Ray had hoped Laura would agree to a pit stop. He was trying to eke out their time together on this trip but she seemed determined to get down and back to Dublin in the shortest time possible. He had played out a scenario in his head where they had to stay the night in West Cork. He’d heard the area was a romantic hotspot and he reckoned if he just had some time to work on her, with that setting as a backdrop, he could thaw the wall of ice Laura had erected.

But it wouldn’t come to pass if she had her way.

They arrived in the village a short time later and made their way directly to the garda station.

Sergeant Doyle was out searching for a dog that had been worrying sheep, so they spoke to his colleague.

‘Oh, yeah, the taxi driver,’ he said, when they asked about the man originally questioned in the Mary Ellen Lehane disappearance. ‘Cormac Ryan. I came to the village after he’d left, but I know where he lived. Nobody has taken the cottage since, so they still refer to it as Cormac’s. I can draw you a map.’

Laura looked over his shoulder as he sketched an outline.

‘Who was the other guard here at the time?’ she asked. ‘Working with Sergeant Doyle, I mean?’

‘That was old Jack,’ the guard replied, his face set in concentration as he followed his outline with the pencil to make sure he’d got it right. ‘I don’t think he was so much working as part of the fixtures, if you know what I mean. One or two cops from the next town over would have come out to help if Ultan needed it, more from the city if it was required. Jack died in that chair you’re sitting in.’ He pointed to Ray, who jumped as if he had just been told he was sitting on old Jack’s lap.

‘Could you find out if anybody knows where this Cormac chap went?’ Laura asked. ‘Sergeant Doyle said something about relatives in England.’

‘Aye. I can do that. I’ll check with some of the locals here. They don’t forget much; somebody’s bound to have an old contact for him still – maybe he didn’t change his number, wherever he went. Now, there you go.’ He handed over the map. ‘That should get you out there all right.’

‘Won’t we need keys?’ Ray queried.

The guard and Laura exchanged a look.

‘Dubliners,’ the officer mocked, and Laura smiled.

‘What was that about?’ Ray asked, as they walked back to the car.

Laura stopped.

‘Look around you,’ she said.

He glanced left and right on the empty street and turned back to her, his face still puzzled.