“Look, I wouldn’t have taken the job here only I needed the work. Francie Keane scares the shit out of me. You wanted to know what I think of him, who he is, well, that’s what I think of him, that’s who he is.”

He glared at her while his anger burned like a Roman candle.

“I’m sorry,” Sara said.

Tony gave a brittle, crackling laugh, then the anger burned out, left him like a soul leaves a corpse.

“What for?” he asked. “You didn’t do anything. I’m sorry. Like I said, I’ve no business talking about your father-in-law. I should finish up my work.”

He turned to leave once more, but Sara’s question would not wait.

“What about Damien?”

Tony stopped and turned back to face her. “Don’t ask me that,” he said.

“Is he like his father?”

Tony’s eyes grew distant, staring somewhere miles beyond the walls of the kitchen.

“I went to school with him. We all knew who he was, who his father was. We were all afraid of him. You know, before the cancer got him, my da told me if you grow up to be a better man than your father, then you’ve done all right. Damien isn’t a better man than his father.”

A heavy blanket of silence hung between them for a moment before she said, “Thank you.”

“S’all right,” he said. “I’ve said too much. I trust you to keep it between us.”

“Of course,” she said, meaning it.

Tony reached into his back pocket and produced a worn and tattered wallet. He took a business card from its folds, placed it on the worktop.

“If you ever need anything,” he said. “Doesn’t matter what time it is.”

“Thank you.” She took the card and slipped it into her pocket.

He bowed his head like a footman and turned away.

Sara watched him go, wishing he wouldn’t.

26: Mary

26: Mary

I got terrible sick. That night, I was awful cold, I couldn’t stop shivering. Mummy Joy dried me out and wrapped me up in all the blankets we had, but the cold had got down deep inside of me. The guts of me was cold, I could feel the chill in my heart. I shook and trimbled till I thought my bones would come loose and I’d fall apart. And the coughing, terrible coughing, like something was clawing and tearing the lungs out of me. After a while, I went to sleep, but it wasn’t like any other sleep I’d ever had. Like when dreams fill your head. This wasn’t the same. With this sleep, the real world was inside my head, and the dreams were outside of me, all around.

Bad dreams.