They walked across the Parnell Bridge over the south channel of the River Lee. A damp south-west wind was ruffling the surface of the river, and three ducks were noisily squabbling over a grey mullet that one of them had caught.

‘I was deeply sorry to hear about Garrett Quinn,’ said Kieran. ‘I’d met him a fair few times, and I liked him a lot. Did you know him at all?’

For a moment, Katie was breathless with emotion, and she could barely speak. Oh dear God, don’t let me start crying, not halfway across the bridge, on the way to lunch.

‘Yes,’ she said at last, as they stopped and waited to cross over South Mall. ‘He and I were good friends. He gave me a rake of very sound advice when I was making my way up the ladder at Anglesea Street.’

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude.’

Katie looked up at him, and by the expression on his face she couldn’t help thinking that he already knew how intense her relationship with Garrett had been, or at least had guessed it. Do I really give myself away that much? I always thought I was the one who could read other people’s minds, and that I myself was inscrutable.

They arrived at the Market Lane restaurant on Oliver Plunkett Street, and they were shown to a table upstairs, by the railing that overlooked the ground floor. Lunchtime was almost over, and so it was less crowded and noisy than usual, but in any case Katie had no trouble in hearing Kieran’s deep, clear, distinctive voice. She could almost follow what he was saying by the look in his eyes, and by a kind of professional osmosis. They understood each other.

‘You wouldn’t believe it, but I never intended to be a lawyer, let alone a judge,’ Kieran told her. ‘I wanted to join the navy and go to sea.’

‘It’s strange, but I would have guessed that, if you’d asked me.’

‘Really? But now I’ll never know. My oldest brother got himself into trouble with a hotel business that he’d started up, and he was accused of fraud. I boned up on the law about what he was supposed to have done, and when he went to court I stood up and I spoke in his defence. He was found not guilty, and I was so pleased with myself for getting him off, and so pumped up about performing in court, that I decided then and there that I was going to take up the law.’

They ordered lunch. Kieran went for the slow-cooked bacon collar with parsnip mash, while Katie chose a salad of torn ham hock with roast butternut squash and sundried tomatoes.