“You didn’t hear?” Etta says, her eyes glittering. “Killings. Murders. Whole family is what I heard.”

“Seriously?”

“Found this morning, they were. Parents and children, though the children were in their twenties, or close enough to them. It’s all over the news.”

“That’s awful,” says Danny. “They catch whoever did it?”

Etta shakes her head. “He’s on the loose, that’s what the reporters told me.”

“You talked to reporters?”

“Uh-huh. Down the street, not ten minutes ago. Asking me my opinion on it. I said it was shocking, that something like this could happen in such a quiet town like Giant’s Pass, where everyone knows everyone else. They liked that, I think. They’ll probably use it in their report. They said they’ll send a camera crew to talk to me. I might be on the news. They said it was something to do with anti-Irish racism or something.”

Danny closes the bag over, and freezes. “Anti-Irish?”

“First I’ve heard about something like that, but they seemed pretty sure.”

“Why would it be anti-Irish?”

“The family that was killed were the Fitzgeralds or the Fitzgibbons or something. They seemed really sure that the family was targeted because of their nationality. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but I guess I’m not in full possession of the facts.”

“What were they like, the reporters?”

“Don’t know which paper they’re from,” says Etta, “but one was tall, about my age, and the other was shorter, with a beard and long hair. Fat.”

In that instant, Danny knows what has happened. Gant and Jeremiah aren’t Feds or US Marshals or paparazzi, they are killers. They went to Giant’s Pass, asked around for anyone Irish. They found the Fitzgeralds or the Fitzgibbons or whoever they were, paid them a visit, expecting to find Stephanie. When they realised their mistake, they had to silence the witnesses, or maybe they were so annoyed at getting it wrong that they killed the whole family out of spite. Either way a family is dead, and suddenly the pressure is on to find their actual target before the police find them.

Danny hurries to the backroom, grabs his coat and pulls it on as he rejoins Etta in the store. “Did they ask if there were any Irish people in Meek Ridge?”

“Yes,” she says, sounding a little surprised that Danny has guessed correctly. “I said half of the families here could probably be traced back to Ireland, but there are no Irish Irish, apart from that Edgley girl.”

“You told them where she lives?”

“Yes. Told them how vulnerable she was, living up there all on her own.”

Danny’s car keys are in his hand and he’s running out the door before Etta can ask what’s wrong. He slips in the snow, but manages to reach his car without falling. The engine starts first try.