‘Who the hell tipped off the press?’ asked Detective O’Sullivan. Then he looked across at the nearby furniture warehouse where he could see the staff all lined up, staring out of the windows. ‘I don’t even know why I said that.’

The man’s body was lifted out of the manhole by two gardaí, who laid him on a stretcher with a sound like somebody dropping a sodden mattress. Detective Inspector Mulliken and Detective O’Sullivan crossed over to take a closer look, while technical experts were taking so many flash photographs that they appeared to freeze the raindrops in mid-air.

Bill Phinner was crouched down next to the body. He was wearing a fluorescent yellow raincoat with a hood, although he had pushed the hood back. He looked as miserable as ever, as if the dead man had been a relative of his.

‘His skull’s been fractured,’ said Bill, and he lifted up the man’s head. ‘See, look, at the back here, there’s this triangular piece sticking out, and it’s pierced his scalp. In fact, his whole head has been crushed like an egg, although you wouldn’t think it because his face is so swelled up.’

Detective Inspector Mulliken bent over the body and stared at it for almost a quarter of a minute without saying anything. Then he turned back to Detective O’Sullivan.

‘It’s Eamonn O’Malley. No question. I thought it must be him, because of his braces. But he has that gold anchor earring in his left ear, too. If you can imagine his face not so puffed up, and his head not so pointed, and his eyes blue.’

‘Eamonn O’Malley – that’s Thomas O’Flynn’s hit man, isn’t it?’

‘Bang on, but “hit man” would be paying him too much of a compliment, to be honest with you. More like “head-the-ball hard chaw”. Violent, and dangerous, but mental with it. The sort of gowl who’d only have to think that you were looking at him funny and he’d claim you.’

‘He won’t be causing anybody any more bother now,’ said Bill. ‘It’s my guess that whoever killed him thought that he’d decompose quickly and be carried out to sea. Maybe they didn’t know that bodies stay intact for longer in running water, even in sewage, with all its bacteria. You can still identify a body that’s been lying in running water after seven weeks, or even longer.’

Detective O’Sullivan looked back at the warehouse. ‘We may have a stroke of luck, and they’ve CCTV over there that covers the road. Or maybe one of their staff saw somebody out here by the manhole acting suspicious-like. I mean, look at them. They’re nosy enough.’