Vanucchi sipped at his Power’s. His expression seemed to be one of genuine surprise, Swallow reckoned.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr Swallow. I told you, Nellie was good to Ces. But I don’t know anythin’ about money bein’ left to her. I swear it.’

Swallow grimaced.

‘Well, Charlie, someone took the view that they were entitled to whatever Ces had left behind. So you’d best come up pretty fast with a candidate. I’m under pressure from Chief Mallon to present a result on this. So go and find out. Then let me know.’

Vanucchi shook his head.

‘I don’t know. I can only do me best, Mr Swallow. But it’ll take a bit o’ time. If you’re tellin’ me that one of our lads did for Nellie, I’d be very upset. Angry, like. I wouldn’t let it pass. Gimme a couple a days to get to the bottom of it.’

Swallow threw back what remained of his Tullamore.

‘Right, Charlie. That’s your job now. And let me be very direct with you. In the ordinary course I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you. We’ve been very useful to each other in the past. But I need an answer on this one. And if you don’t come up with it, you’re going to find yourself quick as a wink in the Bridewell, then into Mountjoy. I can put you down for ten years without the slightest bother at all, Charlie. Are we clear then?’

Vanucchi winced visibly.

‘Mr Swallow, you’ve absolutely no call to start takin’ that sort of attitude with me. I’ll do what I can. I always do. You know that. But I can’t say I’ll come back with what you want on this one. Will you give me a couple of weeks?’

Swallow patted the back of the gang leader’s hand.

‘I’ll give you one week, Charlie. And I know you’ll do your best with that. I just hope for your own sake that it’s good enough now.’

Friday December 28th, 1888

Chapter 27

More than once in his career, Swallow would concede, sheer coincidence of events in time, happenstance or good luck, as distinct from good police work, had impacted dramatically upon the course of important investigations.

A wholly fortuitous sighting by an off-duty policeman of the Phoenix Park assassins had given G-Division an early start in their pursuit of the ‘Invincibles’ in May 1882. Similarly, two years later, a G-man travelling from the North Wall to Liverpool to attend a family funeral had found himself by random chance sharing a third-class cabin with a Fenian gun-runner that Swallow had been pursuing for a year. The man was arrested by Liverpool police once the vessel docked in Merseyside.