‘You didn’t go out with him then?’
‘No. I don’t think we ever said more than two words to each other that weren’t work related . . . Like I said.’
‘Maybe he was a fruit.’
‘I doubt you would have said that to his face.’
‘Tough guy was he?’
‘I don’t think Stratton had a sense of humour about that sort of thing. I’m not sure he had a sense of humour at all.’
Something inside Bill rocked at the mention of the name. The unbreakable smile looked unsteady for a few seconds. He cleared his throat.
‘Do you keep in touch with him?’ he asked.
‘We weren’t in touch when we worked together. I’m not sure why I mentioned him,’ she said, although that was not true. She wanted to let Bill know she was not a lesbian.
‘Why do you think you fancied him?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Why do you fancy anyone?’ ‘You like that kind of man?’
‘What kind is that?’
‘He’s a bit of a heartless killer, by all accounts.’
‘I’m not sure how true those stories are and I don’t think he’s heartless.’
‘Everyone else does. The way I understand it is he likes killing people so much it’s not only part of his job it’s his extra-curricular activity too.’
‘People like to make up stories about guys like Stratton.’
Bill was sticking the knife into Stratton for a number of reasons, jealousy only one of them. He wondered if it would affect her feelings for Stratton if she knew how true the stories were. But women were strange that way, he reminded himself. They loved rogues. Bill had made a lot of mileage out of that one himself.
‘Can we not talk shop any more?’ she said. ‘I have one more day off and I don’t even want to think about work . . . I almost didn’t meet you tonight because of that.’ ‘Then not another word about it,’ he said.
The waiter arrived with the wine and after he poured them a glass each they ordered. Bill chatted away, doing most of the talking, which he did not mind. Besides, Aggy was a good listener and he was making her laugh. Which was something she’d done little of in the past year.
‘What do you do to amuse yourself in your downtime back at the det?’ he said, then quickly, ‘Oops, I said the “D” word.’
‘It’s okay. Let’s face it, it’s our life. It’s hard not to talk about it. How about best efforts?’ she said.
‘Best efforts . . . It is an unusual business we’re in,’ he said. ‘Hard to ignore we have such unusual occupations.’
‘I was walking down Oxford Street this morning, mostly window shopping, when I found myself doing anti- surveillance. ’
‘Not a bad idea looking as delicious as you do. How short is that skirt? I’ve been praying you’d go to the loo soon so I could get a look at it.’
She stood up and put her hands on her hips, mimicking a model’s flare.
‘Turn around,’ he said.
She pretended to be irritated by the attention but did as she was told and turned around one way, and then back the other.
Bill looked at her perfect breasts, slender hips and tight, rounded bottom with X-ray eyes, ‘Jesus,’ he mumbled to himself. She sat back down and he continued staring. ‘You know, it would not be such a good idea if you dressed like that over you-know-where.You’d attract far too much attention. ’
She sipped her wine. ‘The last thing you need in that job. That’s why I try and look like a boy. They want me to look feminine, but they’re wrong. I wouldn’t last a week.’
He was enjoying her more and more, mainly because he never expected her to be as sharp as she was.
‘I read mostly,’ she said. ‘In my spare time. Books.’
‘Books,’ he said. Another nice surprise. ‘People don’t read enough books these days. I read all the time.’
‘What kind of books?’ she asked.
‘Non-fiction. History.’
‘Just non-fiction?’ she asked.
‘Pretty much. Unless it’s a fictional character set in a factual setting.’
‘Like what?’
‘
‘Idiot,’ she said, laughing. ‘You can’t stay serious for more than a few seconds at a time, can you?’
‘I am Irish, remember. But you should know that the Irish joke a lot to hide how serious they truly are.’
‘You don’t seem Irish.’
‘And how does an Irish person seem?’
‘I mean you’ve only got a faint accent.’
‘I spent most of my youth in England.’
‘Your accent’s nice. It has soft edges.’ She looked into his eyes, growing warmer towards him.
‘Thank you,’ he said, staring back at her.
The waiter arrived and placed their meals in front of them.
‘That was good timing. My heart was tearing at me to lean over and kiss you.’
‘You’ll get gravy on your shirt.’
‘I might just walk across the bloody table if you look at me like that again.’
She suddenly felt it was moving too fast and pulled back a few bends in the road.
‘Is it difficult for you . . . fighting your own people?’ she asked, then wondered why she did. It was a stupid question.
‘My own people?’
‘I didn’t mean it to come out quite like that. Forget I said it.’
‘I know what you mean. I think the Catholics have a valid argument.’
‘Do they?’
‘They weren’t always at war with the Brits, you know,’ he said. ‘Before the IRA there was the IRB: the B stood for Brotherhood. They were non-militants and had quite a few admirable characters among them.’
‘Like whom?’
‘There were loads of ’em.’
‘So tell me.’
He smiled at her inquisitiveness. ‘Okay. Have you ever heard of Thomas Francis Meagher?’
‘No.’
‘Right then. I’ll tell you a little about him. Now you’re sure you want me to bore you to death with a bit of Irish history?’
‘I like history.’
‘That’s all you had to say. Okay. Let me see. Thomas Meagher . . . He lived around the time of the great famine. Do you know when that was?’
‘Somewhere in the eighteen hundreds?’ she asked, guessing.
‘More than what most people know. And you know that was when the Irish wanted to become independent?’
‘Kind of.’
‘Kind of,’ he said rolling his eyes good-humouredly. ‘If you’re going to go to war against them you should at least have the decency to know what it’s about.’
‘That’s why I’m asking.’
‘Better late than never, I suppose . . . Well, the British didn’t want that and so they planned to weaken the country by exporting as much of the food as they could to England, leaving hardly anything for the people to eat but potatoes. You know about that?’
‘Kind of.’
He took a mouthful of food and a swig of wine before continuing.‘Okay.Then a mysterious blight arrived in
