Katie thought for a while, and then she said, ‘Can I tell you something in the strictest confidence? I can’t discuss this with anybody else – not at the station, anyway. You already know what my situation is with Chief Superintendent O’Kane. To say that we have our horns locked – well, that would be an understatement. And Frank Magorian – well, he’s been supportive in the past, now and again, but if I were to lose my job I don’t think he’d be reaching for the man-sized Kleenex.’

‘Ah yes,’ said Kieran. ‘Stephen Herlihy at the courthouse gave me a hint about your problems with Chief Superintendent O’Kane. He didn’t know all the whys and the wherefores, but he told me that one minute your man couldn’t be too complimentary about you, saying that you were too glam to be a garda. The next he was calling you worse than a cailleach feasa, and it was a pity we didn’t still burn witches at the stake.’

‘That just about sums it up, I’d say. I won’t bore you with all the reasons why Brendan’s turned against me, because they’re pure personal, and not really relevant. But let me tell you about this dilemma I’m facing at the moment. As I say – I can’t ask anybody else, but maybe you’d be willing to give me the benefit of some of your judgely advice.’

The waitress had approached their table. ‘Before you tell me all the gory details,’ said Kieran, ‘let me recommend the Ballyhoura mushroom risotto.’

‘You read my mind. The last thing I feel like at the moment is anything with blood in it.’

‘But I’ll have the Skeaghanore duck, crispy on the outside, rare in the middle. That won’t put you off, will it?’

Once they had ordered, Katie leaned forward over the table and quietly told Kieran about Orla Quinn’s threat to reveal that she and Garrett had been lovers during the Phinean Joyce trial.

‘We’ve not yet been able to identify the fellow who drove off with Garrett that morning, but it’s hard not to make the assumption that Orla arranged for him to punish Garrett in some way – maybe even paid him to do it. I wouldn’t say for certain that she intended for the fellow to kill him. Maybe Garrett fought back and it all went pear-shaped and that was how the fellow thought that he’d get rid of the evidence. I never believe in coming up with too many suppositions. The truth almost always turns out to be a whole lot stranger.’

‘If she hadn’t threatened you, would you have arrested Orla Quinn? Or at least taken her in to ask her some more questions?’