I contemplate getting in my car and going for a drive around Creggan, just to see if there are signs that Bernie Doherty might be home, or that word about Jamesy has got out, or, I don’t know, just something to quieten all the voices in my head. But I don’t want to be brazen about it. I don’t want whoever it was who attacked my car to think I’m goading them. If it’s the same people who attacked Liam, or who may have targeted Jamesy, it’s quite clear they aren’t messing around.

I decide to wait for Declan to come back to me. I’m sure he will.

I grab a packet of coloured index cards and start to label them with key points about the case. If I can see the jigsaw puzzle in front of me, something might jump out at me that helps.

All of these people, even Ryan, are tied together by one little girl and the night she died. I just don’t know how.

Chapter Forty

Declan

This time Declan lets his anger get the better of him. Taking his keys from his pocket, he walks alongside his brother’s car, digging the point of the keys into the paintwork as hard as he can. The screech of metal on metal hurts his ears. He can feel it reverberate through his body as if someone were digging the sharp end of a key directly into his bones.

This is how Niall makes him feel. This is the anger he has for his brother and while he has learned to keep a lid on it over the years, just as he has learned to keep a lid on so much, this time he has to show it. He doesn’t want to keep it buried.

He only wishes he were brave enough to walk up to Niall and tell him exactly what he has done. To tell his brother that it was the very least he deserves. That he hopes the bill will take the smug look off his face.

That smile. His teeth professionally whitened, like he thinks he is somebody. Declan would like to knock that smile to the other side of his face.

But he won’t. When he thinks of his ma, of how she frets about them both, he knows he won’t do it to her. It would break her to see either of them hurt. It’s why she has always been so generous with him. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do to ease his path. It’s a pity Niall, with all his money and charm, doesn’t feel the same. He’d deny Declan as quickly as he could look at him.