Chapter 47
“Jaaay — zzus,” said Malone, and pocketed mobile. Minogue hadn’t even tried to pretend he wasn’t eavesdropping.
“They had a row, you say,” Minogue said.
“They did all right.”
“Over what he was doing, she said?”
“Or not doing,” replied Malone. “But, man, she’s upset now, I’ll tell you.”
Minogue spotted the Toyota coming around the bend at speed.
“Her mother, I think,” said Malone. “I got her to phone them.”
“Well it’s father driving, I think.”
Malone climbed slowly out of his car. Minogue half-listened to the hurried conversation with Brid O Connor’s parents. The mother had been crying. The father looked angry and frantic, drilling a stare into Malone as though to extract something from him.
Malone was patient for a man who had been up all night. Minogue heard him say something about all avenues. He hardly means the roads around here.
“Hard to know what to tell them,” Malone muttered as he sat in again.
“You phoned him in officially, did you? Missing Persons?”
Malone nodded.
“She’s beating herself up over it,” he said. “Over why she waited. On account she was so mad at him. All in the past now, I can tell you.”
Both detectives looked over at the house when they heard a shriek. Brid O Connor clung tight to her mother. The door closed awkwardly.
“What do you want to do,” Malone said.
Minogue shook his head. He thought of Matthews, and Twomey, the two girls. Proper little bitches, he remembered the desk Sergeant muttering yesterday evening.
“Climb back into that poofy new car of yours, and go back to bed?”
Minogue didn’t bother replying.
“I actually don’t want to think about this anymore,” said Malone. “That woman in there. And the kid. Bad enough that I’m so wired already.”
He shook his head slowly from side to side.
“I’d better do something,” Minogue said. “Those two fellas are up in court at eleven, looking for bail. I have to get my stapler going on the bits and bobs of paper for that.”
“What about the two young ones you were telling me about, the ones you decided to release last night?”
“Going to charge them,” said Minogue. “No sexism here.”
Malone sat up and frowned, and he gave Minogue a hard look.
“Why are you going around wrestling paper for this stuff? Aren’t you case officer for this? Get some of your butties there to do the court appearance and all the rest of it.”
“So I can do what instead?”
Malone waited a few moments.
“So you can see how we do real police work instead. Tracking down these two fellas that Fanning told her about.”
Minogue thought about it.
“Nothing’s going to happen without a bit of something to eat,” he said. “A cup of something.”
Malone knew his way around Rathmines. In spite of the traffic, he and Minogue were seated in The Red Shoes, their fry ordered and coffee before them on the table. Malone had to go outside to take a call from his boss. He came back in just as the plates were put down on the table. He stood by the table, eyeing the scrambled egg and the two shiny sausages as though they held a secret for him.
“Sit down, you’re making me nervous.”
“We have a bit more from our friends in the quare place,” he said quietly. “The Big Smoke.”
London, he meant, Minogue realized.
“And it’s beginning to look like we’re dealing with the same people. Head-cases, I should be saying.”
Minogue forked some of the egg onto a piece of toast, but much of it fell off when he lifted it.
Malone went on in a thoughtful tone.
“What he told the missus. ‘English, probably, gangsters.’”
“Not all English people are gangsters.”
“Didn’t want her worrying, maybe,” said Malone.
“A bit cryptic all the same.”
“Whatever that means.”
“Mysterious. Like he didn’t make it clear.”
Malone sighed and launched into his breakfast. His phone went again.
“Where?” he asked, and he sat up straight. He looked at Minogue.
“Two of them? How deep is it there?”
He listened, chewing on the sausage that he had picked up with his fingers.
“The sooner, the better,” he said. “If they’re asking my opinion.”
“Two cars,” Malone said after he had hung up. “In the water there, up by the Port of Dublin. Not far from the quays.”
He gave Minogue a knowing look.
“They’re starting on it in a while,” Malone added.
Minogue was feeling full now. He concentrated on the coffee.
“Any more on the two men?” he asked Malone.
“One they think is a fella, Kilcullen. Great name for a soldier boy, I suppose.”
“Irish, though?”
“Half and half. The mother is. The father, well he shagged off. Mother reared him herself.”
“No family here?”
“No. There’s a brother of hers, his uncle. But they’re not on speaking terms. Plus, he’s in the nick. Fancy that.”
“But this Kilcullen, he’s not a career criminal, according to them?”
“Huh,” said Malone. “That’s what they’re telling us. But they’d hardly be admitting they get their recruits in jails. I mean, this isn’t any oul regiment we’re talking about.”
“The Queen Mother’s crowd, I seem to remember,” said Minogue.
“I never thought there’d be Irish fellas in the British Army, I have to tell you. Shows how little I know.”
“Well he wasn’t in it that long, was he. Just long enough.”
“That’s a fact,” said Malone, in a leaden tone. “Teach them how to use weapons, let them loose over there in Iraq. Big surprise they go haywire, isn’t it. Well, some of them anyway.”
Minogue tried to remember the name of the officer who had given that speech before the fighting started over there. An Irish name, maybe even born here somewhere. Some controversy about him afterwards?
“Nothing on the second fella yet?”
“No. Could be anyone. They’ve contacted the regiment, and they’re going through their records. Their list of nicknames, for all I know.”
“West Ham. I don’t follow the football.”
“They’re nothing much anymore. But the fans are another matter. ‘The Hammers.’ They have a name for going over the top.”
Minogue looked down at the cooling smears of grease on his plate. There would definitely need to be more coffee. He switched on his mobile.
Kevin Wall was at his desk already. He gave no sign he was at all annoyed about Minogue’s rebuff last night. Minogue asked if he would do court, for Matthews and Twomey. No problem, was Wall’s cheerful response, and
