I liked that theory less. It complicated things, and that didn’t ring true. He had kept it simple. I had said it to Lenihan, and I was even surer now. I needed to strip away everything extraneous. The truth was bare and unadorned. It had to be.

It was heading on for 9 p.m. and I needed to pee. Just one last thing? The CRO window was still open. I might as well complete the search on ProProperty Limited, if the CRO link was back. It was.

As I read the results, I sat back in my chair and smiled.

Upstairs, confident for the first time in days, I flicked on the kettle. I remembered that I needed to call Marie Wade but my phone rang before I could. It was a blocked number.

‘Finn, sorry for calling so late, but there’s been a development in your case.’

‘Who is this, please?’

‘Jesus, sorry, did I not say? It’s Garda Ruth Joyce. About your car?’

‘Great,’ I said. ‘I can meet you tomorrow if you want.’

‘Well, actually I could see you now, if it was convenient,’ she said. ‘It’s just that I’m on nights at the moment and I came in early to view the CCTV footage and I think I’ve found something.’

If it shows Pawel Zdziarski burning my car, that’s the beginning of the end for Gill.

‘I’ll come straight to the Bridewell.’

‘Em, I’m actually on Barrack Street. I downloaded the footage to my laptop so as I could come to see you, but you’ll have to tell me exactly where your house is.’

I buzzed her in and met her at the inside door on the ground floor.

‘We can go to my study, which is a mess, or the living room, which is two floors up. Your choice,’ I said.

‘This is an amazing house,’ Ruth Joyce said. ‘I’d love to see the living room.’

‘Come on,’ I said.

I ran ahead of her, flicking on the lights as I went. I like rambling around in the dark but I didn’t want Garda Joyce to have an accident.

‘Wow,’ she said on reaching the top of the stairs. She blushed.

‘Em, well, em, as you know, I’m here about the CCTV.’

She removed a laptop from the messenger bag she had hanging from her right shoulder and put it on the table. She sat in front of it, tapped a few keys, and asked me to sit beside her. When I was in place, she clicked play.