‘Yeah, Noel O’Grady. So, as you can imagine, his family are on the warpath. Well, Breege isn’t. The word is she’s taken to the bed. The lads claim they’re not going to let it rest. “We’ll take this to the European Court,” Noel junior is telling anyone who’ll listen. Your friend Seánie maintains they’re going to take the TV people to the cleaners. But, like everyone says, they’re wasting their breath: a dead man can’t sue. Paddy O’Grady’s been in the papers giving out about his brother’s good name being blackened. He’s calling for the TV licence to be scrapped. Well, you know the way it is: he’s probably worried he’ll lose a few votes. We had the reporters back here for a few days too. Your mother hated it. I tried to keep the head down. Some folks were in their element, though. I swear it’s what they live for.’

Tom ran a hand across his brow. Mohan sent him a look of concern.

‘Are you there?’ asked his father.

‘I am. I am.’ He thought of what Nina had said on the day he’d confronted her about Julian. She’d mentioned Noel O’Grady then, but that was just hearsay and innuendo. He couldn’t believe it was possible to broadcast something that amounted to no more than gossip. When he managed to collect himself, he said as much.

‘It’s not as simple as that,’ replied his dad. ‘This stuff was clearly coming from the guards. What’s that phrase? Informed sources. No lie, the cops were all over this one. You can be sure that they provided every last word. I asked Flan. “Remember,” I said, “it happened in our house. I’m entitled to some information.” But he clammed up on me.’

‘If the guards reckoned O’Grady was to blame, why didn’t they charge him?’

‘Lack of evidence, Tommo. Same old, same old.’

His father sounded like a man untethered. He spoke like he’d been able to detach himself from the whole rotten mess, like Father Galvin had been killed in another house in a different village. Tom struggled for the right response. ‘Um, any other news?’ he asked.

‘Bits and pieces. I told you at Christmas about Ginny having a girl. Lauren Caroline, they’ve called her. She’s a smashing little thing. Cute as a button. Even better-looking than her sister, according to Flan, but not quite as beautiful as her mother. The christening’s next week and the wedding’s in April, so Ginny will have to see the inside of a church again. There’s no chance you’ll be back, is there?’

It seemed his father didn’t require an answer because, without pause for breath, he skipped on to the next phase of his monologue.