‘No electricity, no work,’ said Ginny, shaking off her jacket. ‘The scabby so-and-sos don’t have a generator, so they told us all to go home. I’m sorry now that I bothered going in at all. The roads are a fright. We couldn’t even clock out because the machine had stopped, but they made us sign our cards. “I’m not losing half a day’s money over something that’s not my fault,” I said to the supervisor. “You take as much as twenty pence out of my pay packet, and there’ll be trouble.” You should have seen the face on her. You’d think she was chewing thistles. Not, mind you, that there was a tap of work done today. All anybody wanted to do was talk about Father Galvin, and when I said I was at the party in Cora and Haulie’s place, they had me plagued.’ She knocked her knuckles against her forehead. ‘Oh, listen to me – going off on a rant. Work does that to me. Sorry, Nina, pet. Your mam’s never had to get a job, has she?’

‘No. I mean, she worked in an office before she got married, and sometimes she helps my dad with the paperwork, but she says running the house keeps her busy.’

‘Lucky her.’ Ginny removed a box of cigarettes and a red lighter from her jacket pocket, lit up and took a long pull. ‘How’s your day been, girls?’

‘Fine,’ said Tess. ‘Better than school, anyway. What were people saying about Father Galvin?’

‘What weren’t they saying? It seems the outsider theory’s been abandoned, so everybody’s convinced the killer must have been at the party.’ She shivered. ‘Which, when you think about it, is pretty scary.’ Tess and Nina exchanged a glance, but Ginny didn’t appear to notice. ‘And of course they’re all going on about why anyone would want to harm a priest.’

‘Really?’ said Tess.

‘Yeah. I heard every kind of crackpot notion today. Some folks say he owed money, and others insist that, no, people owed money to him. More say he fell out with some men over a sermon he gave about violence against women, and another lad swore it was all part of a mad conspiracy connected to the Pope who died and …’ She paused to look at Tess and Nina. ‘Here, you won’t say any of this to anybody, will you?’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Tess.

‘Seriously, it’s all nonsense made up by people who’ve nothing better to be doing.’

‘We won’t say a word, honest,’ said Nina, her mind doing cartwheels. Was it possible that any of this was true?

‘Good girl. Anyway, the removal’s been arranged for tomorrow. The funeral Mass will take place here, but he’ll be buried up in Knockgreelish where his family lives.’

‘Will everybody have to go?’ asked Tess.