A Terrible Beauty

'Yes, but I only checked that she existed. I didn't ask if she was a pensioner.'

'Have you heard from Katie yet?'

'No, but she's due back at lunch to talk to that Tomas O Conaill again.'

'Due back from where?'

'She went out to Knocknadeenly with Professor Quinn. She wanted to talk to the Meaghers again.'

'Katie's taken Lucy Quinn with her to Knocknadeenly?'

'That's right. She mentioned it this morning.'

'Have you tried her cell phone?'

'I can't get through. The mountains screw up the signal, especially in this weather. She said she wouldn't be later than twelve so.'

Jimmy picked up Gerard's notebook again. Why had Gerard needed to talk to Katie so urgently, and why had somebody come to Gerard's flat, smashed up his computer, and pulled him apart? Maybe that somebody hadn't wanted him to tell Katie what he had discovered. But if that was the case, why hadn't he taken his notebook, with all his research in it? Unless that somebody could read no Gaelic, and hadn't realized from the first few pages what it was all about.

He tried Katie's cell phone number again. Now the signal said that the phone was out of service. He tried Liam Fennessy instead.

'Inspector? Jimmy O'Rourke here. Are you anywhere near Knocknadeenly?'

'Not far. I'm just on my way back from Rathcormac. Assault with a deadly leg of pale ham. Fellow knocked his poor old father's teeth out.'

'I've been trying to contact Katie Maguire. She's up at the Meagher farm with that Professor Lucy Quinn, supposed to be talking to John Meagher and his mother. Trouble is I can't get a signal, and, well-'

'What?'

'I've been looking through Gerard O'Brien's research papers here, and there's kind of a cryptic note about Lucy Quinn, like she may not be exactly who she says she is.'

'So who exactly is she?'

'I don't know, but it might be an idea to call up at the Meaghers' and make sure that everything's okay.'

'All right, then. I'll be down with you in Perrott Street in twenty minutes or so. You've got everything under control, then?'

Oh, yes, thought Jimmy. I've got a dead university professor with no arms and a notebook containing the most explosive political secret of the twentieth century. Everything's well under control, boy.

Liam arrived at the entrance to Meagher's Farm and tooted his horn. The garda on duty came hurrying through the rain and Liam wound his window down. 'Is Detective Superintendent Maguire still here?'

The garda nodded. 'She's been here about forty-five minutes, sir.'

'Okay, thanks.'

He drove up to the farm buildings. Katie's car was parked outside, as well as a tractor with its engine idling. He climbed out of his car and puddle-hopped over to the front door. The door was half ajar, and so he knocked at it and called out, 'Superintendent? Anybody home?'

Katie knelt in the mud with the rain dripping from her nose and her nipples and sliding down her spine. She could hear Lucy on the far side of Siobhan Buckley's remains, chanting and humming. 'Come to me, Mor-Rioghain. Come to me, you queen of death and darkness. Come and see what I have to offer you. Come and feast off flesh and pain.'

Katie didn't know what had happened to John, even though he lay only a few feet away from her, his shirt dark with blood. All she could think of was: supposing I got up and tried to run, how far would I get, tied up and blindfolded? But what else can I do? I can't just kneel here and wait for her to cut my stomach open.

'Come to me, Mor-Rioghain, mistress of misery. Come to me, enchantress. I will give you freedom again. I will give you substance and shape. I will set you back where you belong, on a mortal throne, in a mortal kingdom.'

Katie was sure that she heard a kind of cackling hiss, like a tortured cat. It was difficult to tell, because of the splattering sound of the rain falling on the field, and the sighing and creaking of the trees in Iollan's Wood, but it went on and on, and if anything it was growing louder.

'Come to me, Mor-Rioghain. I can feel your presence close by. Come to me, sister of disaster, bringer of woe, you who walk by night through cemeteries and sepulchers.'

Katie thought: this is madness. There is no Mor-Rioghain. There is no Invisible Kingdom. How can she sacrifice me to somebody who doesn't exist? Yet she continued to strain her ears to hear the cat-hiss, and she thought she could detect another sound, too-a very low-frequency throbbing, like a large unlit tanker making its way up the River Lee in the middle of the night.

'Mor-Rioghain, listen to me! Mor-Rioghain, bring me your magic! I will serve you Mor-Rioghain forever and ever!'

Lucy's voice grew higher and harsher, and behind her blindfold Katie suddenly thought:this doesn't sound like the Lucy I know. This doesn't even sound like a woman. More like a beast.

'Mor-Rioghain! Queen of the night! Empress of every decay! Come to me, Mor-Rioghain, I have given you everything you ever demanded!Come to me, damn and curse you, Mor-Rioghain! Come to me! Come to me!'