‘She’s admitting very little. She’s claiming she was forced to drive him. That he had a carving knife as well as the screwdriver he used to kill Rhona. She says he looked and acted like he’d lost his mind, either drugs or a breakdown, she says. He came into her kitchen from his basement flat next door. She says the connecting door was never locked and that’s why they had to pull the dresser in front of it later, to keep him out, not to hide the connecting door. She says he left straight after the murder. That she was terrified, alone, vulnerable and that Gill was asleep up in bed all the time. He’s backing her up 100 per cent. He says he only found out about the murder afterwards and that all he’s guilty of is giving his poor old ma an alibi, he was just trying to keep her out of jail. He says she’s in poor health, and he was afraid she’d die in prison.’

‘He’s still an accessory after the fact,’ Sadie said.

‘Is he?’ I asked. ‘Would a jury convict him for trying to protect his mother? If they believe that Esther acted under duress, under the threat of being killed herself, she might be acquitted. And, if she’s acquitted, Gill might walk too.’

‘I agree,’ Lenihan said. ‘We need to concentrate on the primary––’

‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ I said. ‘I have to make a call.’

I went out to the street for air, found Tiernan McDevitt’s number in my phone, and sent a text, asking if he was free to take a call. He replied ‘who this?’ which I took as a yes and rang him.

‘Hi, Tiernan, it’s Finn Fitzpatrick, we met last week in Cork Opera House.’

‘Yes, and you bought me lunch. It’s nice to talk to you again, I …’

‘Remember the blond guy you were talking to, you said he was Gill’s assistant?’

‘Well, yeah, I do, but …?’

‘Do you know his name?’

‘It’s Donnie. His last name is, um … let me think …’

‘Might it be O’Brien?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Tiernan said. ‘It could be something like that.’

‘How long has he worked for Gill?’

‘Years, like ten years, twelve years, probably more. He wasn’t involved when we were making the short film. But he was hanging around a lot when Jeremy went to the Oscars that first time.’

‘That was about six months after the short had been shown at Cork Film Festival the previous October?’