Conor kicked a clump of snow into the air and watched its powdery fall back to earth. True, he and Tess had agreed to stay quiet about the previous night, but the situation had changed. She’d understand, wouldn’t she? ‘I don’t think you’re getting this,’ he said. ‘My dad and the other guards think that whoever killed Father Galvin got into the house through the back door. You heard Nina’s dad: they’re going to arrest the Travellers when it wasn’t them at all.’

‘How do you know it wasn’t?’ said Tom, but he didn’t sound convinced. ‘Or maybe someone else crept in the back. Who knows?’

Conor was quiet for a moment. Although his thoughts were mangled, he knew something wasn’t right. ‘When you came back to the shed, you said the door was locked.’

‘So?’

‘So how could anyone have got in that way?’

‘You know what my house is like. Everything’s tricky, including the back door. I could’ve got it wrong. Perhaps it wasn’t locked after all, just stuck.’

‘Fair enough, but if somebody went in that way, we would’ve heard them.’

‘Nah, we wouldn’t. The shed’s a long way from the house. Besides, what if they didn’t arrive until after we’d left?’

‘I still say we’ve got to tell the truth. It’ll come out eventually, and then we’ll get major grief.’ Conor gave the snow another kick. ‘It’s not like we saw anything. And we don’t have to mention the beer. Or the girls. We’ll say it was just the two of us, sitting in the shed having a chat.’

‘Don’t be such a spa. Nobody will believe we were sitting in the shed having a chat. Why would we do that when it was freezing cold? We could’ve had a chat in the house.’

‘I’m not the one being a spa. Do you want the guards to catch Father Galvin’s killer, or don’t you?’

Tom gave the fertiliser sack an angry rattle. ‘Huh. That’s a stupid question. Of course I do. It happened in my house, remember?’

‘You do know that not telling’s a crime? When my dad works out what happened, we’ll be sent to one of those homes full of hard-chaw joyriders and glue-sniffers, like the O’Grady brothers except a million times worse.’

‘Lighten up, would you?’ said Tom.

They walked the rest of the way in silence.

Although Conor didn’t really believe they’d be sent to a home for rough lads, he was convinced they should come clean. He didn’t like to think of his dad wasting time questioning people who’d had nothing to do with Father Galvin’s death.