The Price of Blood

She drank again, emptying her glass. My phone announced the arrival of a text message: it was from Dave Donnelly, asking me where I was. I got my coat, and held Miranda Hart close, and headed for the door. Miranda stopped me in the hall.

'I did love Patrick,' she said. 'I wouldn't want you to think…'

'I don't,' I said. She was shaking, face flushed red. I went to hold her, but she put up her hands and shook her head.

'No. Just, so you don't think…I may not have wanted to go back over any of this again, but…don't think I didn't love that man. Don't ever think that.'

There were tears in her eyes. I nodded, and waited for the rest.

'There's one last thing,' she said. 'That morning-ten years ago today-when Patrick was leaving-when I wouldn't listen to him, or look at him-the thing he kept saying was, he wouldn't be a Judas. That was the last thing I heard Patrick say.

''I won't play the fucking Judas for anyone.''

SEVEN

The rain had turned to sleet by the time I made it back to Quarry Fields: a tricky drive in a '65 Volvo with no windshield wipers. Dave Donnelly's unmarked blue Toyota Avensis was parked outside my house, and Dave was sitting on the edge of the brown leather couch in my living room, drinking a cup of tea.

'Make yourself at home,' I said.

'I'd need a Hoover.'

'You're welcome.'

'Or what is it these days, a Dyson?'

'It's in the press under the stairs.'

I got myself a can of Guinness from the kitchen and a glass and joined him.

'How'd you get in?'

'You gave me a key.'

'Why did I give a cop a key to my house?'

'The night we went out. When I got transferred to the Bureau. Remember?'

'We had a few drinks?'

'We had all the drinks. Dublin town ran out of drinks. And you said you had the last of the drinks back here.'

'For some reason, it doesn't stand out in my mind.'

'And I fell asleep on the sofa. Great sofa, mind.'

'You can sleep on it without orthopedic consequences.'

'You can what?'

'Without fucking your back up.'

'This is not the sofa I have at home. This is why my back is fucked up.'

'So there you were, asleep.'

'And you were off first thing. I don't know, an early house. A woman. A client, even. And you gave me the key to lock up after.'

'Case closed. Glad we got to the bottom of that one.'

Dave half laughed, then looked at the floor, his low forehead furrowed in a scowl. He was a big-boned thickset crop-headed man who had lost two stone in weight quite suddenly, and it made him look ill. He had looked ill in a different way before, what with the high color and the bad temper and the bursting out of his ill-assembled, badly fitting suits and anoraks, like he was about to explode with exasperation and righteous anger at any moment, but it was a reassuring kind of ill. Now he looked ill as if he had a disease. But he didn't have a disease, he had a new job that seemed to be absorbing every ounce of energy he had, and then some.

Dave had been detective sergeant with the Seafield Garda for twenty years; a few months after he was promoted to inspector, the Howard case broke, and a web of murder, child abuse, sex trafficking and drug smuggling was uncovered, with DI Donnelly conveniently placed at the center of it all. That's when the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation came calling. But it wasn't plain sailing at the Bureau: the Howard case had been front-page news for days, and Dave had attracted a swath of publicity which Garda Headquarters had encouraged (in part to deflect the credit away from me, a strategy that suited me just fine); his high-profile transfer (SUPERCOP TO SHAKE UP BUREAU) had been met with perhaps understandable resentment from his new colleagues, most especially Myles Geraghty, a pugnacious blockhead with whom we'd both had our tussles in the past.

I got a bottle of Jameson and two glasses and made them up two-thirds to a third water and gave one to Dave and he drank it down as if it was a cup of milk.

'What's on your mind, Dave? You wanted to talk about the bodies?'

'Yeah,' he said, his mouth set in a grimace. 'Talk is about all I can do with them.'

'What's up?'

'Myles Geraghty is up. Up his own hole. He wants me out, and he's going to freeze me out until I get out. I was first to the scene in Roundwood yesterday, because the desk sergeant there called me, because he knows me, and he was having trouble getting through to the Bureau, some problem with the phones in Harcourt Square, fucking amateur hour. I called Geraghty on his mobile, left a message. Rounded up some of the other lads. When he finally gets there, he bollocks me out in front of them all for trying to run the show myself, for being, yes indeed, a 'glory boy.' What is it about this fucking country? The young fellas I train at football, I've one good striker, doesn't score from every chance, but he's averaging two goals a game, unbelievable, but you want to hear the fucking cloggers on his own team, the team he's winning games for, lads who can barely kick a ball let alone pass it, they're all glory boy this and glory boy that, same as when we grew up. No lads, here's what it is: he's good at football and you're shite. Glory boy. Fuck sake.'

I poured Dave another drink and passed it to him; he raised it to his lips, then shook his head and set it down.

'Ah no way, Ed, the first was enough.'

'So what happened, are you working the case?'

'Just about. I'm coordinating the incident room in Bray.''

'DI Donnelly speaking, can I help you?'

'Fuck off.'

Dave subsided again, not even angry this time, just deflated. In a quiet, introspective voice I didn't know he possessed, he said, 'I can't go on like this, Ed. I'm not sleeping. There are calls on my mobile at all hours. When I answer, I can hear someone breathing on the other end. Thought it was someone I sent down, I changed the number, same story again. Geraghty's behind it, I know he is. And at work one morning, there was a loaded gun on my desk with a Post-it stuck to it reading 'Can't Cope, Supercop? Give it your best shot.' Nobody knew anything, of course; everyone was shocked. But I could see people smirking, laughing behind their hands, Geraghty winking. I can't handle it, Ed.'

Dave let his head sink into his hands. I looked at him in astonishment and dismay: Dave had always been so solid, so captain-of-the-school dependable, I guess I'd taken his strength for granted. It was like watching a cardboard cutout become real before my eyes. I wasn't sure I needed another real person in my life, but then, I had been surprised when he'd chosen me to celebrate his transfer with. Carmel had often told me he didn't have many friends, but I'd never really thought of myself as one, let alone his closest.

'Maybe I should just walk. I could take the pension, get out early, go into business with Carmel 's brother. He's got a car showroom in Goatstown. Awful gobshite, but he's coining it there.'

'What does Carmel think?'

'About going in with her brother? She'd like the extra change. But she knows what being a cop means to me.'

'No, I meant the phone calls. The weight loss. The stress.'