“Intentionally, you mean.”
“Any shagging way, that’s what I mean. That’s why they have managers and everything. Their stuff is under lockup here so’s it doesn’t get interfered with.”
“It’s not checked going out is it though?”
“What, that mountain of gear? No. How big a thing are yous looking for?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well I can tell we’re going to have a grand time of it, so.”
“But I do know it could arrive here as long as no one thinks we’re onto them.”
Paddy Mac took a step back. Minogue glanced down at the feet. Tiny, ninety degrees, like birds. The barrel chest.
“Well how do you propose to keep it all quiet here?”
“Number one is that you undertake not to say a word to anyone.”
“What, including me boss?”
“Including your boss, your wife and kids, anybody. Then you get us in there, as employees maybe. A set of uniforms maybe? Overalls?”
“Four of yous?”
“Two of us, say.”
Paddy Mac looked from face to face. Minogue wondered if the humor would win out.
“Let me have a gander at this warrant then.”
Minogue handed it over. Malone met his eyes in the mirror.
“Never seen one before, tell you the truth,” said Paddy Mac. “Except on the telly. Ha, ha. Looks real enough, but.”
He folded the papers and handed them back.
“So,” said Malone. “What’s it going to be, Love Me Tender?”
The Dublinman’s glazed and faraway stare gave way to a smirk.
“Well it won’t be Heartbreak Hotel,” he said. “This time, like.”
CHAPTER 27
Minogue’s overalls were too short in the crotch. He pulled at them, shoved his hands down hard in the pockets, but they still caught him. Malone looked a model. He leaned against the wall and watched Minogue try to stretch the overalls again. Paddy Mac arrived in from the hall.
“Jases, you look like you’re choking in that.”
“Have you nothing else?”
“No. Here’s the list for that load of stuff.”
Minogue gave up on tailoring and joined Malone looking over the printout.
“What’s FEI?” Malone asked.
“Freight Express Ireland. They’re just the delivery agent. The number there is the day. The month comes first. It’s American software.”
Minogue looked down the dates. He tried to put dates to Shaughnessy. His brain wouldn’t work. He searched for a Biro.
“The dates,” he muttered.
“Dates for what?” Paddy Mac asked.
“Ah, I’m trying to match events to this stuff, this storage.”
Minogue opened his notebook and tore out a sheet. He began with the last day of Shaughnessy’s stay in Jury’s Hotel. He half-listened to Paddy Mac quizzing Malone about murders.
“The American fella,” said Paddy Mac. “You’re not telling me anything about that end.”
“Call out the dates to me, Tommy, like a good man.”
Malone stopped when Minogue raised his hand. The inspector looked back in his notebook
“What?” asked Paddy Mac.
Malone stepped over to Minogue. The inspector tapped on dates he’d put down after the PM.
“The last two there,” Malone whispered. “That’d be after he was killed, right?”
Minogue looked at the boxes again.
“Is this all there is for them?” he asked Paddy Mac.
“You mean is there more? I don’t know.”
“What’s the count there again?”
“Twenty… seven.”
“And the latest stuff in?”
“Four days back.”
Minogue stepped around Paddy Mac and pulled at the catch on one of the boxes. Bose — he’d heard of that. There were five pop-up latches. The third one wouldn’t budge. Paddy Mac took out a tool from his belt and held it out to Minogue. The inspector didn’t know which way to hold it. He looked at the screwdriver head, the jemmy edge next to it, the small hammer head.
“Here,” said Paddy Mac. “Let me do it. You’d only break it.”
Minogue helped him lift the lid. Coiled electrical wires as thick as his finger, knobs, a grille, sockets to plug in leads.
“Amplifying stuff,” said Paddy Mac. “I don’t know ”
There was a hiss and a whirr outside the cage, a whistle. Minogue looked around Paddy Mac at the forklift operator. Paddy Mac stepped out. Minogue turned back to the boxes. He listened to Paddy Mac’s drollery with the driver. A dry run for the new spot checks, Minogue heard: customs, an EU effort, no warning, such a fuckin’ crowd, yeah? The forklift squealed away. Malone wedged himself in between boxes. He used his knees to lever two stacks apart. The squeak as they moved cut right through Minogue’s ears.
“The most recent ones here at the front, Paddy?” Minogue asked.
“That’s the general idea. Yeah. Hey, how are yous going to get into them without a lift?”
Malone looked up at the the top of the stack. Paddy Mac sighed
“One a them’ll fall on you and I’ll wind up in the dock for it, or something.”
“Jailhouse rock,” said Malone.
“You’re a scream. Here — I’m going to get a lift.”
Minogue watched Paddy Mac’s walk, the toes outward. The divinity that shapes our ends, he thought, and people became like their -
“Any of the lads come by,” Paddy Mac called out over his shoulder, “give them the Customs and Excise spotcheck line. We’re only starting them next year to fall in with the EU regulations. Dry run, tell them.”
Minogue leaned around a box to look for a label. He stooped and looked through a gap toward the boxes in the middle of the stack. Malone climbed on one and began trying to slip the cables on another. Minogue heard Paddy Mac’s voice echo, the words of his call lost somewhere at the other end of the warehouse. Someone laughed. A door slid open, squeaked, and opened faster until it hit the end of its line.
“Wires,” said Malone “Big, fat leads. Speakers. Woofers. Tweeters. More wires.”
Minogue squinted in at the cases. Malone closed the lid and clipped the catches. Minogue stood up when he heard the scratching as Malone shoved a box. He heard the forklift rattle and hum as it approached.
“Wait there, Tommy, will you.”
Paddy Mac behind the wheel was a man possessed. Minogue stood outside with Malone watching. He wondered what Paddy Mac was saying to himself as he reversed and shot forward, swept in tight circles with inches to spare, dropped the boxes almost to the floor before braking, and then lowering the loads soundlessly to the floor. Minogue waved to him. Paddy Mac reversed over and stopped. Minogue pointed to the boxes that had been uncovered. Paddy Mac leaned his forearms on the rim of the steering wheel and watched as the two detectives edged their way through the cases toward the back of the set of boxes.
Minogue lifted the catches on a long box. Smells of rubber and dust rose around him. Lights? He lifted the
