Tom laughed. ‘You’ve got to remember that, back then, spending money on a non-alcoholic drink would have been viewed as borderline insane. It’s a great place, right enough. Lorraine Daly’s the owner. Well, she was Lorraine Gilligan in our day. She married one of the Dalys from Lacken’s Mills.’

‘Hold on a minute. Wasn’t she the …’ Nina stalled, as if the significance of what she was saying had only just occurred to her.

‘… woman whose twenty-first was taking place the night I got rotten drunk and gave Seánie O’Grady a dig? She was indeed. It’s a good job she’s forgiven me for wrecking her party or we’d be out on the street.’

Appearing to recover her composure, Nina gave a quick glance towards the counter. ‘Hmm. She looks stern. No wonder you had to leave the country afterwards.’

‘Ah, Lorraine’s not the worst of them. She has a café in Templemorris too. Irina’s usually in charge here. She’s from Moldova. Lovely girl. Ridiculously over-qualified, of course. I gather she has two degrees.’

‘There’s something else we could never have imagined,’ said Nina. ‘People actually moving to Ireland.’

As their chat continued, Tom was surprised to realise he had relaxed. No, it was more than that: he was enjoying himself. He’d spent so long trying not to think about Nina that he’d forgotten how easy their conversation had once been. Her mannerisms hadn’t changed. She still leaned forward when she wanted to emphasise a point. She still fiddled with her hair. The fundamentals were intact. Admittedly, she looked older. But she was older. Tom was suspicious of people whose appearance remained the same. In his book, this meant they either spent too much time beautifying themselves or their life was too easy.

Mindful of what Conor had said, he was tempted to ask if she was all right. Then he decided he’d only ruin a perfectly good afternoon. He wondered, too, if he should tell her about Conor’s interest in the Father Galvin investigation. But, no, the fewer people who knew, the better. Besides, even without Conor’s mission, the case was a sensitive subject. Once, it had drawn the four of them together. Later, it had pushed them apart. Despite the passage of time, there was still so much they couldn’t say. He remembered what Nina had said in the hospital about not believing Noel O’Grady was to blame. He didn’t want to give oxygen to her scepticism.

The day before, Tom had bumped into Ginny. She’d told him that Conor and Sharon were in England for the weekend. With any luck, Tess would knock some sense into him.

‘Do they have you driven mad next door?’ asked Nina.

‘What do you mean?’