Orla looked down at the floor and said nothing.

‘If it wasn’t your intention that Garrett should be killed, Orla, you’ll have at least something to tell a court in mitigation. But you do need to co-operate with us, and tell us exactly what you expected to happen. You also need to tell us who the fellow was who drove Garrett away.’

Orla looked up.

‘Can I speak to you alone, Kathleen?’ she asked. She didn’t seem at all abashed, more impatient, and it sounded like more of a demand than a request. Not only that, but Katie had never heard her call her by her name before now.

Katie turned to Robert and Detective Sergeant Begley and Detective Scanlan. ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘If you three wouldn’t mind waiting in the car for a while.’

The three of them laced up their shoes again and shrugged on their coats and went out into the rain. Once they had closed the front door behind them, Katie said, ‘So, Orla – what is it that you can only tell me in private?’

Orla took down the photograph of Garrett. She gave it a wry, regretful shake of her head before she carefully placed it back on the mantelpiece, next to a photograph of her daughter and two sons. ‘I don’t know why I keep this picture. I suppose it reminds me that we did have some good times, on and off, in between the arguments, and in between the other women.’

‘Did you arrange to have him killed? Is that what you wanted to tell me?’

‘Of course not. Like I said to you before, I’ve no comment to make about that. What I wanted you to know is that one day about five or six years ago I threatened to throw Garrett out of the house and divorce him. I told him that I’d only change my mind on one condition. He would have to confess to me all the times that he’d been unfaithful, and beg for my forgiveness, and swear on our children’s lives that he’d never be unfaithful ever again.’

‘But he broke that promise? Is that why you wanted to punish him?’

‘No. That’s neither here nor there. What I’m telling you is that he described to me every one of his affairs in every detail. The women’s names, their ages, the places they met. Whether they were single or married. He told me he’d made two of them pregnant, and that he’d arranged for the both of them to travel to the UK to have abortions.’

‘Oh, God. I’m hardly surprised that you felt resentful.’

‘That’s not what I’m trying to say to you. That was all part of his mortification, yes. But it was what he told me about you that I’m getting at.’

‘I don’t understand.’