He paused, and pointed towards the copy of the Irish Sun. ‘I’m sure you can guess what we’re going to be discussing.’

‘What do you want me to say? I think the press are being grossly unfair and I totally refute all of their accusations that crime in Cork is getting out of hand. But then I have no control over what they choose to print in the newspapers. I only wish I knew why they’re being so personal, and so vindictive.’

Brendan stared at her for at least ten seconds, tentatively licking his lips with the tip of his tongue. She felt as if he were undressing her with his eyes. At last he said, ‘I can’t tell them at Phoenix Park, then, that you’re considering your position?’

‘“Considering my position”? You mean am I thinking of resigning?’

‘The media coverage gets ten times worse every day, Kathleen. You can’t deny it. Frank Magorian’s spitting tin tacks.’

‘I have a job to do, and whatever the press say I’m doing it well, and so is every single member of my team. If Frank Magorian wants to sack me, then all I can say is let him try. You know that both my detection and conviction rates are up on last year, and the year before, and the year before that. And let me tell you this: if you and Frank think that you can do to me what the Garda did to my father, you’ll wish you’d never heard the name of Kathleen Maguire, the both of you.’

‘You’re not still holding those pictures against me, are you? I promised on my honour that I’d delete them, and I have. But this media coverage, Kathleen, come on, this is something a thousand times more serious. This is about more than the Garda’s public image. It’s about our whole reputation for keeping law and order. Even the Commissioner’s asking questions about it now – like, what can we do in the way of damage limitation?’

‘And you all want me to be your sacrificial lamb, do you? “Oh – we tried promoting a woman to detective superintendent, but do you know, just as we always thought, women can’t hack it. They’re too emotional, too feather-brained, too menstrual, too argumentative. And they don’t have prunes, or play golf.”’

‘Kathleen—’

‘“Detective Superintendent” to you, sir, or “ma’am” if you prefer. I’m not going to beat around the bushes. If you try to have me removed from this office, I swear to God that you’ll be coming out the door with me. I’ll be lodging a formal complaint against you of bullying, sexual harassment, attempted blackmail, and rape.’