fleeting acquaintance."
"What about Clara Oswald?"
Again, the man shook his head. "No, never heard of her, sorry."
"You talked to her though," John replied in an accusatory tone and he leaned forward just a little to get a better look at Ciaran's reaction. "At the hardware shop."
It took him a moment, but eventually, his face lit up when he remembered the incident. "Oh, the pretty woman with the lock," he said. "Yeah, I remember. I talked to her, but I didn't know her name."
John frowned at him. "You just volunteered to help a woman you didn't know?"
At that, Ciaran O'Neill uttered a laugh. "Yeah, I mean, come on," he replied. "She was pretty and obviously in need of some help. I just thought I'd offer my advice. That's not a crime, is it?"
Bollocks, John thought but he knew better than to say it out loud. Something was off about this man and he would find out exactly what that was. But before he could say anything, Kate placed a photo on the table and pushed it in Ciaran's direction.
"Do you recognise Bonnie Moore now?"
Ciaran O'Neill picked up the photograph, a picture of Bonnie they had dug up during their research, and he looked at it for a long while. "She looks like the woman at the hardware shop," he noted after a few seconds and looked up at them. "It can't be the same woman, can it?"
"You asked me about her," John spat. "At the café, you walked up to me and asked me questions about the dead woman we had found. Why?"
The man shrugged. "I was curious," he replied simply. "Thought maybe I could use it."
"For what?" John demanded to know.
Ciaran O'Neill uttered a heavy sigh. "I came to this island to have some peace and quiet and to write a book. I thought maybe this case would inspire me."
"A book about what?"
He smiled in response. "I'm sorry, but I'd rather not say too much before it's finished. I mean, it's not even relevant. I don't know either of these women apart from when I briefly talked to her at the hardware shop."
John could tell that by now, the man was eager to get the discussion over with and judging by the look on Kate's face, she was fairly certain that it wouldn't lead anywhere, but John wasn't done just yet. He wasn't convinced by anything the man had told them. It was his smile, his strange smile, that made John think he knew something.
"You're not from here, are you?" John asked in a desperate attempt to keep the conversation going. "I mean, you don't have a local accent, you said you only got here recently. Why?"
"As I've said," Ciaran O'Neill repeated and his voice was dripping with impatience, "I came here to write a book. I'm from Belfast."
"Belfast. That's where Bonnie Moore grew up," John said. Finally, there was a connection. "Are you still saying you didn't know her?"
The smile had faded from the man's face entirely and was now replaced by a look of anger. "I don't know her," Ciaran replied sharply, almost spitting his answer back at John. "There are thousands of people living in Belfast, I don't know every single one of them. Maybe I went to university with her, maybe she worked at the café where I had lunch once, maybe she was the cashier in a supermarket where I bought my toilet paper. I can't say I've never met her because I don't know, but I don't remember her face or her name."
Kate Stewart sighed next to him. "Alright, I think we've heard enough," she said to John before she turned to face Ciaran. "I'm sorry that we took up so much of your time, but we appreciate that you came to talk to us."
The man nodded. "It's alright," he replied.
Even though John had his doubts, even though he still didn't believe Ciaran, even though the coincidences were too much for him to ignore, he knew that for now, there was nothing else he could do. Apart from having approached Clara at the hardware shop and having resided in the same city Bonnie had grown up in, there really wasn't any connection to the case that he could find right now. John needed to find out more, but for now, it seemed as if they had to let him go.
"Thank you for your time," Kate said sincerely and switched off the recording device. The interview was officially over and the smug smile was back on Ciaran O'Neill's face.