Richie shook his head. “I can’t tell you a lot about him. The investigation’s still going on.”

Sinéad stared at him with her mouth open, disgusted. The look on her face said, You made me mute the telly for this?

Richie said, “I figured yous have a right to know this fella’s off the street. As soon as I can give you more, I will. Right now, though, we’re still trying to make sure we can keep him where he is, so we have to play it close to the chest.”

Gogan said, “Thanks. Was that it, yeah?”

Richie made a face and rubbed at the back of his head, looking like a bashful teenager. “Look … OK, here’s the story. I haven’t been doing this long, yeah? But I know one thing for definite: the best witness you can get is a smart young kid. They get everywhere, see everything. Kids don’t overlook stuff, the way adults do: anything that goes on, they spot it. So when I met your Jayden, I was only delighted.”

Sinéad pointed a finger at him and started, “Jayden didn’t see—” but Richie raised his hands to cut her off.

“Give us a sec, yeah? Just so I don’t lose my train of thought. See, I know Jayden thought he saw nothing, or he’d’ve told us last time we were here. But I figured, maybe he was thinking back, over the last couple of days. That’s the other thing about a smart kid: it all stays up here.” He tapped his temple. “I thought maybe, if I was lucky, something might’ve come back to him.”

Everyone looked at Jayden. He said, “What?”

“Did you remember anything that could help us out?”

Jayden took just a second too long to shrug. Richie had been right: he knew something.

“There’s your answer,” Gogan said.

“Jayden,” Richie said. “I’ve got a load of little brothers. I know when a young fella’s keeping something to himself.”

Jayden’s eyes slid sideways and up, to his father, asking.

“There a reward?” Gogan wanted to know.

This wasn’t the moment for the speech about the rewards of helping the community. Richie said, “Nothing so far, but I’ll let yous know if one gets offered. I know you don’t want your young fella mixed up in this—I wouldn’t either. All I can tell you is, the man who did this was going solo: he doesn’t have any pals who might go after witnesses, nothing like that. As long as he’s off the street, your family’s safe.”

Gogan scratched the stubble under his chins and took that in, the unspoken part as well. “He mental, yeah?”

That knack of Richie’s again: little by little, this was easing over the boundary between an interview and a conversation. Richie spread his hands. “Can’t talk about him, man. I’m only saying: you’ve gotta go out of the house sometimes, yeah? Work, interviews, meetings … It was me, I’d be happier leaving my family if I knew this guy was well out of the way.”