A Terrible Beauty

Katie called Paul on her cell phone as she drove home, but there was no reply. He was probably still in bed, sleeping off whatever he had been drinking last night. She called Liam Fennessy, and his phone rang and rang for nearly half a minute before his girlfriend Caitlin answered it. Katie had known Caitlin even longer than Liam: she had dated Katie's brother Mark until Mark had gone off to work in Dublin.

'Caitlin? It's Katie. Is Liam home?'

'He went out about twenty minutes ago. I don't know when he's coming back.'

'I need to talk to him urgently but I can't raise him on his cell phone.'

'It's broken.'

'Oh?I see. Well, as soon as he comes home, can you ask him to contact me?'

Caitlin said nothing, but made a sharp sniffing noise, as if she were crying.

'Caitlin? Is everything all right?'

'I'm fine. Really, I'm fine.'

'You don't sound fine.'

Suddenly, Caitlin started to sob-a deep, grieving sob that came right from the back of her throat.

'Caitlin, what's wrong? Tell me.'

'It's nothing. Time of the month, that's all.'

'Listen, I've got a bit of time to spare. I'm coming round to see you.'

'Please, don't. It's really nothing.'

'I'm still coming.'

Liam and Caitlin lived in a two-bedroom house on a neat new housing estate just outside Douglas, a village and shopping center off to the southeast of Cork City. Katie parked her Mondeo in the steeply sloping front drive and walked up to the front door. She pressed the bell and heard it chime inside the house. The sky was the color of slate and the temperature was dropping fast.

She had to press the bell a second time before Caitlin opened the door. She was a thin, pretty girl, with short black hair and a pointed nose. She was wearing a headscarf and a baggy oatmeal sweater and jeans. She was also wearing sunglasses.

'What happened?' said Katie.

Caitlin shrugged in despair. She turned back into the house and Katie followed her, closing the door behind her. In the hallway, a large reproduction of a Jack Yeats painting was propped up against the telephone table, its glass cracked and its gilt frame split. In the kitchen beyond, there was a swept-up heap of broken plates and cups.

'It was all about nothing,' said Caitlin, sitting down at the kitchen table. 'We were talking about going on holiday, that's all. Liam said that he wanted to go fishing in Galway. I said I'd rather go to Portugal and get some sun.'

'That's all right. What's wrong with that?'

Caitlin's fingers traced an invisible butterfly pattern on the varnished pine tabletop, again and again. 'He said that I'd probably end up getting my way, whatever, because women always get their way, no matter how irrational they are, because they're women. And-I don't know-I told him not to be stupid and the argument just got worse and worse. He threw his phone across the room. He broke all the breakfast plates. I told him to get out and not to come back until he was calm and that was when he hit me.'

She took off her sunglasses. Her left cheekbone was bruised and swollen and her left eye was almost completely closed. There was a cut above her right eyebrow and another on the bridge of her nose.

Katie sat down beside her and took hold of her hand. 'I'm so sorry, Caitlin. I'm really so sorry.'

Tears streamed down Caitlin's cheeks. 'He never used to be like this. He was always so gentle. Like a poet, almost. Now he seems so bitter and so angry.'

'Maybe he needs a rest,' said Katie. 'I've been pushing him very hard in the past six months. I rely on him a great deal-you know-his experience and his expertise. Maybe I've been expecting too much of him.'

'You won't make trouble for him, will you?'

'It depends. He's physically assaulted you, Caitlin, and that's a criminal offense. You could press charges against him if you wanted to.'

'That would finish him, though, wouldn't it? I mean, it would finish his career?'

'He's a garda inspector, Caitlin. He's supposed to uphold the law. He has a greater responsibility than most people to behave decently.'

Caitlin tugged out a Kleenex and dabbed her eyes. 'What will you do?'

'I don't know yet. But I can't just turn a blind eye. I'll have to have a talk with him, when I see him.'

'It was partly my fault as well. I shouldn't have told him that he was stupid. I should have realized that he was stressed.'

'Come on, Caitlin, shouting is one thing. Battery is quite another.'

'He seems to have so muchrageinside him. So much resentment.'

Katie gently squeezed her fingers. 'How about I make us a cup of coffee?'