Voices started to emerge from all around the room, with people speaking at once. Before things got out of hand the councillor called for order again and placed his sheaf of notes purposefully on the table in front of him.

“Okay,” he called. “Can you all come up to me, one by one? I’m going to put together a list of people who need accommodation and those who can offer it. And we’ll match people up.”

He clicked his pen officiously. I got the impression that he was glad of a reason to use it, that at least he knew what he was doing if he was writing something down. People started to shuffle to the top of the room, reminding me of a queue for holy communion at a funeral.

Maeve gave me a crooked look. “Should we join the queue for accommodation, do you think?”

“I’ve a couch in the office,” I said doubtfully. It was a two-seater – it might accommodate me at five foot and a bit, but I wasn’t so sure about Maeve.

Molloy appeared at my shoulder and I turned. “Have you a sec?” He corralled me over to the side of the room and spoke in a low voice. “You won’t be able to get back.”

“I know.”

Surreptitiously he slipped me a key. “Stay with me.”

“Okay.” It sounds ridiculous, but I felt the oddest flutter in the pit of my stomach. “Thanks.”

I’d never spent a night in Molloy’s house. While we were trying to keep our relationship under wraps it seemed too public for me to stay overnight in the sergeant’s house, just behind the Garda Station. Even now, it would be quite the declaration for my rather recognizable car to be seen there, first thing in the morning. The pair of us seemed to have slipped into something even less clear than before, if that were even possible, but somehow, I didn’t care and hadn’t since I’d got back. Maybe Phyllis was right, and I’d been overthinking things all along.

I was about to ask Molloy if Maeve could stay too, when she appeared at my shoulder again.

“I’m staying with Phyllis. I presume you’re …” She looked in Molloy’s direction, but he was already engaged elsewhere. A woman in a bright red coat had pulled him to one side.

I nodded. “Are you sure she’ll have room for you with all the books? She’s moved everything from the shop up to her flat, you know.”

“She says she does.” She grinned. “I’ll have no shortage of bedtime reading material anyway. Look, I’d better go and ring home, let them know and see if they’re all right.”