Though calling it evidence was overstating it. What I’d found were fragments, signposts, no more than that. But the previous evening I had been sure that Gill was guilty, as sure as I’d ever felt about anything. This morning, I was even more sure. I remembered some of Davy’s words (‘I know you’ll get there’) and tried to forget the rest, what he had said, and what we had done.

And then I remembered the sense that I had that Gill was a chameleon, that he changed his personality to suit his own ends. There was something about power too, not the power that came with his position in life, though that was part of it. Meeting him had left me with the feeling that whatever Gill wanted, he felt entitled to take.

But at 17–19 MacSwiney Street, real life, and the work I’d been neglecting, got in the way. It was Wednesday and I remembered that, while I was in the office on Saturday, I had moved all my client appointments into Thursday and Friday. That meant that, if I didn’t make some shape at getting control of my workload today, I’d be left with mayhem by the weekend. When Tina came in with the post at 9.30 exactly, as usual, I barely saw her but gave a quick wave. She replied with a mock salute.

‘Normal service has resumed, I see,’ she said.

At 10.55, my mobile rang.

‘Wasn’t expecting to be talking to you again,’ Aifric Sheehan said.

Snap. I wouldn’t be calling if I didn’t have to.

‘Um, something came up, Aifric. Can you talk?’

‘I’m round the back of the bike sheds having a quick ciggie. Strictly out of bounds for students, positively essential for teachers. But there’s nobody near me. Talk away.’

‘It’s about your boss, Eoghan MacGiolla. I found out that he might have been a neighbour of Deirdre’s in Turners Cross but I’m nearly sure he told me he didn’t know her.’

‘That’s the impression I had too.’

‘Would you mind checking for me?’

‘Any particular reason?’

‘Not really. I probably got my notes wrong and I just want to make sure, but I don’t want to make a big deal of it by making another appointment to see him.’

‘I get you,’ Aifric said. ‘I’ll easily find out, don’t worry.’

‘Thanks so much, Aifric. And you’ll be, what’s the word? Subtle?’

‘Finn,’ Aifric said. ‘Subtlety is my middle name.’