‘Two voice recordings. You didn’t tell me if you wanted me to hack Owen Dineen talking to any specific people, but I made an educated guess that this was the kind of discussion that you were interested in. They’re both using Silent Circle, which encrypts end-to-end conversations, but that wasn’t a bother.’

‘Good man, Conall… let’s go over and make ourselves comfortable, then, and you can play them for me.’

They sat on one of the leather couches by the window and Conall held up the phone so that she could hear it clearly.

First of all she heard some fluffing noises, and a cough, and then Owen Dineen’s distinctive growl saying, ‘It won’t be at all easy to put a critical angle on this… I mean—’

He was interrupted by another man’s voice. At first it was difficult to hear what he was saying because it sounded as if he were bending over or turning around and his phone wasn’t close to his mouth. Suddenly, though, his voice barked out loud and clear and there was no mistaking that it was Brendan.

‘She’s supposed to be in charge of law and order, for Christ’s sake! She’s supposed to be breaking up the gangs so that the city’s streets are safe! And yet even she gets shot at! There’s your critical angle!’

‘Yes, Brendan, I have you, but even after all the stories that we’ve been running to knock her, you need to bear in mind that a fair majority of the public are still rooting for her. She’s attractive to look at, and she speaks on the TV like she’s not trying to make excuses for herself, and that counts for a lot.’

‘But she was shot at, Owen, along with Justice Connolly! In the open street! It’s unbelievable that neither of them were killed!’

‘Of course. But there’s every chance that she’ll be given sympathy for that like, more than condemnation. Even you have to admit that she’s had a pretty reasonable track record over the past few years. A whole lot better than her predecessor, for sure. What was his name – that DS Daithi MacClancy? What a plank he was. If his brains had been Semtex they wouldn’t have blown his hat off.’

‘Talking of Semtex, what about the bomb at UCC?’

‘Granted, that shook her reputation quite a bit, but what you have to realize is that the ordinary people of Cork don’t feel threatened on the streets when they’re going about their daily business, and that’s what matters more than anything.’