He knew he was entering a diplomatic minefield. Still, he decided to take her advice.

Conor’s father picked him up at the station in Templemorris. Ginny had come along for the drive. The afternoon was overcast, heavy battleship clouds filling the sky. The drabness of the day couldn’t take from the beauty of the countryside. In early summer, the land was at its greenest, the hedgerows at their most colourful. On the way to Kilmitten, the three chatted about Conor’s injuries, about Sharon, Tess and Lauren, and about Tom’s row with a fellow minister over money for the rejuvenation of provincial towns.

‘Did you see him on the telly the other night?’ asked Ginny, with a chuckle. ‘I thought he’d eat the other lad.’

‘He was hilarious,’ said Conor’s dad. ‘I don’t know where he gets the words from … but they’re good ones.’

Watching them, Conor found it hard to believe there’d been a time when they hadn’t been together.

Later, while Ginny made dinner, Flan and Conor went for a stroll. As they walked the lane beside Toomey’s Hill, Conor explained what was on his mind.

For a while, his father remained quiet. ‘Why are you bringing this up now?’ he asked finally.

‘It’s always been at the back of my head, but I’ve never had the time to dwell on it.’

‘After all these years, does it matter?’

‘If whoever killed Leo Galvin is still walking around, yeah, it does.’

‘It was almost thirty-five years ago. Chances are that the killer is dead.’

‘Are you admitting that Noel O’Grady wasn’t guilty?’

His father stopped. ‘Hate isn’t a word I use lightly, but I hated that man. He raped my wife and he got away with it. My only regret is that by the time Ginny told me, O’Grady was already in the cemetery.’

‘By framing him, you were allowing whoever did kill Leo Galvin to get away.’

‘As stitch-ups go, it wasn’t exactly the Birmingham Six. The man was dead and he was a rapist.’

‘Why did you do it?’

Shoulders in a tense line, his dad began walking again. ‘Everything had come to a head. There was that poisonous newspaper article. Julian Heaney was hounding me. Headquarters were on my back. Ginny was in a desperate state over what to tell Tess … and then the O’Gradys started giving me grief over the fight in Pilkington’s. They wanted Tom arrested. You were there – you know I couldn’t have arrested the lad. He was provoked by Seánie. But they went on and on. At one stage, Paddy the politician came to see me. You should have seen the purple face on him while he bellyached about garda corruption. He had some neck. Everybody knew the same fellow was as bent as a U-nail.