Poor Pat? He studied the flash of the outside line on his phone, its constant glow as Murtagh picked it up.
“I’ll try her again around tea-time,” he said.
“Yes. And you could suggest to her-”
Murtagh was waving and pointing at the receiver in his left hand. Kilmartin walked smartly to Hoey’s desk and grabbed the extension.
“Have to go, Kathleen. Got a call. I’ll phone you back.”
“It’s Hickey,” Murtagh whispered. He tapped at his head. “Sounds like he’s out of it.” Minogue’s heart began to beat faster.
“Ready to try again then?” he whispered to Murtagh. He pushed down the button.
“Liam? This is Matt Minogue. How are you?”
He heard the dull bass of television voices nearby.
“How do you fucking think I am?”
Murtagh waved. He had the line open to Communications.
“I’m glad you called, Liam. I was hoping you would.”
“So’s you get another chance? I seen yous racing around the place two minutes after I dropped the phone, man! What kind of fucking treatment is that?”
Slurred all right. Minogue bit his lip.
“It’s police procedure, Liam. Straight out.”
“Wait a minute there, you! Just hold on there a minute! This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Why amn’t I getting more of the social worker crap? ‘Come on, Liam, I understand your problems.’ Huh? ‘Let’s talk about it, Liam.’ What if I just drop the bleeding phone right now?”
Minogue waited for several seconds.
“Then you’d be a damn liar, Liam. You’re no friend of Mary’s.”
The Inspector looked around the squadroom. Murtagh was rubbing his ear. Kilmartin’s brow had lifted and the Inspector caught a glimpse of teeth as they scraped on his upper lip. Hickey wasn’t talking.
“So prove me wrong, Liam.”
“Don’t… you… fucking talk to me like that! What gives you the-I could just drop the phone-”
“Listen to me, Liam. Your alibi is coming out pretty clean. Tell me who you fenced the stuff to, the camera and the jacket.”
“Why? So’s I get the guy into trouble and have him and his mates after me too? All he’d tell you anyway is the opposite of what I’m telling you. ‘Never heard of the guy.’ Christ, that’s what I’d say if the cops landed in on top of me, man! Forget it.”
“Well, give me something definite then. I mean, someone else could have robbed the stuff and told you about it. Tell me what else you took out of the car.”
“What do you mean, what else?”
“If you’re lying, you don’t know what I mean then, do you?”
“A Walkman. I kept it.”
“What kind of a Walkman?”
“Sony. The batteries ran out.”
“What tape was in it?”
“What kind of a fucking question-”
“What tape was in it, Liam?”
“What’s the guy. He has a group. The guitar guy. Ahhh… Dire Straits. Brothers in Arms.”
“What did you do with it?”
“I still have it in the… Wait a minute. What are you trying to do here? You’ll pull me in on robbing the car and then throw me somewhere the Egans can nail me!”
The drone of a conversation blended with the bass, excited and indecipherable tones of a television ad. Minogue looked down at his scribble. Brothers in Arms. Had he heard that one before?
“Come on in, Liam. We can put you in a safe place.”
“Where, for Christ’s sake? For how long? My only chance is out here! But you guys are out there, still trying to run me down as well!”
“Meet me, Liam. Just me.”
“You’re nuts! Even if I did, what good would it do? I don’t know anything about Mary. I come in, you want answers that I don’t have! I don’t know what she was into, man!”
“You might know something we could use and still-”
“To hell with you!”
“Give me a middleman then. Someone you trust.”
“Like who?”
“Your friend, Tierney. Your ma says you and he are pals, right?”
“Jammy? Hah! We used to be. But he hates my guts now. Jesus! When he found out about Mary, he treats me like AIDS man. Christ! He always… Forget it.”
“He always what?”
“Forget it, I said! I’m going to drop this fucking phone-”
“Why not Tierney?”
“Jammy’s a gobshite like anyone else. He heard the Egans were on the warpath. He’s so straight, he’s like a fucking…”
“What?”
“Ah, they were opposites. Mary liked the life. Jammy’s thick. He couldn’t figure that out. He doesn’t know how people work. That’s just the way with some people.”
“You all grew up together-”
“‘Course we fucking did! As if you didn’t know that already! That’s ages-way back, yeah. Everything’s mad when you’re thirteen. A few jars out in the back fields before they built the cardboard factory out there. Next thing you know is you’re doing it, like. The girls, you know? But Jammy couldn’t get near her. Ah, what am I talking about?”
Minogue’s hand closed tighter on the pen. He began to stab it slowly and deliberately into the mess of tissues and coffee. He didn’t want to see the expression on Kilmartin’s face.
“Don’t leave it hanging, Liam. You can help. You can.”
“I’m no fucking mug! I got to look out for Number One, man!”
Thoughts flew faster through Minogue’s mind.
“We have to talk, Liam. There’s got to be a way. Pick a spot-”
“I’m gone, man. I’m gone!”
“Pick a time, Liam. Any time. I guarantee-”
“Fuck you and your guarantee! Eddsy Egan had a guy’s throat slit in the ’Joy three years ago! And Eddsy’s still walking the streets!”
Minogue squeezed the pen tight and closed his eyes. The line went dead.
He flung the receiver on the desk. Murtagh leaped up out of his chair.
“Pub phone,” he called out. “Barney’s, in Capel Street.”
Minogue handed the note to Eilis.
“Will you kindly get ahold of the fella with the GTI Hickey says he did?”
Eilis looked up at the ceiling and drew on her cigarette.
“Travers,” she murmured. “Blackrock.” Minogue winked.
“There’s the name of the tape that Hickey says he got in the Walkman he robbed. First see if the actual name of the, er, the artist, is inventoried on the Stolen Vehicles report. If you please, Eilis.”
She squinted at the sheet and turned it upside down.
“I’ll be needing it translated, your honour. ‘Brothers…’?”
“ Brothers in Arms.”
Minogue returned to his desk and flopped into his chair. He rested his chin on his fist and stared at the phone.
