‘No. He’s got an alibi. The murder team took what you said seriously. At first. They went out to his house in … doesn’t matter where. But at the time Rhona was being murdered, Gill was at home having breakfast with his mother. He showed the team the security tapes. He has CCTV covering his front door and his cars. He’s got two, a Range Rover and a Mercedes SLK. He lives in a terrace, and there’s no back gate, so he couldn’t have got out that way, and the cars never moved from the front. The gates are electronic, they leave a digital trail. It’s incontrovertible proof that they stayed shut until he left the house at around eleven, when he brought his mother to the hairdresser’s. He had a pot of tea and a scone and read the papers in a cafe across the street, then he drove her back home and stayed in until the Dublin lads arrived to interview him.’

I was stunned into silence.

‘That’s not the behaviour of someone who’s just committed a brutal murder, is it? Em, there’s something else. He mentioned you, asked if you’d been the source of the complaint. He said he’d been having trouble with you. That he’s had to take legal advice. That you’re obsessed. He showed the team a copy of the letter his lawyers sent you.’

‘Fuck,’ I said.

‘Yup.’

‘What about his security guard? Did they ask him about that?’

‘He denied having you followed.’

‘How can he? I recognised the man from the workshop at the Firkin Crane. I saw him in the coffee shop before I went to Rhona’s house. Unfortunately it was only after I saw him again in Cork that I realised who he was. If only I had recognised him sooner …’

‘Gill says that if you saw his temporary security guard again, it was either paranoia or coincidence. His name is Pawel Zdziarski, by the way, a freelancer, originally from Gdansk, living here eight years, squeaky clean, fully registered with the Private Security Authority, no convictions of any kind. Gill said he had no reason to have you followed. He said he was confident he’d be able to deal with any threat from you to himself, but was worried you’d target his mother. That’s why he cancelled his appointments for a few days. Stayed home with her. So as he could see how dangerous you were. But he made it clear that he doesn’t want to make a criminal complaint. He actually said that he would prefer if you got the help you need.’

‘Jesus Christ.’