Buckley girl. She's probably hanging around the Victoria Sporting Club with the rest of the riffraff.'
'Yes, sir.'
'By the way, any luck with Charlie Flynn? I've had another call from city hall.'
'I think I may have made a breakthrough, sir. Give me twenty-four hours.'
'Do your best, then. I'm supposed to be making a speech at the civic reception on Saturday night?it would be very good for kudos to announce that we've cracked that one, too.'
'Yes, sir.'
36
She went back to talk to Tomas O Conaill. When they brought him into the interview room he looked deeply tired, and he sat opposite her with his head resting in his hands, staring at the table.
'Tomas?I want to ask you two questions.'
'Go away, Detective Superintendent Witch. Leave me alone.'
'Tomas, I want to know if you were working by yourself, or if you had somebody else with you.'
'What? What do you mean? When I was selling those trotting ponies in Limerick, or when I was nailing down that roofing felt in Glanmire?'
'When you abducted Fiona Kelly.'
He raised his head and stared at her wearily. 'I told you. I never saw her, I never abducted her, I never killed her. What do you want me to do, make a record, so that you can listen to me saying that a thousand times over?'
'We know you did it, Tomas. Why don't you just admit it? It'll make things much easier if you do.'
'And what else do you want me to admit? That I killed those women in 1915, as well? That I'm one of the fairy folk, who never grows old, and never dies, and delights in abducting women and cutting them up into fillets and chops and bodices?'
'Are you?'
He sat back, ramming his straight black-jeaned legs underneath the table. 'So what if I am? Would you like me to be?'
She picked up a plastic evidence bag and laid it flat on the table in front of him.
'What do you make of this?' she asked him.
His tiny eyes glittered at her. 'What do you want me to make of it?'
'I'm simply asking you, what do you think it is?'
'A piece of lace, it looks like.'
'That's right, it's a piece of lace. But where do you think it comes from?'
Tomas O Conaill slowly shook his head. 'I wouldn't like to guess.'
'What do you think you could make of it, if you twisted it around, and knotted it?'
He didn't answer for a long time, but then he slowly smiled. 'A noose, to twine around your neck?'
She was hurrying downstairs to the media conference when her cell phone warbled. It was Gerard O'Brien, and he sounded excited.
'I've been doing some more research on Mor-Rioghain. A theology professor in Osnabruck has e-mailed me with some fascinating background information. Do you mind if I come round to see you?'
'It'll have to be later, Gerard, or maybe tomorrow. Keep it to yourself for the moment, but we've made an arrest. I'm on my way to announce it to the press.'
'Oh, I see,' said Gerard, and his disappointment was obvious. 'If you've made an arrest, you won't really want to know about any of this.'
'I will, of course. But not just now. Call me at five o'clock.'
The media conference was packed, and when Katie stepped up to the podium there was an epileptic barrage of flashlights. She hesitated for a moment, waiting for quiet, and then she said, 'Yesterday evening we arrested and charged Tomas O Conaill, thirty-seven, of no fixed abode, for the kidnap and subsequent murder of Fiona Kelly. A file is being prepared for the prosecutor's office. That is all we have to say at the moment, except to thank you, the media, who gave us so much support in this investigation and the scores of gardai who put in days of extra work in order to ensure that Fiona Kelly's killer would be brought to justice.'
'Has O Conaill confessed to the killing?' called out Dermot Murphy.
'No, he denies it.'
'What evidence do you have that it was him?'
'At the moment the evidence is still being examined by our technical bureau. But I can assure you that even our preliminary findings are enough to make us feel confident that we have the right man.'
'What do you have to say about the allegation that you're using O Conaill as a scapegoat, simply because he's a Traveler?'
'I refute it absolutely. And I think the Traveling community themselves would take it as an insult. O Conaill is not your typical Traveler in any respect.'
