‘Yes, but they wouldn’t have fired on you if you hadn’t gone in after them. Why didn’t you wait until they came out and pull their cars over separately?’

‘Don’t think I didn’t consider that. But even then there would have been a high risk of them opening fire on us, and that would have endangered not only us but any passers-by, too. Or they might have tried to drive away at high speed, which could have caused a serious traffic accident.’

‘I don’t know. What am I going to tell the media? “Don’t worry, Detective Superintendent Maguire is turning Cork into a fairground shooting gallery. She’s decided that the easiest way to get rid of the gangs is to use them as target practice.”’

‘That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. We have to hold a media conference about Operation Hubbard, and we have to hold it within the next hour or so. But even after what you decided at Phoenix Park, I want to be the one to brief them – not you.’

Brendan said nothing, but sipped his coffee, staring at her.

‘I know exactly how this needs to be presented,’ Katie told him. ‘What needs to be said and what needs to be kept totally confidential. We can’t explain to the media that the gas leak was nothing but a ruse. If we do, Thomas O’Flynn will realize that somebody told the Riordans about Maddie O’Flynn’s birthday party and that somebody then told us that the Riordans were going to attack it. If Thomas O’Flynn and Barry Riordan put two and two together that could possibly put both Muireann Nic Riada and Megan Riordan in danger of their lives.’

‘So how do we tell the media that we found out what the Riordans were planning to do? Because they’re bound to ask us.’

‘Simple. We’d heard rumours of a major drug deal in the offing and we were hacking the Riordan gang’s phones.’

‘Is that possible? Don’t they use those smartphones that can’t be hacked, the same as we do?’

‘Bill Phinner has a phone expert, Conall. He can explain how we do it.’

She was sorely tempted to tell Brendan that Conall had been hacking his phone calls, even though they were encrypted, and that she had found out that he had been bribing Owen Dineen to write smear stories about her. But she knew this wasn’t the right moment. For the time being, that knowledge was her insurance policy.

‘I still believe this Operation Hubbard was incredibly ill thought-out, Kathleen, especially in the way that the public are going to see it.’

‘That will depend on how we present it, sir. And I’d still prefer you to call me Detective Superintendent.’