Chapter 8 - THE BROTHER BURIED WITHOUT ANSWERS
Declan Gallagher had been twenty-six when his brother Liam died.
Liam was twenty-two.
He had worked at the waterfront.
Wanted to become a mechanic.
Hated the family business.
And believed Declan could still choose a different life.
One winter night, Liam disappeared.
Three days later, his body was found near an abandoned warehouse.
Police ruled his death a homicide.
Nobody was convicted.
Declan spent years searching for answers.
Then he stopped.
Not because he forgot.
Because he believed the people responsible were dead.
Mave listened quietly.
They were sitting in a small diner far from the harbor.
Declan stared into his coffee.
“Anthony told me Liam had been killed by a rival crew.”
Mave looked at him.
“And you believed him?”
“He was my friend.”
She nodded.
Declan continued.
“Anthony helped me find the body. Helped arrange the funeral. Stayed with my mother when I couldn't.”
His voice grew rough.
“He stood beside me at the grave.”
Mave's heart tightened.
The metal tag found at the Copper Anchor matched equipment used at the abandoned warehouse where Liam's body had been discovered.
Investigators began reviewing the old case.
A retired detective remembered something unusual.
Liam had been carrying a notebook when he disappeared.
The notebook was never recovered.
But an evidence photograph showed a torn page in his jacket pocket.
The page contained three names.
One was Patrick Voss.
Another was Anthony Rourke.
The third was unfamiliar.
MARGARET DUNLEVY.
Mave stopped breathing.
Her mother.
Declan looked at her.
“Do you know why her name would be there?”
Mave shook her head.
“No.”
But she remembered something.
When she was eleven, her mother had brought home a badly injured dog.
A large black animal.
Terrified of men.
Covered in scars.
She had named him Shadow.
Shadow lived with them for six years.
He slept beside Mave's bed.
Protected her from nightmares.
And panicked whenever someone whistled three short notes followed by one long note.
Mave looked at Declan.
Her voice shook.
“I think my mother knew your brother.”
Declan stared.
May you like
Then she added:
“And I think she rescued a dog from the same people who trained Brutus.”
