“How did Mary get around?”
She took a deep breath and let her eyes close.
“We’re not going to go through all that again, are we?” The biro slipped from Minogue’s fingers onto the table. He’d had enough.
“It’s here or in an interview room down at the station.”
Her breath came out in a rush. She sagged in the chair.
“I don’t know how she got around,” she groaned. “Like anyone else. Bus. Walking. Taxi. I don’t know!”
“Well, she didn’t stay in the flat every night, we know that from what you told us.”
Her hand went to her forehead. Her jaw began to quiver.
“It’s no good crying now, Patricia. Let me get it right this time. I just can’t believe that you didn’t wonder about her and then ask her things.”
“She didn’t like that, I told you. She told me to mind me own business more times.”
“You never worried about her those times she didn’t come home?”
“She was an adult, wasn’t she? I mean, she’d been around, right?”
Minogue thought of the slime on the canal water. Mary Mullen shouldn’t have been there: why did he keep thinking that? His eyes came back into focus on Patricia’s cigarette. Her head was aslant, eyes steady on his now.
“She was doing,” she was saying. “Except for the once, I suppose.”
She let go of a strand of hair over her forehead.
“Why did you move in with Mary, then?”
“It was more she moved in with me.”
“Why did she move in with you, then?”
“I don’t know. What was I going to say to her: ‘Why’d you move in with me?’”
“Why do you think, then.”
“She-what difference does it make?”
“Any detail helps, Patricia. You say Mary kept things to herself, things beyond the usual day-to-day chat. We have to dig around for something.”
She examined a picture of Torremolinos, flicking her cigarette several times.
“She wanted a place, I suppose, didn’t she? Maybe somewhere ordinary, away from her other life. The high life, whatever she had going.”
“Tell me again about who called for her.”
She closed her eyes and let her head roll back.
“Phone calls, Patricia. Try and remember.”
“Fellas. Always the same.”
“Who were they?”
“Nobody. ‘Leave a message for Mary. Bobby’ll send a taxi around.’ Or, ‘Tell Mary to phone Bobby.’ That was it. I already told you that before.”
“Before? How do I know you’re still not holding back here?”
For a moment he thought she would hit him. After several moments, she shrank back in her chair. Her hands still gripped the table-top. He saw her Adam’s apple go first. Her arms went slack and her hands dropped away from the edge of the table. She elbowed the ashtray away and laid her head down on her arms.
“Bastards,” she wailed. “Yous’ll never give up, will you?”
Her father yanked open the door.
“That’s enough,” he growled. Minogue turned and stood.
“Enough of you listening in at the door, you mean.”
“Get out of my house this minute!”
“I’ll have a squad car around within ten minutes to pick Patricia up.”
“Like hell you will!”
“Obstructing police is a lot more serious of an offence than you seem to believe there, Mister. Turn down the volume and wait outside.”
“My daughter’s not going anywhere!”
“That’s what I was hoping to hear. We’ll conclude our chat shortly- as soon as you get yourself settled down and out of the way.”
“That’s what you think, pal.”
“If you’ve nothing to do for about six months, just stay right there and make a bigger iijit out of yourself. I go, Patricia goes. So do you.”
“Harassment! Look at her, she’s in tears!”
Minogue looked down at his shoes.
“What do you say, Patricia?” he asked. “Can we move on here a bit or…?”
She lifted her head a little and nodded. Her father jabbed at the air.
“If you-” he began. Minogue looked up. Fahy backed out the door, still waving his finger.
“As true as God,” she whispered. “I knew nothing. The nearest I got to knowing anything was them pictures. And they were the biggest mistake of my life, ’cause now you think I’m like her, like the way she was, I mean. And I’m not.”
She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and lit another cigarette.
“Okay, Patricia. Let’s try again. Mary and you were talking one evening.”
“It was before Christmas. I remember, because I was thinking of the presents I was going to buy and all. I sort of wanted to know how I could, well-I’m not saying I wanted to live like Mary did. No way.”
“She told you about it then. The photography.”
She nodded and held in the smoke she had drawn so deeply.
“She brought me along. We’d had a few drinks, you know? I wanted to know and everything, sure, but I didn’t want to be too nosy, did I? And she told me too. ‘Just do what they tell you. Don’t be asking questions. They don’t like that.’ Yeah, right.”
“‘They’?”
“That fella with the pony-tail. She told me he worked for them. The Egans. Anyway. She puts on that face, the face she’d have on when you wouldn’t know if she was thinking you were a gobshite or if she felt sorry for you. She says: ‘I bet you don’t have the nerve.’ Like it was a dare. And I knew, I knew that she thought, well, this’ll teach the kid a lesson. That’s when I knew I’d go through with it. We go into the hotel. There’s more gargle-”
“Just the drink? Were there drugs produced?”
“No, there weren’t! Jases! I wouldn’t even know what they looked like!”
“Go on then.”
“There’s make-up and stuff on a table. It kind of looks like the set of a film. It doesn’t look like what I expect, you know? That blond-haired fella at the camera: he was a prick. And the guy with the pony-tail just standing around. I thought he’d want to try a few moves, you know? So I tell Mary, look, I says, I don’t want anything to do with that creep. No way. She sort of smiles and says something to him.”
“Did she call him by his name?”
“No. She just says, ‘Don’t be getting ideas there. Eddsy wouldn’t appreciate it.’”
“Meaning?”
“I don’t know, do I? I make one slip and now I’m supposed to be the expert on this?”
“Go on.”
“Go on with what? That was it! It was more than I expected but it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I’m telling you straight out that I was pissed by the time it was over. Mary had a few drinks too but I don’t think she was drunk. I cried me eyes out all the next day. And it wasn’t just the hangover, let me tell you.”
“Mary took part in the session, you said.”
“Yeah.”
“And you both, as a pair…?”
“That’s right. I didn’t really know what I was doing. It looked like Mary did. I was gargled by then. Not completely locked, now. But, you know…”
“You said that you talked to Mary about Eddsy Egan. Afterwards. About his likes and dislikes in this
