A Terrible Beauty

Ramming somebody's car into the river isn't exactly a guaranteed way of getting rid of them, is it? Nor discreet, neither.'

'Dave MacSweeny was always a lunatic. God knows what he was after.'

Katie gave him a quick, prickly look. The way he said it, it sounded as if he knew very well what Dave MacSweeny had been looking for. Revenge, and punishment. Nobody was allowed to take Dave MacSweeny's property without asking him, and nobody could mess around with Dave MacSweeny's girlfriend, even if he regularly beat her up and broke her ribs and treated her like trash. Dave MacSweeny had lost his temper and paid the price for it, but Paul had been rash enough to provoke him.

'I'm not slow, Jimmy, and I'm a Cork girl, born and bred. Idoknow what's going on here, most of the time.'

'All right,' said Jimmy. 'I'm just looking out for you, you know that.'

Katie took hold of his hand with his big thick silver rings and squeezed it tight. She knew that Jimmy wasn't just sympathetic because Paul was in a coma, but because of their marriage, and because everything had fallen apart. You couldn't keep any secrets at Anglesea Street.

'Thanks, Jimmy,' she said. Only three feet away from them, Paul continued to breathe, his eyes closed, and he even had a smile on his face, as if he were dreaming about Geraldine Daley, or winning on the horses at the Curragh, or who knew what a man like Paul would be dreaming about, to make him smile?

Siobhan opened her eyes and the man was standing by the window, looking out. There was a melancholy expression on his face, as if he were thinking about things that had happened a long time ago, and far away. The pain in Siobhan's legs had subsided to a dull, regular throb, and the room had stopped tilting up and down, and for the first time she could see the man clearly. He was wearing a heavy black sweater and black trousers. He reminded her of a stage magician that her father had once taken her to see, a man who had drawn long strings of scarves from out of his sleeves, and a black rabbit out of a black top hat.

Eventually the man turned away from the window. 'Ah, you're awake. Would you like a drink of water? Or maybe a little something to eat?'

'Please?I want to go home now.'

'Ah?if only you could. But sometimes destiny has other things in mind for us.'

'Please. I don't want to die.'

'Don't be in such a hurry. Death has its attractions, you know. Tonight you're going to experience the greatest pain that any human being is capable of suffering, and by tomorrow night you will be begging me to die,begging.'

Siobhan said nothing, but closed her eyes again, and prayed to be somewhere else, or somebody else, anywhere and anybody, except here, and her.Please dearest Virgin save me, save me, take me away.

The man said, 'I like you very much, Siobhan. Out of all the girls I've known, I think you have the greatest grace. The greatest radiance. They should make you a saint, you know. Saint Siobhan of the Fiery Red Hair. I shall have your hair woven into a locket, and I shall wear it always, for the rest of my life, against my chest, as a tribute to your ineffable composure.'

'Why?' asked Siobhan, without opening her eyes.

'Why? Because you, Siobhan, are the chosen one. The thirteenth, and the last. You are thekey.'

'Why?' Siobhan repeated.

'Because you have the hair, Siobhan, and the skills that the ritual calls for. Because you are very, very,verybeautiful, and you embody everything mystical and magical and mythological that makes Ireland the land it is, where the world of fairies is only a shimmer away from the world of men and women.'

'Why?'

He hesitated, confused. 'I'm sorry. I don't know what it is that you're asking me.'

She opened her eyes and stared at him, and there was a wild look on her face that made him involuntarily jerk up his right hand, as if to protect himself. 'Why do you have to hurt me like this?' she demanded, and her voice was unnervingly coarse, like Regan's, inThe Exorcist.

'Siobhan, Siobhan, you wouldn't understand, even if I tried to explain it to you. It's the only possible way that I can get what I need. Believe me, if there was any alternative at all-'

Tears began to slide down Siobhan's cheeks. 'I feel sorry for you,' she said. 'I feel desperately sorry for you.'

'You feelsorryfor me? Why?'

'Because, when you die, you're going to go to hell, for ever and ever. And you're going to feel like I'm feeling now, worse, and it won't ever end. Never.'

The man said nothing for a while, but then he reached out and touched one of her tears with his fingertip. 'The true spirit of Catholic sainthood,' he said. 'I may very well go to hell, Siobhan, but there's no doubt at all where you're going.'

46

John Meagher's Land Rover was already waiting in the driveway when Katie arrived back home. She climbed out of her borrowed Opel Omega into the lashing rain, and hurried toward the porch. John got out and followed her. He was wearing a long black raincoat and she could see that he had taken the trouble to dress up in a shirt and necktie.

'I'm sorry if I'm late,' she said. 'I was visiting my husband in the hospital.'

'I read about it in the papers. Is he going to be all right?'