A Terrible Beauty

show you exactly how much progress we've been able to make.'

'Thank you again for everything,' said Mr. Kelly. His voice was harsh with grief. Katie was tempted to tell him that she knew how agonizing it was to lose your only child, but she decided that it wouldn't help. The Kellys had enough pain to deal with, without having to feel sorry forher,too.

'You want me to run you back to your hotel?' she asked Lucy.

'I was hoping we could maybe have a drink. There's one or two things I wouldn't mind discussing with you.'

'All right. But I can't be very long.'

She drove up the steep slope of Military Hill until they reached the Ambassador Hotel. It was a fine Victorian building in pale orange brick, with cast-iron pillars and arches, overlooking the higgledy-piggledy nineteenth-century houses that clustered on the hills of north Cork, with all their hundreds and hundreds of chimney pots.

'Some building,' said Lucy, as she climbed out of the car.

'This used to be a British army hospital,' Katie explained. 'And these streets around here-this is where they filmed a lot ofAngela's Ashes.Apparently they thought that Cork looked more like Limerick than Limerick.'

'Sounds like indisputable Irish logic to me.'

They went inside the hushed, deeply carpeted bar. Lucy ordered a vodka tonic while Katie kept to a sparkling Ballygowan water. They sat together on one of the floral couches. Lucy tried to wipe some of the mud off her boots with a paper coaster. 'I should have invested in a pair of rubbers, shouldn't I?'

'You've seen the murder scene, anyway,' said Katie. 'Are you convinced now that Tomas O Conaill was trying to raise Mor-Rioghain?'

'Absolutely. One hundred percent. That locale has everything that the sacrificial ritual requires.'

'God, it's such a sad waste of life.'

'Not if you believe in Mor-Rioghain it isn't.'

'Youdon't believe in her?'

'Who knows? There are so many powers in this world that we don't understand. So many unexplained mysteries.'

'I just want to solve this one.'

Lucy crossed her long, long legs and leaned closer. Her teeth were almost perfect and there was a small beauty spot on her left cheekbone. 'This really means a whole lot to you, this case, doesn't it? Not just Fiona Kelly. The other women, too.'

'Yes. They were all killed and forgotten and they never even got a Christian burial. Even when a murderer's dead I don't think that he should be allowed to get away with it.'

'I didn't realize-'

'What?'

Lucy's eyes were very bright. 'I've never met anybody so passionate about anything before, that's all.'

Katie didn't know what to say. She had never met anybody like Lucy before-a woman who seemed to be so friendly and open, and yet who gave her the feeling that she was hiding the Lucy that she really was, and hiding her very deeply. All the same, she found her easy to be with, and she enjoyed her sexiness. Jimmy the barman had walked past their couch more than half a dozen times since they had first sat down, and given them a wink.

Katie's cell phone warbled. 'Detective Superintendent Maguire.'

'Katie! Thank Christ! It's Paul! I'm glad I caught you, pet! Listen, my car won't start and I'm supposed to be having a lunch meeting at South's in twenty minutes with the fellow from the bank, regarding this building development. I called for a hackney but they can't get here in less than half an hour. I was wondering?'

Katie looked at her watch. 'You want a lift? All right. I just have to run Professor Quinn back to Jury's Inn.'

Lucy said, 'Is everything okay?'

'It is, of course. My husband's car won't start so I'll have to drive out to Cobh and pick him up. Perhaps we can have that drink later.'

'I could come with you. We can talk on the way.'

'If you really don't mind-'

'Of course I don't mind. I'm a stranger in a strange land, and I could use some company, apart from anything else.'

?   ?   ?

They drove eastward on the wide dual carriageway toward Cobh, the windshield wipers intermittently clearing away the misty rain.

Lucy said, 'If I'm really excited about this case, I hope you don't think that I'm being ghoulish. This is only the second time I've come across a contemporary ritual sacrifice.'

'What was the first?'

'The first?'

'The first ritual sacrifice. Before this one.'

'That-oh,that. A farmer in Minnesota sacrificed his whole family to the Wendigo.