A Terrible Beauty

been ordinary folk looking for wealth, and fame, and power?all of the gifts that the fairies can give you.'

'And that was worth murdering eleven women for?'

'I still don't know why that was done, or what the ritual of the little rag dollies was all about, but I promise you I will. We may not bring a murderer to book, but at least we'll find out why he did it. That should give you some satisfaction, shouldn't it?'

Katie frowned at him. 'Satisfaction? I suppose so.'

'Look,' said Professor O'Brien, 'perhaps we could discuss this over lunch.'

'I'm sorry, not today. I have two other important cases I'm dealing with. Not to mention the disappearance of Charlie Flynn.'

'They do a great open sandwich at Morrison's Island Hotel. Tuna, or Cajun chicken. I go there twice a week at least.'

'Gerard, I'm sorry. I'm really too busy. But thank you for coming in, and for all of your information.'

Professor O'Brien gave her a bashful smile and then he said, 'I think you're a very striking-looking woman, Superintendent. I hope you don't object to my saying that.'

Katie smiled. 'No, of course not. It's very flattering. But-'

She nearly said, 'I'm married, Gerard,' but she didn't, because that simply wasn't the reason she was turning him down. Instead, she said, 'I'm sorry. I've got far too much on my plate already.'

Professor O'Brien had a noisy wrestling match with his map. 'I understand. But I'll keep on digging. You never know, you see-the Crown forces may have murdered these women and then hung these dollies on their thighbones to make it look like a ritual sacrifice, even when it wasn't.'

'That's another possibility, yes.'

Professor O'Brien shook her hand, ducking his head forward as if he was going to try to give her a kiss on the cheek, but then thinking better of it.

'I was engaged once,' he volunteered. 'Mairie, her name was. She looked very similar to you. Or, rather, you look very similar to her.'

'I'm sorry,' said Katie, and immediately regretted it, because it sounded so patronizing.

'It was a bit of a surprise. One day she said she loved me and the next day she said she didn't. Women! I don't think I'll ever understand them.'

Katie looked at him with his combed-over hair and his folded raincoat and his little hands likecrubeens,and she thought to herself, why is it that we can never tell people the truth?

Only an hour later, Dr. Reidy called her, and he sounded deeply grumpy.

'I sent your dollies in for analysis, and I'm not at all pleased that you've already closed this investigation without having the common courtesy to inform me.'

'I'm sorry, Dr. Reidy. I was under the impression that Chief Superintendent O'Driscoll was going to get in touch with you.'

'O'Driscoll? That fathead! He wouldn't tell his proctologist if he sat on a jam jar. As it is we've spent serious time and budget for no purpose whatsoever.'

'Did you find out anything interesting about the dolls?'

'Oh, yes, even though it doesn't matter two hoots now, does it? We've got a very talented young lady here at Phoenix Park who's an expert on fabrics. She dismembered a number of your little effigies and she says they're made out of torn strips of linen, some of which have lace edging. In other words, she thinks they were made out of a woman's petticoats, ripped into pieces. The lace, though, isn't Irish. It's a pattern she's never seen before.'

'What about the screws and the hooks?'

'We've made a provisional identification. They were probably handmade in a workshop just off French's Quay in Cork in 1914 or thereabouts. They were in common use in Cork City, in fact you could probably find quite a few of them now, in some of the older houses.'

'So, what do you think, Dr. Reidy?'

'I don't think anything, my dear, not unless I'm paid to think and not unless there's some specific purpose.'

'I'd like to see your full report as soon as possible.'

'My dear, those poor women have already waited eighty years. You don't think that a couple of days more is going to make any difference?'

'Well, I don't know. But I think it might.'

Dr. Reidy wheezed in and out, saying nothing for a while. Then he said, 'You've got a feeling about this, haven't you, Detective Superintendent?'

'It depends what you mean by a feeling.'

'You've got a feeling that this business is going to turn out very black.'

'How do you know that?'

'I've been the state pathologist for twenty-two years, my dear. I saw it in your eyes. I heard it in the way you spoke to me.'