Outside Eugene’s, the seven men gathered in a circle to light up cigarettes. Then they crossed the street and walked up the slope to Cattle Market Avenue where their two cars were parked, Thomas’s white Audi and his gang’s black Toyota Land Cruiser. A wet rain was falling and the roads were shiny. The men barely spoke to each other as they climbed into their cars. Whenever they went out on a mission like this, they took on a frame of mind like a vengeful posse making their way to the OK Corral. They even walked with a cowboy swagger.

They drove up Fair Hill and turned into Liam Healy Road, a narrow side street of three-bedroomed terraced houses. Some of the houses were proudly painted in reds and salmon pinks, with decorative front doors and fancy net curtains, but towards the end of the street most of them were run-down and shabby with grimy pebble-dash and battered vans parked outside. Eamonn O’Malley’s house was one of the shabby ones, with a silver Honda CR-V in its paved front yard.

The gang parked and climbed out of their cars. Thomas waited on the pavement with his coat collar turned up and hands in his pockets while Milo and one of the other men went to Eamonn O’Malley’s front door and rang the bell. They could see that there was somebody at home because the sagging yellow curtains didn’t quite meet in the middle and behind them a television screen was flickering.

At first there was no response so Milo rang the bell again, three times. One of the curtains was drawn aside and a woman peered out. The curtain fell back again, and a few seconds later the light was switched on in the hallway and the front door was opened.

The woman was about forty, with dark puffy circles under her eyes and dyed black hair and cheap dangly earrings. She was wearing only a long mustard-coloured fisherman’s jumper and a pair of fluffy slippers. She looked frightened.

‘What is it?’ she said, in the hoarse voice of a heavy smoker. ‘What d’ye want?’

‘See that fellow standing there behind me, girl?’ said Milo, turning around and pointing to Thomas. ‘That there is Thomas O’Flynn and he’s after having a word with Eamonn.’

The woman saw Thomas standing in the rain, unmoving, with the collar of his raincoat turned up. He was wearing his soft brown trilby so his face was in shadow.

‘Eamonn’s off away,’ said the woman. She stepped back and tried to close the door but Milo immediately stuck his foot in it. Now Thomas came up to the front steps and stood looking at her.

‘I told you, Eamonn’s off away,’ the woman repeated. ‘He’s visiting his sister in Waterford.’

‘If he’s off away in Waterford, how come his motor’s still here?’ Thomas asked her.