‘I’m glad you’ve made it in, anyway. I’ve just finished planning the final details of Operation Hubbard with the ASU. We have twenty-two uniforms, five armed support officers and four detectives, plus of course you and me.’

‘And you’ve told himself?’

‘Chief Superintendent O’Kane? I have of course. And what do you think? He threw a rabie. In fact, he threw a chair across his office. But there’s nothing he can do about it.’

‘Jesus. What about Frank Magorian?’

‘He’s above in Dublin at the moment. I’ll tell him all about it when it’s over.’

‘But not before? I hope you know what a risk you’re taking. If this should go at all wrong—’

‘Kyna, I don’t care about the risk. Not now – not with Brendan threatening me on one side and Orla Quinn threatening me on the other. If I can pull this off, and if I can find a way to take down the O’Flynns soon after – that’s it, I’ll be untouchable.’

‘Ah now,’ said Kyna with a smile, and she lifted up a clear plastic envelope. ‘I may be able to help you when it comes to the O’Flynns. In fact, God may have helped you already.’

She handed Katie the envelope. Inside was a photograph of a large kitchen knife, with its measurements marked alongside it, and its evidence reference number.

‘That was fetched in less than twenty minutes ago, by a plumber.’

‘A plumber?’

‘Yes – he’d been called in to the Zombie Lounge because of the flooding. The drain in the men’s jacks was blocked and so they were waist-deep in water. He managed to find the grating and pull it up, and inside he found that it was clogged with bits of old paper towels and other rubbish – and this knife.’

‘That’s the same toilet where that Kimmons lad was stabbed.’

‘It is, yes… and there’s a fair chance that this is the knife he was stabbed with. Like, why else would somebody drop a knife like this down a drain, except to hide it?’

‘Thank goodness for a plumber with a scrap of brains.’

‘I was downstairs by the front desk talking to Cailin Walsh when he fetched it in, having a quick catch-up. Cailin took down his name and all his particulars and I took the knife straight across to the lab. Bill said that if there’s any latent fingerprints on it or even the twinchiest trace of blood, they’ll be sure to find them.’