Neighbourhood Watch

By Gemma Bolger

Neighbourhood Watch is based on family dynamics and lifelong repercussions of decisions and actions made in youthful haste. Self-preservation and maintaining a good public image are strong motives throughout the book. Such incentives can lead even the most upstanding people to deception and reveal a darker side, if only to themselves.

Although the main characters differ greatly, they are all linked by events from the past. Neighbourhood Watch explores the danger of putting misplaced trust into institutions or their representatives, for this trust can be manipulated and used to the advantage of those it is placed in. Within the story, there is a heavy focus on the humanity of people and how they deal with a set of circumstances they may have no control over. There is an underlying current that is deconstructed – that a confident woman is seen as almost arrogant and untrustworthy, and is not to be given the benefit of the doubt.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Oct 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781398474642

Gemma Bolger

Having received great interest and positive feedback from the readers of her first two books, Relatively Distant and Neighbourhood Watch, Gemma was encouraged by the appetite of her readers for a third book. With this in mind, she embarked on the final instalment of what she now refers to as ‘The Emma Series’. As with the two previous books, Staying Relevant is the final book of a trilogy, but is also a standalone book, with its own story to tell. Again, her home county is all the inspiration needed for the location of Staying Relevant. Waterport resonates with most people that live in a close-knit community, that sometimes feels like everybody knows each other.

Book preview

About the Author

Having already enjoyed success and great positivity with her first book, Relatively Distant, this is Gemma’s second book and she is happy to expand her writing whilst thoroughly enjoying the whole experience. Relatively new to the world of book publishing, she has previously enjoyed the genre of short story writing and seeing her work in print. Gemma resides in southern Ireland and is lucky to claim the beautiful county of Waterford as her home. Indeed she takes great influence from her home town and this can be seen in her writing.

Dedication

To the memory of my late father, Frank Walsh and my late sister Catherine (Blossie) Horgan, both avid readers.

Copyright Information ©

Gemma Bolger 2022

The right of Gemma Bolger to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398474635 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398474642 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2022

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

Firstly, to my husband Pat and my sons, Patrick, Joseph, Seán and Darragh, thanks for all your enthusiasm and interest. To family and friends, and the local book community, whose positivity and encouragement has meant a great deal to me, a big thank you. For the constant supply of beautiful notebooks for when inspiration strikes, I’d like to thank my sister-in-law, Joanne Stevens.

I would also like to thank the staff of Austin Macauley publishing house who have only ever been courteous and a pleasure to deal with. Finally, a heartfelt thanks to my readers who have taken a chance on a new writer and have given their time to read my first book, Relatively Distant. I hope they enjoy this one.

Prologue

‘Waterport News’

February 11th, 2020.

News In Brief

FINED FOR BEING DRUNK AND IN POSESSION OF DRUGS

A Waterport man was fined at Waterport District Court after he was arrested for being intoxicated in a public place and being in possession of a small amount of cannabis herb for personal use. Paul Lombard with an address at 10 Belleview Park was arrested on December 21st, 2019, at 12.15am at the car park of Ryan’s Bar, Waterport town centre.

Garda Doyle said himself and Garda Brown arrived at the scene and engaged with the defendant, who has no previous convictions. He was intoxicated and became very aggressive with them. He was arrested for his own safety, as the Gardai were concerned that his intentions were to drive home as he was waving his car keys around and was attempting to access his vehicle.

Solicitor Don Long said his client apologised to Gardai for his behaviour on the night in question and continually denies any knowledge as to how a pouch of cannabis herb came to be in his jacket pocket.

Judge Ciara Donnelly said she would take into account the defendant’s clean record and the fact that he has never previously come before the courts. However, she accepted the defendant’s claim that he had been set up about the cannabis, as he had no previous record of drug use. She acknowledged his long history with the force and his unblemished career. Going on to say that she saw no reason for disqualifying him from driving, as he never got behind the wheel of his car. She also considered his full co-operation with the Gardai and decided to show him leniency.

Paul Lombard was fined 500 euro and was given two months to pay.

