Everybody thought it was a joke. Everybody except me. As the audience roared with laughter, I kept watching Gill, his face blank, a benign mask.

His eyes told a different story.

19

Now that the festival was under way, the action was elsewhere, with most of the staff deployed at locations all over town, at workshops and screenings and at the various box offices. I had another missed call from Alice and I had a feeling that she wasn’t calling for a friendly chat. Had Sarah-Jane told her about the photos? Or had Alice overheard my conversation with Gill? Either way, it was better to try to mitigate the damage. I had taken the photographs from my desk drawer earlier. If I hurried, I could sneak them back to the Film Festival office before the workshop. I introduced myself to the young staffer on duty (Dylan, his name tag said) and told him I was a board member and needed to replace something I’d borrowed from the 1998 archive.

‘Oh grand,’ Dylan said.

I got the impression he’d have said ‘grand’ even if I’d told him I planned to burn the building to the ground. He looked about eleven, though he was probably a recent graduate. But it took a while for academic smarts to turn into usable workplace skills. I thought back to my days as a trainee, more of a hindrance to the operation of a law office than a help. At least nobody had put me on tea duty. As I took down the 1998 archive and removed the note I’d left and replaced the photographs, I thought about Tiernan McDevitt. What a bastard Gill was, for what he had done to Tiernan back in the day, and even more for what he did to him onstage earlier. Still, Jeremy had unwittingly given me a useful lead. If I could get talking to Tiernan, I might be able to find out more about Rhona Macbride, and how to contact her. After seeing her on screen last night, I knew I had to meet her.

I sidled over to where Dylan was sitting.

‘Thanks a lot, Dylan,’ I said. ‘You know, all of us on the board really appreciate your work. The festival couldn’t run without people like you.’

‘I’m just an intern. Graduated this summer. Hoping to do a master’s in film next year, filling in here meanwhile to build up credits for my application and stuff.’

‘Well you’re making a valuable contribution, Dylan, I want you to know that,’ I said, which would have been true even if I didn’t have an ulterior motive. ‘But, actually, maybe you could help me more specifically?’

‘Course I will, Finn, if I can, like.’

‘It’s just that I need to meet up with Tiernan McDevitt and I just can’t remember what I did with his number,’ I said. ‘You wouldn’t have it there on the system, would you?’