Katie hesitated, but then she said, ‘All right, sergeant. If there’s any major developments, please don’t hesitate to ring me. I’ll be coming in extra early in the morning, once I’ve grabbed myself a couple of hours’ sleep. That’s if I can sleep.’

She sat on the side of the bed for a long while, thinking. She could have rung Robert Fitzpatrick and told him immediately that the prime suspect for the stabbing was Breaslain Hoobin. Breaslain was one of the hardest of the O’Flynn gang and he had already served two prison terms for assault causing serious harm. Coincidentally, the judge at his second trial had been Garrett Quinn, and he had gone so far as to call Breaslain ‘a rabid animal’.

Katie knew, though, that she had to play this with the greatest of care. If there were no witnesses to the stabbing, it was reasonable for her to assume that nobody knew that it was Breaslain who had murdered this drug-dealer except for Thomas O’Flynn and any other members of his gang who might have heard him admit to what he had done. If the Garda immediately went looking for Breaslain and arrested him, it would be obvious to Thomas O’Flynn that somebody had ratted on him, and the most likely rat was Muireann.

If he even had half an inkling that Muireann had informed on him, she would be lucky if she survived until the end of the day. The whole reason that she was staying with him was because of his utter ruthlessness to the women in his life.

Katie looked at her dented pillow and knew that she wouldn’t be able to sleep. It was bad enough that she still hadn’t been able to confront Brendan. After she had held a briefing that afternoon with Superintendent Pearse and Inspector O’Rourke about her ongoing investigations – especially the Lee Pusher inquiry – she had gone to Brendan’s office only to find that he had already left. His personal assistant, Bridie, had told her that he had called in at the dog support unit and tried to pet Laser, one of their German shepherds, while his handler wasn’t around. Laser had become aggressive and inflicted some nasty scratches on his face.

‘The chief didn’t blame the dog, though. He reckoned that because he was new here at Anglesea Street, the dog didn’t recognize him and must have thought that he was a criminal.’

Well, that was an out-and-out lie, Katie had thought to herself. But Laser certainly got that right. He knew a hoor’s melt when he met one.

*

She dressed and left the house quietly so that she wouldn’t wake Barney and Foltchain. Her neighbour, Jenny Tierney, would take them for their walk later. The fine rain was still falling and it felt colder than it had lately, so that she shivered when she sat down in the driving seat.