The old lady folded the newspaper in such a way as to display the newspaper report on the countertop. She can’t say she wasn’t disappointed. She had hoped for a much bigger headline possibly on the front page. As for Paul Lombard’s punishment, she was totally disgusted – as usual he had fooled everybody and charmed his way out of it. Just his luck to get a female judge!

All she could do was make sure that as many people as possible saw the newspaper report – she would leave as many copies of it around the place as possible to ensure nobody forgot about it for a long time.

Chapter One

March 2019

The Elephant in the Room

Who the does your woman think she is? Emma snarled to herself. She was standing inside the bar counter, slicing lemons furiously. Her mother Rosie was used to Emma’s outbursts and took a deep breath before asking her who she was talking about.

Margo Finn, that’s who, she has summoned us all to a meeting tonight as if we can all just drop everything and come running when she feels like it! came the abrupt reply. Rosie knew better than to pursue the subject. Margo was the type of woman that Emma would not usually choose to be in a WhatsApp group with. It was Rosie that had persuaded Emma to join the newly formed Neighbourhood Watch group and now was wondering if it was a good idea. Emma didn’t like authority figures, especially self-appointed busy bodies like Margo. Rosie had told Emma it would be good business for the pub, if they showed an interest in the local community, their way of giving back. What Rosie thought and didn’t say to her was that it might make people more comfortable around Emma if she was more community minded and generous with her time. Ever since she was under suspicion for the stabbing of that priest in St. Patrick’s church, people had become a little more distant not just with Emma, but with Rosie also, as if she knew something and wasn’t letting on. The accusations against Emma didn’t amount to anything, as the evidence was purely circumstantial, but mud sticks. As nobody was ever brought to justice for the murder, the accusations still hung in the air. Words unsaid can weigh heavily in the atmosphere.

That was almost a year ago now and business had slackened off since then. At first when the news broke that Emma was the main suspect, there was an unexpected surge in business. It had taken Rosie a while to realise that the new faces in Ryan’s pub were journalists and day-trippers wanting a glimpse of where the murder suspect, her Emma, worked. A few of Rosie’s regulars had been sheepish around her for a while, and finally admitted that they had unwittingly been talking to reporters about Emma after they had a few rounds bought for them. In all honesty she believed them when they said that they only said good things about Emma and that they didn’t believe that she would hurt a fly. Thinking back over that crazy time, the only person Rosie worried about was Paul Lombard. She remembered seeing him in the pub carpark in deep conversation with some reporters, he was an old flame of Emma’s, now he might be one with an axe to grind.

Emma had ended it with Paul years earlier. Emma had said that he was emotionally immature, and he wasn’t used to being rejected by women. His jealousy was too much for Emma and she didn’t have the patience to pander to any man, it was only in the last couple of months that Emma had allowed him back into Ryan’s, he was married now, and his wife Clara seemed nice enough. Emma felt sorry for Clara, as she always seemed to be walking on eggshells around her husband.

Once the flurry of business in the first few days around Emma’s arrest was over, business had taken a nosedive and was still not back to its normal level of trade. Young families were not coming in for the carvery at the weekends like they used to. Rosie had to turn a deaf ear to the drunken shout whispers that circulated the bar when people thought she was out of earshot. If she had a euro for every wisecrack about not letting Emma near the carvery knives and wondering if the chef had noticed any of his knives missing, she wouldn’t have to worry about the pub losing money.

Emma seemed to take all the accusations in her stride, it amazed Rosie how resilient Emma had been about being arrested for such a horrible crime and getting over the death of Essie, her half-sister so quickly. In her darker moments Rosie had contemplated asking Emma is she knew anything about the priest’s murder, but ultimately decided against saying anything. Rosie knew there would be no coming back from that. It must be just a coincidence that the murdered priest was the same one that arranged Emma’s adoption all those years ago. Rosie shuddered as she started to unload the giant dishwasher and felt guilty for wondering if Emma could do such a thing.

Emma knew the real reason that Rosie had pushed her into joining the Neighbourhood Watch group, and although she let on it would be good for business. It was more to do with getting people to accept her as a human being and not a monster. She knew everybody thought she was a bit odd and that referring to her mother as Rosie was strange. The pub regulars knew it was because she had been adopted as a baby and only came to know Rosie when she was grown up. Emma wasn’t really bothered anyway about what people