‘He said he was grand altogether but he had to go. I stopped him, though, before he got into his car. I said that if he gave Donal too long a sentence or if he ordered him sent up to Portlaoise – well, it might not be the brainiest thing that he had ever done. If he did, he might need to be double wide for the rest of his life.’

‘Well, that was pure subtle. What did he say to that?’

‘He said if that’s a threat, like, I’m going to call for the guards and have you arrested. So I said it’s not a threat, Your Honour, it’s just a word to the wise. I said you’ll remember what happened to Judge Donnelly two years ago after he gave Dermot and Francis Finnegan ten years apiece for manslaughter. His house got burned down to the ground and his poor daughter died of the smoke inhalation when she was trapped in her bedroom.’

‘Serious? You said that to him?’

‘Oh, not just that. I told him that Donal has a whole crowd of pals in Croppy Boy, and all those pals happen to know where you live in Tivoli Park, Your Honour, so you wouldn’t be wanting anything like that to happen to your house and your family, now would you?’

‘I’ll bet he took that well.’

‘Are you codding me? He told me I must be langered and to get the feck out of the garden, not in them exact words. He said he was going to hand down the sentence that Donal deserved for murder and I could threaten him as much as I liked, it wouldn’t make a scrap of difference. He said he wasn’t afraid of me or nobody. Then he was out the gap.’

‘Mother of God, Eamonn. Why didn’t you tell me this as soon as you’d spoken to him?’

‘I rang you at home, Tommy, but nobody answered and you don’t have a moby. I was heading over to The Weavers to tell you but I bumped into some old amigos of mine from the Fairfield Tavern and I thought a couple of cold ones wouldn’t hurt before I came over to see you. The trouble was it turned out to be Ger Barrett’s memorial sing-song and I ended up totally scuttered.’

‘You’re lying to me, boy. Now fecking tell me the truth. Where were you this morning?’

‘I told you, Tommy. Flat out in me scratcher slowly dying.’

‘Nowhere near White’s Cross, then?’

‘What would I be doing up at White’s Cross?’

‘Maybe you were showing Judge Quinn that he shouldn’t have told you to go off and flah your granma, or whatever it was he really said to you.’

‘What?’