‘All the same, DS Maguire, the latest crime figures don’t paint such a rosy picture, do they?’ said Owen Dineen. ‘Cork’s touted as the safest city in the country, but last year it had more killings per capita than Dublin or Limerick. Burglaries were up by thirty-four per cent, sex crimes by two per cent, and so many cars were stolen that if they’d all been driven up the M8 at once there would have been a solid traffic jam from here to Fermoy.’

‘Sure, like – there has been an increase in some offences, I’d agree with you,’ Katie retorted. ‘But there was also a corresponding increase in successful convictions – especially for murder and manslaughter and domestic abuse. We’ve seized over three-quarters of a million euros’ worth of drugs in the first six weeks of this year alone. We’ve also confiscated a record number of guns and explosives. On top of that, we’ve closed down four brothels and deported ninety-four illegal immigrants.’

Just then, Mathew McElvey reached out for Katie’s pad and wrote on it Lee Pusher?? before sliding it back. Katie glanced down at it but gave him an almost imperceptible shake of her head. If none of the reporters in the conference room had heard about the Lee Pusher’s latest victim yet, she wasn’t going to tell them. It could wait until tomorrow morning’s TV news and tomorrow evening’s papers.

Up until today, the media had almost always been supportive of Katie’s efforts to cut down on violent crime in Cork city. It helped that she was a woman, and red-haired, and attractive, and that she had so recently been bereaved. She was a regular favourite on Cork FM and the Today with Maura and Daithi show. But here at today’s conference she could sense that they were beginning to ask themselves if she was losing her grip. The ruthless murder of Michael Riordan and his family had already seen questions raised in the media about Cork’s criminal gangs attacking each other and getting away with it.

‘Maybe there’s one last thing you can comment on, Detective Superintendent,’ said Owen Dineen. ‘They used to call Limerick “Stab City”, did they not, and some people still do today. But I’ve been hearing in some of the local bars that Cork is now being referred to as “Ducks Town”. If you haven’t heard that yourself, it doesn’t refer to the ducks on Cork Lough. It means that there’s been so many shootings in Cork that whenever anybody slams a door or a car backfires, everybody ducks down.’