‘No, ma’am. In my opinion, this wasn’t some random killing – not like some header throwing a rabie because Billy Hagerty called his old doll a moose, nothing like that. Whoever did it has definitely carried out killings like this one more than once before. Sure, like, they weren’t as professional as some of the gang hits we’ve seen. But unless one of them’s a sneaky snake, I reckon we’re going to find it fierce difficult to find out who pulled the trigger.’

‘What do you think, Robert? It seems even less likely to me that it was Billy Hagerty that they were after. It’s interesting that they carried it out in broad daylight. A gang shooting like this, usually they go round to the victim’s home, don’t they? – either at the crack of dawn or late at night, when there’s less chance of any witnesses being around.’

‘Like you said before, ma’am, the Honda was stolen before anybody knew that Justice Quinn was going to be killed and that Donal Hagerty’s sentencing hearing would have to be delayed. I suppose it’s possible that the Riordans were looking for Billy Hagerty to pay a blood price for what his brother had done. But if it was the Riordans who set up the shooting, we know of course that they’ve been after nailing Thomas O’Flynn for years now. Maybe they thought it was too risky, trying to hit him at home. His house in Farranree has more cameras around it than the RTÉ news studio. Whereas Billy, he lives in a one-bedroom basement flat on Wellington Road without even a burglar alarm. Or lived, rather. Anybody could have knocked at his door and shot him at any time. Why take the risk of shooting him in the street?’

Detective Caffrey said, ‘Unfortunately, there’s no CCTV coverage on Gerald Griffin Street opposite The Weavers, so we don’t have any footage of the shooting itself. We’re still checking, though, to see if the Honda was picked up on CCTV leaving the airport car park on the day that it was taken, or anywhere after the shooting between Blackpool and Bottlehill, and if anybody identifiable was filmed getting in or getting out of it.’

‘Fair play,’ said Katie. ‘I’ll let you get back to it, then.’

Everybody else left her office, but Detective Inspector Fitzpatrick came up to her desk and stood looking down at her.

‘Robert?’ she said. His expression was always unreadable, and sometimes she wondered if he had any emotions at all.

‘You’ll forgive me for asking you a personal question, ma’am, but how are you bearing up? I know you’ve been through a fierce difficult time lately, and that story in the papers couldn’t have helped.’