I said, ‘You know I’m going to need more detail on that one.’

‘He only cared about what he wanted. Most of the time that was fine, because what he wanted was for everyone in the world to like him, so he was all about being nice. But sometimes, like when he could make everyone laugh by slagging off someone who wasn’t important? Or when he wanted something and he couldn’t get it?’ Holly shook her head. ‘Not so nice.’

‘Give me an example.’

She thought, choosing. ‘OK,’ she said. Still cool, but an underline like anger in her voice. ‘This one time, a load of us were down at the Court, us and some Colm’s guys. We’re in line at this café, and this girl Elaine orders the last chocolate muffin, right? Chris is behind her, and he goes, “Hey, I’m having that,” and Elaine’s like, “Uh-uh, too slow.” And Chris goes, loud, so everyone can hear him, “Your arse doesn’t need any more muffins.” All the guys start laughing. Elaine goes scarlet, and Chris pokes her in the arse and goes, “You’ve got enough muffins in there to start your own bakery. Can I have a bite?” Elaine just turns around and practically runs out of the place. The guys are all yelling after her, “Shake it, baby! Work the wobble!” and everyone’s laughing.’

Going by what Conway had said, this was the first time anyone had talked about Chris anything like this. I said, ‘Lovely.’

‘Right? Elaine wouldn’t go anywhere she might see Colm’s guys for, like, weeks, and I think she’s still on a diet – and just by the way, she wasn’t even fat to begin with. And the thing is, Chris didn’t need to do that. I mean, it was just a muffin, it wasn’t the last tickets to the rugby World Cup final. But Chris thought Elaine should’ve backed down the second he wanted it. So when she didn’t’ – twist of Holly’s mouth – ‘he punished her. Like he figured she deserved.’

I said, ‘Elaine what?’

A beat, but it was easy to check. ‘Heaney.’

‘Anyone else Chris was a prick to?’

Shrug. ‘It’s not like I was taking notes. Maybe most people didn’t notice it, because like I said, it was only sometimes, and mostly he made people laugh doing it. He made it seem like just messing, just fun. But Elaine noticed. And anyone else he did it to, I bet they noticed.’

Conway said, ‘Last year you didn’t say Chris was a prick. You said you hardly knew him but he seemed like an OK guy.’

Holly examined that. Said, picking her words, ‘I was younger then. Everyone thought Chris was nice, so I figured probably he was. I didn’t really get what he was doing, till later.’

Lie: the lie Conway had been waiting for.