‘You know what the social services are like as well as I do. It’s all good intentions but the left hand and the right hand never know what the middle hand is up to, do they? Go and fetch your coat.’

They crossed Anglesea Street from the Garda station to the courthouse. Katie would have loved to hold hands with Kyna, but of course that was out of the question. They didn’t mention last night, either, and they tried not to think about it, in case one of their team noticed the obvious magnetism between them. Their team were all detectives, after all, and they were trained to read facial expressions and body language.

They found Kieran and Justice O’Rafferty in Stephen Herlihy’s office.

‘Ah, so pleased that you could come over, Detective Superintendent,’ said Kieran. ‘And you, too, Detective—?’

‘Detective Sergeant, sir. Detective Sergeant Ní Nuallán.’

Justice O’Rafferty was looking drained and strangely bloodless and she had dark smudges under her eyes, as if she hadn’t been sleeping well. Katie went over and said, ‘How are you, ma’am? I thought you’d be interested to know that we’re making considerable progress in finding out who murdered Justice Quinn.’

‘Really? Do you have a suspect?’

‘We do, yes, but it’s early days yet. He’s a member of the Riordan gang, and he was arrested along with the others on Saturday, during that fracas at The Weavers.’

Justice O’Rafferty thought for a while, and then she said, ‘Do you have any idea at all why Justice Quinn was murdered?’

‘I should be interviewing our suspect later today. Maybe I’ll get some idea from him then.’

‘I can’t work it out, do you know? Surely the Riordans wanted Donal Hagerty to be given the maximum sentence possible. I don’t think they have any geniuses among them, but even they must have realized from Justice Quinn’s summing-up to the jury that we had no intention of letting him off lightly. It was not only Michael Riordan he shot, after all. It was his innocent wife and children, and that was an act of inexcusable evil.’

Justice O’Rafferty suddenly clamped her hand over her mouth and her eyes brimmed with tears. Katie lifted her hand as if to lay it on her shoulder to comfort her, but then decided that she was a justice of the High Court and perhaps she had better not.

All the same, she glanced across the office. Kieran and Kyna appeared to be having an intense conversation and Stephen Herlihy was talking on his mobile phone, so she said quietly to Justice O’Rafferty, ‘You’ll have to forgive me for asking you this, but you may or may not know that Garrett and I were more than close at one time.’