She nodded. “Aye, I heard. Bloody strange. A snake around here? Someone must have been keeping it as a pet. God knows what species it was. There’s a massive trade in exotic animals now, it’s awful. A load of Komodo dragons was seized at an airport recently …”

“Maybe the snake wasn’t kept as a pet. Maybe it was brought up here for one purpose?” I was thinking of what Derek had said about black magic.

She raised her eyebrows. “To kill your man? Ach, surely there are easier ways to kill someone. You’d have to source the snake, take care of it, feed it, house it, keep it somewhere safe and secure. Transport it, all the time keeping it alive and well and away from people.”

“How would you transport it?”

She shrugged and gave it some thought. “I suppose it would be simple enough really, a large box with a blanket or lukewarm hot water bottle and breathing holes would do it. Although if you were dealing with a poisonous snake, then you’d need to know how to handle it,” she added. “Was it poisonous?”

“They don’t know,” I admitted.

“So, they have no idea if the man’s death had anything to do with the bite?”

I shook my head. Tony handed me my coffee over the bar, I thanked him, and when I turned back Maeve was still thinking about the snake.

“You can’t exactly programme a snake to do what you want, either,” she said. “Most of them aren’t aggressive, unless they feel threatened.”

“And if it was threatened?”

“If it was scared, it would probably lash out all right.” She narrowed her eyes. “Why? Is that what happened?”

I shook my head again. I had no idea.

“Anyway,” she said, grabbing her own coffee when Tony called her over. “Does Molloy have any notion who could have done it?”

“Not yet, I don’t think.”

“I suppose the lads are on their own, if no one is able to get in or out at the moment.”

I nodded. “The Fire Service are helping with the flood. But, as far as the death is concerned, they’re on their own.”

She took a sip of her drink, thoughtfully. “Had he ever been in Inishowen before, do you know? The dead man? Any connections here?”

“I don’t know to be honest.” It hadn’t occurred to me to ask Mary this. I wondered if he’d ever visited her here. From what she’d said, it seemed unlikely.

“If not, I suppose the obvious suspects must be those who knew him. The people who were part of the cycle.” Maeve spoke in a low voice. There were a few of them in the pub.