‘Wait. He can wait. I’d like it … will you … shit! Come for a drink with me when all this calms down. Just us. Alone. I mean, I’d like to spend some time with you. If that’s okay with you.’

At last. He’d put it out there. Clumsily, but he’d said it.

Laura’s face flushed, the corners of her lips tugging upwards.

‘I’d like that,’ she said. She turned and headed back into the incident room.

Ray felt his heart soar. He made his way down the corridor, a bounce in his step.

‘Over here, Laura,’ Tom said and beckoned her into the far corner. She perched on the desk beside him and Linda, feeling almost giddy at what had just happened and trying not to give anything away.

‘Well, Linda, what did you think?’

‘He’s a disturbed man, that’s not in doubt,’ the psychologist replied. ‘It may be an act, but he really does appear to have an intellectual disability of some sort. You’ll need to requisition his medical records to establish it for certain – though it might not be as clear cut as that.’

‘Meaning?’

‘A mild mental condition could have gone unnoticed. He’s what? Mid-thirties? The state wasn’t as good at spotting this stuff back in the eighties, when he was a child and should have been diagnosed. He may have been pegged as a bit slow, a tad peculiar.’

‘I don’t think he’s faking it,’ Tom said. ‘That doesn’t mean he’s not our man, but my instincts are telling me he’s not capable of what this killer has done. I can’t see him being organised enough.’

‘If he’s faking it, he absolutely is your man, because that was a compelling performance. He has me convinced, initially in any case. But I’ll sit down with him myself and study him for a bit. It’s very difficult to maintain an act for any length of time under close supervision.’

The inspector stroked his beard.

‘We’ll get the ball rolling on his medical records tomorrow. It’s late now and I can’t think any more without some dinner. Laura, what were you following up on in Cork?’

‘Something Elizabeth Lehane said, but I won’t know anything definite until the morning. I have somebody down there checking it out for me.’

‘Let’s call it a day, then. They found nothing in the search of Carney’s property after we left, so if he did take Fiona, he brought her somewhere else. Maybe his pal Healy knows where. We’ll find out tomorrow.’

CHAPTER 25