Almost instantly, he straightened and his face became a mask again, hard and unyielding. He turned towards me, his back to the guard and the people in the well of the court below, and the rest of the world fell away. Gill brought his left hand to his throat and drew his index finger right to left across the base of his neck. He smiled at me then, and kept smiling as the custody guard put his hand on his shoulder and guided him down to the cells.

I stood my ground and kept watch until Jeremy Gill had vanished, as completely as if he had descended into hell.

48

10th March 2014

‘If you’d held out, you could have done better,’ I said.

‘We wanted it over,’ Sean Carney said. ‘And what we got is worth more than any money to us.’

‘It’s a symbol,’ Ann said. ‘Even if we can’t tell anyone about it until after the criminal case.’

‘And maybe never,’ I said. ‘If Gill isn’t convicted in the murder trial, the terms of the settlement mean you’ll have to stay silent for ever.’

‘I know,’ Ann said. ‘And he’s never going to be convicted for what he did to Deirdre. Still, it’s some recognition. It means more than I imagined. And he will be convicted, I know he will.’

The Rhona Macbride murder trial was fixed to start in early May. I wouldn’t be involved much, I reckoned. Even though I had been listed as a State witness, it was likely that the Gills’ legal teams would argue that my evidence should be excluded for fear of prejudicing the jury. If they succeeded, Another Bad Day at the Office would provide evidence that Gill knew Rhona but, as with all criminal trials, the jury would have to adjudicate on the basis of the evidence before them, and nothing else.

The background about Gill and Deirdre would come out only after the trial. There would be more prosecutions too, and civil cases. After he was charged with Rhona’s murder, other victims had felt safe enough to come out of the shadows, in Ireland, and also in the United States. I hoped that one of them was the girl from Winterville in New York State, the girl Christopher Dalton had told me about, though I didn’t know. The upcoming trial meant that a lid was being kept on publicity about additional complaints. But once the trial was over, there would be no way back for him. I had had new client enquiries already in relation to personal injury claims against Gill, and in other similar cases. I had even received a few referrals courtesy of DI Lenihan, which surprised me no end. Though when I rang to thank him, he didn’t take the call, which surprised me less.