‘The ladies of the night over in Monto aren’t usually good at holding on to money,’ Mallon mused. ‘God help them; it’s hard earned and easily spent.’

‘That’s true, chief,’ Swallow agreed. ‘But Nellie Byrne was a bit different. We know that she was associated with some of the Fenian lads. She’d turn up at Land League meetings. Mostly the ladies over there don’t give a toss for politics.’

‘Fair point,’ Mallon conceded.

‘She was close to Ces, so she’d have been known to all of Vanucchi’s gang going in and out of Ces’s house. So which of them might have known that Ces left her a bit of money? That’s the question,’ Swallow said.

‘Boyle’s got a dangerously high opinion of himself as a detective, but he isn’t often wrong in his information,’ Mallon said. ‘If he’s got a whisper that one of Vanucchi’s men killed her, it’s likely to be on the mark. So if we take Vanucchi in, what do we have on him to concentrate his mind, so to speak?’

‘I wouldn’t propose to take him in, at least not now.’

‘What then?’

‘I’d get more out of him in a quiet conversation with a bit of threat behind it. We tolerate a lot of his carry-on because we get a good flow of information from him. But I can tie him in to a score of burglaries in Rathmines and Rathgar where he fenced the proceeds. I can link him to the gang that robbed Morrison’s jeweller’s in Exchequer Street in September. I can line him up with a whole series of thefts down on the docks—furs, Scotch whisky, a consignment of Swiss watches bound for a jeweller’s in Grafton Street. So I think an informal discussion, if I can use the term, would be likely to concentrate his mind, to use your own phrase.’

‘But could you get convictions for him on any of those?’

‘With respect, chief, that’s beside the point. We might never get enough evidence before a court. But we could shift him out of his rather comfortable living arrangements and have him remanded to Mountjoy Prison for a year while his case is being prepared. He wouldn’t like that. Not one little bit.’

‘He’d try for bail,’ Mallon countered.

‘He could. But he wouldn’t get it with the character reference I’d put before the judge.’

Mallon smiled.

‘I could probably add a few lines to it myself. I agree. So go ahead and do it.’

Swallow stood to go.

‘Any follow up from the powers that be after our visit from Major Kelly and his merry men, sir?’

Mallon shook his head.