The drone of a conversation blended with the bass, excited and indecipherable tones of a television ad. Minogue looked down at his scribble. Brothers in Arms. Had he heard that one before?
“Come on in, Liam. We can put you in a safe place.”
“Where, for Christ’s sake? For how long? My only chance is out here! But you guys are out there, still trying to run me down as well!”
“Meet me, Liam. Just me.”
“You’re nuts! Even if I did, what good would it do? I don’t know anything about Mary. I come in, you want answers that I don’t have! I don’t know what she was into, man!”
“You might know something we could use and still-”
“To hell with you!”
“Give me a middleman then. Someone you trust.”
“Like who?”
“Your friend, Tierney. Your ma says you and he are pals, right?”
“Jammy? Hah! We used to be. But he hates my guts now. Jesus! When he found out about Mary, he treats me like AIDS man. Christ! He always… Forget it.”
“He always what?”
“Forget it, I said! I’m going to drop this fucking phone-”
“Why not Tierney?”
“Jammy’s a gobshite like anyone else. He heard the Egans were on the warpath. He’s so straight, he’s like a fucking…”
“What?”
“Ah, they were opposites. Mary liked the life. Jammy’s thick. He couldn’t figure that out. He doesn’t know how people work. That’s just the way with some people.”
“You all grew up together-”
“‘Course we fucking did! As if you didn’t know that already! That’s ages-way back, yeah. Everything’s mad when you’re thirteen. A few jars out in the back fields before they built the cardboard factory out there. Next thing you know is you’re doing it, like. The girls, you know? But Jammy couldn’t get near her. Ah, what am I talking about?”
Minogue’s hand closed tighter on the pen. He began to stab it slowly and deliberately into the mess of tissues and coffee. He didn’t want to see the expression on Kilmartin’s face.
“Don’t leave it hanging, Liam. You can help. You can.”
“I’m no fucking mug! I got to look out for Number One, man!”
Thoughts flew faster through Minogue’s mind.
“We have to talk, Liam. There’s got to be a way. Pick a spot-”
“I’m gone, man. I’m gone!”
“Pick a time, Liam. Any time. I guarantee-”
“Fuck you and your guarantee! Eddsy Egan had a guy’s throat slit in the ’Joy three years ago! And Eddsy’s still walking the streets!”
Minogue squeezed the pen tight and closed his eyes. The line went dead.
He flung the receiver on the desk. Murtagh leaped up out of his chair.
“Pub phone,” he called out. “Barney’s, in Capel Street.”
Minogue handed the note to Eilis.
“Will you kindly get ahold of the fella with the GTI Hickey says he did?”
Eilis looked up at the ceiling and drew on her cigarette.
“Travers,” she murmured. “Blackrock.” Minogue winked.
“There’s the name of the tape that Hickey says he got in the Walkman he robbed. First see if the actual name of the, er, the artist, is inventoried on the Stolen Vehicles report. If you please, Eilis.”
She squinted at the sheet and turned it upside down.
“I’ll be needing it translated, your honour. ‘Brothers…’?”
“ Brothers in Arms.”
Minogue returned to his desk and flopped into his chair. He rested his chin on his fist and stared at the phone. Kilmartin sat on the edge of Minogue’s desk looking down at the floor. Minutes crawled by. The phone didn’t ring.
“Damn,” said Minogue. “They’d be on to us by now if they’d nabbed him.”
“Ah, hold your whist,” said Kilmartin. He seemed to be scrutinising the Inspector’s forehead. Perhaps it had just dawned on Kilmartin that Barney’s was on the edge of a warren of streets and alleys which led on and through the markets up to Smithfield.
“A little unorthodox there on the phone, weren’t we, Watson?” he whispered. Minogue glared at him.
“No, we weren’t.”
“What was the rationale to driving into his face the way you did, then?”
“He was drunk, Jim. I thought I could go direct while he was out of it. Maudlin and the rest of it. Prolong the call.”
Kilmartin threw his empty cigarette package across the room. It missed the bin by two feet. He stood.
“Maybe there’s a Guard off the Olympic team on foot patrol up there in the Markets.”
