Carrie shrugged. Now that they were alone, she was irritated by him again. Niall seemed to sense it, and he shut up again for a few minutes. It didn’t help. The day’s events kept running through her head, and she couldn’t make sense of them. She desperately wanted a few minutes to herself so she could have a good cry, and at the same time she was so furious that she wanted to punch something.

They turned the corner, and that was when Carrie spotted the Carmody hair salon. The salon where Laura O’Donnell had worked before her death. Where her best friend, Evelyn Ross, still worked, according to her statement. Almost without thinking, Carrie turned in that direction.

“Where are we going?” Niall asked.

“There’s someone in that shop over there I want to talk to.”

“Right. And who would that be?”

She stopped. “Just a witness. Look, Niall, this has nothing to do with you. You should get a coffee. Take a break. I’ll only be ten minutes or so.”

He shook his head. “You’re not going to brush me off that easily. What’s the story?”

Carrie grimaced. She thought about lying, then abandoned the idea. “I want to talk to this witness. A woman named Evelyn Ross. The thing is, it’s not my case. I only know about it because of Aifric. She’s working for the defense.”

Niall shrugged. “Well, whose case is it?”

“Charlie Sweeney’s.”

“And what kind of case is it, exactly?”

She hesitated. “Murder.”

Niall rolled his eyes. “Ah, Carrie, come on.”

“Look, you don’t need to come. Take a few minutes, all right? Take a break, take a piss, grab a coffee, whatever. I’ll be back, and then we can just get on with it.”

He studied her face. “What are you going to say to her?”

Carrie threw up her hands, exasperated. She wasn’t in the mood for explaining things. She needed to be doing something.

“I don’t know. Evelyn claimed to have overheard the boyfriend threatening the victim. Said that he said, and this is word for word, My life is worth nothing without you. I’d rather end your life than see you with another man.”

Niall laughed. “We’ve heard way worse than that, Carrie.”

“Yeah, we have. But we hear If I see another bastard sniffing around ya, I’ll break yer fucking face. And that’s the polite version. Listening to Evelyn Ross’s interview was like listening to Othello.”

“What?”

“You know, Shakespeare. She was too dramatic, too contrived—none of it rang true.” Carrie turned and walked on toward the salon.

“Carrie, wait. Jesus.” Niall hurried the few steps to catch up with her, caught her arm, and made her turn in his direction. “What are you doing?”

“I want to talk to her.”

“And then what? You’re going to go along to Charlie Sweeney and tell him you’ve been messing around with one of his cases?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Look, Niall, don’t come. Just wait for me. I only need ten minutes, all right?”