‘Before I go any further,’ she said, ‘I’ve got to stress that I don’t know anything for sure. I can’t say, “Such and such a thing definitely happened.” What I can say is this: I told Tom that Julian reckoned Noel O’Grady was a prime suspect, and he pooh-poohed the idea. He was adamant – vehement, even – that O’Grady wasn’t the killer.’

‘Did he say why he was so convinced?’

‘No. We were in the middle of a row. He’d found out about me and Julian.’ Nina felt her cheeks darken. ‘We were shouting at each other. It was pretty nasty, not that I didn’t deserve it. Anyway, what lodged in my head was Tom’s absolute certainty. I said something like “You can’t be sure.” And he insisted that he was. When I pressed him, he drew back, said it wasn’t O’Grady’s style, that being a drunken idiot didn’t make the guy a killer.’ She ran a finger around her cup. ‘It was only later, weeks later, after the story about the Galvins had been in the paper, that I thought it all through. I asked myself if Tom knew more than he was letting on.’

‘You weren’t tempted to ask?’

Nina had never voiced these thoughts before. Her throat felt gravel-rough. The words came slowly. ‘How could I? I couldn’t approach Tom. I’d done enough to the man. In other circumstances, I’d have spoken to Tess. But that wasn’t possible. She’d written a letter, telling me that our friendship was over.’

‘You didn’t consider confiding in me?’

‘That wouldn’t have been a good idea. Tom was your best friend. How would you have reacted if I’d rolled up saying, “By the way, I think Tom knows something”? Like I told you, all I had was a suspicion, a hunch.’

‘Fair enough.’

‘By then, your father had told Julian that O’Grady was probably the guilty man.’ She looked down at the table. ‘Julian was gung-ho. There was a lot going on. Nobody in Kilmitten was talking to me. So I tried to put what Tom had said to the back of my mind.’

Conor nodded. ‘I understand.’

‘I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t. I mean, you’re probably asking yourself why I didn’t talk about this before now. I’ve thought about it, and the best explanation I have is that violence doesn’t feature in most of our lives. It happens elsewhere, to other people. And then, when you got shot – when I thought you might die – I started thinking about Father Galvin. The thoughts wouldn’t go away. I hope that makes sense.’

‘Actually, it does. If it hadn’t been for the Avondhu, I probably wouldn’t be asking these questions now.’