‘Your decision not to open fire on those two women and thereby prevent them from shooting Thomas O’Flynn and Barry Riordan was perfectly understandable,’ Frank intoned. ‘However, your judgement will have to be evaluated by the National Bureau of Crime Investigation and even as high up as the ministry. In the meantime, I will have to suspend you from duty.’

‘Yes, sir. I understand that. But of course I wasn’t about to shoot two women in cold blood when they were threatening to kill two of the most serious gangsters that Cork has ever known. And as I’ve told you, I have evidence that Barry Riordan was guilty of conspiracy to murder and I expect shortly to have evidence that Thomas O’Flynn was guilty of murder.’

‘Well, that’s good. If your evidence against them is accepted in court, it’s likely that your action will be considered to have been justified. What’s your evidence against Barry Riordan?’

‘This can come out now, since Riordan is no longer a threat to my informant. But you’ll see that it implicates a fellow officer.’

Katie opened the envelope on her lap and took out a copy of the letter that Owen Dineen had given her, only that morning. She held it up and Frank came away from the window and took it. He stood reading it for a long time before he spoke.

‘This is a very serious allegation indeed. I shall have to raise this with Chief Superintendent O’Kane immediately.’

‘Owen Dineen didn’t give me permission to show that letter to anybody else except for Chief Superintendent O’Kane. But now it’s a question of my career or his, and I’m afraid my career as a senior Garda officer has to take precedence over his career as a reporter of sensational news stories.’

Again, Frank was silent. Then he said, ‘What was his motive? I mean, why did Chief Superintendent O’Kane want you to be given such critical write-ups in the press?’

‘You’ll have to ask him that, sir. He has several personal reasons for feeling such enmity towards me, but I wouldn’t wish to discuss them unless he brought them up, and in any event only in front of a proper Ombudsman hearing.’

‘Very well, Kathleen. I’ll take it from there. Meanwhile, I have to ask you to leave the station promptly. I’ll be in touch with you when a decision has been made about your actions in regard to Thomas O’Flynn and Barry Riordan. Whatever the outcome of this, your performance during your time here as detective superintendent has been superlative. I’ve probably failed to compliment you as often as I should have done – but then, well, you know me. In any case, I’m offering you my praise and my appreciation right now, and I hope that’ll go some way to make up for it.’