‘Nothing? You didn’t push her back? It sounds like she was very mean to you, Vincent. Didn’t you want to hurt her, like she’d hurt you?’

Carney shook his head adamantly.

‘Didn’t want to hurt her. I’d never hurt a girl. Mammy said real men don’t hit girls. I wouldn’t have hurt Fiona. You think I killed her, don’t you? He said. I’m not talking to you. Want Bart.’

‘Is Bart your friend?’

‘He’s my pal. Gives me beer and magazines. I’ll talk to Bart. Only him.’

Tom tried a few more tacks but realised after a few minutes that they were getting nowhere.

They left Carney and made their way to the incident room.

Linda and Laura were waiting for them.

The inspector turned to Ray.

‘Go home,’ he said. ‘I’ll finish up. You’re exhausted. We can resume with Carney in the morning, maybe get Healy in and see if he’ll tell him something he won’t tell us.’

Ray met Laura’s eye. He really wanted to talk to her, but didn’t see how he could with everybody still around. Deflated, he turned on his heel.

He’d made it a few steps down the hall when he heard his name being called. Laura had stepped out of the room and was walking towards him.

‘Hi,’ he said, walking back to her. She’d plaited her unruly curls and was fiddling with the hair poking out at the end of the bobbin. It made her look younger, and nervous. Ray’s heart beat faster.

‘Good to see you made it out of the O.K. Corral,’ she said. ‘You had us all worried there for a bit.’

He smiled, shyly.

‘Tom is sending me home.’

‘I heard him. Sorry I made you drive back up from Cork last night. It wasn’t fair. I got a kip in the car, but you must be wrecked.’

‘Ah, I’m okay. Can we, eh, catch up tomorrow?’

‘Sure.’ Laura sounded uncertain. What did he mean by catch up? On the day’s events, or something else? He’d said he wanted to talk to her earlier. She’d thought he meant something serious.

He, in turn, studied her face, watching as her expression transformed from hope to confusion to disappointment.

It was like somebody had opened the curtains and let light stream into the room. Ray felt like smacking himself on the head.

Jesus, he’d been an idiot. Tom was right. All this time, Laura hadn’t gone off him. She’d just been waiting.

‘I’d really like it if we could …’

‘Laura! Where are you?’ the inspector yelled from inside the meeting room.

She shrugged at Ray and made to go back in the door, but he grabbed her arm.