Duggan did not respond for a moment, then feigned surprise that she had been talking to him. ‘I remember the entrance. We’ll work it out from there.’

‘You’re being a bit unfair on the young fella, Hugh,’ Tony said. ‘He’s that keen to impress you, he’d be buying you drinks all day.’

‘Fuck him,’ Duggan said. ‘He’s a fucking ghoul. They all are, these kids hankering after the good old days. What does he know about it?’

‘He is just a kid,’ Karen said. ‘He’s not much older than we were when we first met.’

‘We had our reasons,’ Duggan said. ‘You and your brother; you and your father; me and half my family. What reasons does he have? Too many days listening to shit being spouted by his da and his uncle.’

‘Tony tells me you think we were wrong with Martin?’

‘It’s a thought.’

‘Why?’

Duggan shrugged. ‘Gut feeling,’ he said.

‘Is that it?’

‘Tell me this,’ Duggan asked. ‘Were you ever lifted after what happened?’

‘No,’ Karen said.

‘Never?’

She shook her head. ‘Never. Why?’

‘See?’ Duggan said, looking at Tony. ‘None of us were questioned about it, none of us were touched.’

‘And?’

‘You don’t think that’s odd? Not one of us was lifted?’

‘That proves nothing, Hugh,’ Karen said. ‘Maybe they knew we had nothing useful to give them, anyway.’

‘I had plenty,’ Hugh said. ‘Besides, Martin was my friend. We’d been though a lot. I trusted him more than I trusted any of youse.’

‘He’d not be the first person to abuse someone’s trust,’ Karen said, glancing at Tony. ‘You know why Kelly was blamed.’

‘I know,’ Duggan said. ‘But I had my doubts, still. And he denied it, said there’d been a mistake. It was Mullan made the final call.’

‘And?’

‘At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. He was the quartermaster, we did what we were told.’

‘But?’

‘But the more I think of it, and the more I hear, the more I think Mullan wasn’t being completely straight.’

‘You think he was covering for someone?’

‘I think he was covering for himself,’ Duggan said. ‘I think he was the one that passed on word of what we were doing.’

‘Why?’

‘Do you think it’s an accident that he is where he is now? He’s being controlled.’

Karen frowned as she looked at Tony.

‘Are you sure, Hugh?’

Duggan nodded. ‘I’m certain of it. If you drank in the bars I drink in, you’d hear plenty of stories about him. I asked him to come with us for this and sure didn’t he send the boy in his place.’

‘Maybe he can’t be seen to be getting his hands dirty.’

‘His hands are dirty!’ Duggan snapped. ‘If he wants the boy to take his place, so be it. The boy will take his place,’ he added, darkly.

‘What does that mean?’

‘We’ve all got our reasons for being here. Youse two might be looking to find Martin’s grave, but me, I’m looking to find answers to what happened back then. And when I do, someone will pay. The last time I set foot in that forest, it was to punish a tout. If I got it wrong then, I won’t be getting it wrong now.’