Declan moves out of the way, fights the urge to punch Niall. He wonders just what Ingrid has said about him. Have the words his brother has used come from her lips? A sad stalker. Something wrong with him. Creeping around.

‘I’ve not done anything wrong,’ Declan says.

‘That’s not how she sees it. Do you know that she’s even worried that it might be you who targeted her car?’

Declan’s fists clench despite his promise to himself to stay quiet. ‘Well, she’s wrong. For fuck’s sake, why would she think that?’

He notices his brother looks delighted with himself. Niall knows he has him rattled.

‘And she thinks you might the person who broke into her place. Painted on the walls.’

Declan just blinks at his brother. He can hardly believe what he is hearing. Ingrid thinks he’s capable of that? He has only ever tried to help her. He thought she saw him differently from how others saw him. But maybe she is just like all the others. She saw what was on the outside and has made all of her judgements based on that.

‘Do you need some help in there?’ His ma’s voice cuts through their stand-off.

‘No, Ma. We’re grand. Sit you down,’ he calls and then he turns to his brother. ‘The pair of you can go to hell. You’ll make great company for each other.’

‘We do get along very well,’ Niall smirks.

Declan brushes past him, probably a little too roughly, and takes the tea in for his mother. He will not let himself down by showing his anger in front of her.

When his phone beeps later with a message from Ingrid Devlin saying she is sorry for how she treated him last night and asking him to get in touch, he hits the delete button. She’s so sorry for last night that she’s just told his brother she thinks he’s a creep. If he never speaks to her again, it will be too soon.

Chapter Forty-One

Ingrid

Declan hasn’t messaged me back by 9 p.m. I’m tempted to send him another text, try to call, but I don’t want to appear needy. I’m still not sure if I should trust him or not, and I’m worried that if I speak to him now, he might want to call round again.

I’ve been checking The Chronicle website and there has been no update on the body found on the train tracks. Ryan has posted a fairly bland copy of the statement Sue had given out at the press conference about Liam Doherty, but the site is dead apart from that.