‘You’ve been up with the Lehanes and I know they’ve an axe to grind with me.’ Doyle had taken Michael’s silence as tacit agreement they were now off the record, as such. ‘Fair enough. Now that we know what we know, I absolutely should have taken their concerns more seriously at the time. But everybody has twenty-twenty vision in hindsight. Back then, I was fully convinced Mary Ellen had just gone up to Dublin or …’

‘What?’ Michael prompted.

‘There was a rumour about the village that she’d got the boat to England for – you know.’

Michael frowned.

‘No. I don’t.’

‘An abortion,’ Doyle explained, his voice hushed. ‘Mary Ellen had a bit of a reputation. She was referred to as the village bike, if you know what I mean. Everybody was getting a ride on her. She was a good-looking girl, but Jaysus, I’d say she was riddled.’

Laura raised her eyebrows. What a nasty thing to say. And there was something in Doyle’s face that implied he enjoyed the salacious gossip about Mary Ellen.

‘People talk,’ Michael responded. ‘But it was your job to get to the facts, surely?’

‘Hell, of course.’ Doyle nodded his head in agreement. ‘It’s just, when you live and work in a tight-knit area like this, you get to know people. Nora and Elizabeth Lehane aren’t known for facing up to reality.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Well, look, I guess they told you that the father had died in a farming accident. Yes? There you go – the accident happened when old man Lehane, who began most days with a whiskey breakfast, decided to mix slurry while he was pissed as a fart. He was overcome by the fumes and died. The man was a danger to himself and everybody who worked with him on that farm. And I imagine the women mentioned the brother who’s gone to England?’

Michael nodded.

‘Aye. Well, I’ll tell you this much – he didn’t go in search of work. That fella owes money to every sod in this townland. His name is dirt around here. They’re in denial about that one, too.’

‘I see,’ Michael said.

Doyle rubbed his hands on his trouser legs. The man was nervous, Laura realised.