A Terrible Beauty

'It was big, and it was white.'

'No idea of the make?'

Frank O'Leary shook his head, but said, 'It could have been Japanese, you know. It had a sort of a Japanesey look to it.'

'You didn't see the license plate?'

'It didn't really occur to me to look, and the sun was dead in my eyes, so I was what you might call half dazzled.'

'Did you see which way it went?'

'Down to the bottom of Summerhill, then straight across the lights into Brian Boru Street, but I couldn't see where it went after that.'

'All right, Frank, you've been very helpful. If you can remember anything more-no matter how insignificant you think it is-please don't hesitate to call me, will you?'

Frank O'Leary finished his coffee and stood up. 'I remember one more thing. The car had the Cork hurling colors on the aerial-the blood and bandages.'

'That could be very useful, thank you.'

When he was gone, Katie went to see Dermot O'Driscoll. Dermot was sitting at his desk, going through his in-tray.

'Paperwork,' he grumbled, as Katie came in. 'They won't need to bury me when I die, I'll already be six foot under in traffic statistics.'

Katie closed the door. Dermot looked up. The only time that anybody closed his door was when they needed to talk about something personal, or highly confidential.

Katie said, 'I don't know whether you've heard, but a girl of nineteen went missing from St. Luke's this morning. A fashion student called Siobhan Buckley.'

'Jimmy told me, yes. But she's only been gone for a few hours, hasn't she? It's not exactly unusual for a nineteen-year-old girl to go on the hop from college.'

'Well, you're right. But I don't know?I've got an uncomfortable feeling about this one. We have an eyewitness who says that she accepted a lift from somebody in a large white car.'

'What are you trying to tell me?'

'It's hard to put into words. I'm just wondering if we might postpone the media conference until we know a little more.'

'What are you suggesting? Don't tell me you're having second thoughts about Tomas O Conaill? Most of the press boys already know that we've got him in custody. Conor Cronin shooting his mouth off, as usual.'

'All I'm trying to say is that Siobhan Buckley disappeared in very similar circumstances to Fiona Kelly and perhaps we ought to wait for a while before we make any official announcement.'

Dermot had a think about that, waggling his fountain pen between his fingers. At last he said, 'You're sure in your own mind that it was Tomas O Conaill who murdered Fiona Kelly, aren't you?'

'I wouldn't have arrested him if I didn't. And all of the forensic evidence we have so far supports it.'

'Well, then, what are you worried about?'

'I'm just being cautious, that's all. Especially since Siobhan Buckley's mother doesn't think that she'd have taken a day off college without telling her.'

'Is that her?' asked Dermot, nodding toward the photograph that Mrs. Buckley had given her. Katie gave it to him and he put on his glasses to peer at it.

'My God. What do girls expect if they dress like this?'

'She wasn't wearing a sequin microskirt when she was picked up.'

'No, but all the same?'

'Chief, I'd simply like to be sure about what happened to Siobhan Buckley before we tell the world about Tomas O Conaill. It could be that O Conaill had an accomplice, who's still at large. There could even be a ring of killers.'

Dermot handed the photograph back. 'I've already told the commissioner that we've wrapped this up.'

'Oh, and you don't want us to look like culchies, is that it?'

'That's nothing at all to do with it,' Dermot retorted. 'We have overwhelming circumstantial evidence that Tomas O Conaill was involved in the murder of Fiona Kelly and that's good enough for me. Don't tell me that you don't want to see him behind bars as much as I do.'

'Of course I do. But I just have this nagging feeling that we're still missing something.'

Dermot tossed down his pen. 'Listen, girl, I'm retiring in three and a half months from now. I want to go out with the best possible record. Not only that, I want to feel that I've made a difference. Putting a major scumbag like Tomas O Conaill behind bars is really going to count for something. Even if hedidn'tkill Fiona Kelly-which I think he probably did-he deserves to be locked up for everything else he's done.'

'Not our decision to make, sir-with respect.'

'I wish to God it was. But that's enough. The media conference is going to go ahead at fifteen hundred hours, as planned, and we're going to announce to the world that we've caught and charged the man who murdered Fiona Kelly. I'll tell you what you can do, if it makes you feel any better-ask the lads at 96FM to put out a shout for this