“Maybe,” sighed Minogue. He rose from his chair. “I need some air. Out of the way or I’m going through you.”
“Oh, the tough talk is out now, is it? Hold me back. Learn to relax, man.”
The air was muggy and thick with the tang of exhaust and hops from the Guinness brewery. He strolled about the yard, his thoughts on Iseult. Drive by her studio, that’s where she’d hidden out. Entice her out for a walk and a pint? That’d get her talking. He was leaning against the boot of his Citroen when Kilmartin emerged. From the Chief Inspector’s wary hangdog gait, Minogue concluded failure.
Kilmartin paused to light a cigarette.
“Well, Jim?”
Kilmartin shook his head. Minogue swore.
“And the rest of it. He’s alive, he’s scared. We’ll find him.”
“He’s also smart, James. He picks his phones very damn well.”
“We’ll bag him yet, old son. Barman put it at about two minutes between him hightailing it and a Guard bursting in the door. Left a half pint of beer on the counter behind him too, the little shite. But it’s not over, old bean. There are a half-dozen cars in the area.”
Kilmartin blew out smoke, cleared his throat in a long, modulated gurgle and spat across the yard.
“Look at the time now, for the love of Jases,” he groaned. “No wonder you’re gone crooked. Are you lost without your new sidekick?”
“Keep it up, Jim. You’ll probably get your wish.”
There was an outbreak of hurt innocence on Kilmartin’s face.
“Oh, is it my fault for trying to insist we hire dependable and dedicated staff?”
“He can’t help it if he has a family, for God’s sake, or if his brother ran amok, can he?”
“Oh, I forgot-everybody’s a victim these days. Quick, fetch me a consultant-a counsellor!”
“In case you forgot, Jim, you’re not supposed to take family details into account from his personnel file. It’s strictly performance, commendations, record-”
“I know that, Professor.”
Kilmartin, in his truant, shifty schoolboy incarnation, let his tongue swell his cheek.
“What’s the latest bulletin on this soap opera of a family of his anyhow.”
“Terry the brother is all over the place. He has a drug problem. He’s gotten in with the Egans. They got to him right when he walked from the ’Joy. They’re going to destroy him. Tommy thinks they’re trying to take him down in the job too. Quits for arresting Lenehan.”
“Well, there’s a thesis now. This is real Egan style, I daresay.”
Minogue nodded.
“That’s right. Nobody’s immune.”
“You think they might be blackguarding our Molly somehow, using the brother?”
“They might try but he won’t go.”
Kilmartin’s eyes lingered on his colleague’s for a moment before he looked down at the Citroen.
“Here, let’s climb aboard this rig and I’ll buy you your tea.”
“Sorry, James. I’m going to drop by Iseult’s studio.”
“Fine and well. I didn’t want to be seen in this frigging nancy-boy spaceship anyway.”
Minogue held up his fist. Kilmartin shoved the cigarette into the corner of his mouth and made a feint. Minogue went into a crouch.
“Plan for six months in traction there, you bullock! Tommy Malone gave me tips.”
“Go to hell, you Clare lug! It’s yourself that’ll get the astronomy lessons here!”
Christ! Couldn’t a fella read the bleeding paper any more? He tried again to ignore the barman. The gobshite behind the bar must have wiped the counter twenty times since he’d come in. Maybe he was drinking too fast or something. But it was a hot day, for Jases’s sakes! He was still jittery after the row on the phone, the running from Barney’s. He peered over the top of the paper again. What a kip. Things living in the carpet. The stink of the place was made even worse by the smells of the rotting fruit and vegetables and fish hanging in the air all around the Markets. They should knock the place down. He finished the pint. Which one was that, number three or four? Three. He looked at the clock. Three pints in a half an hour. He watched the two oul lads cocked up on stools by the bar. At least they weren’t bothering him any more, trying to put talk on him. Another fella had come in a few minutes ago, a big fella with an apron. The barman had a pint ready for him and he downed it in about ten seconds. Not a word out of him. At first he’d thought it was a cop and he was up out of the seat before the guy had stepped through the door properly. Yeah, maybe that’s what had done it.