27

Noelie decided to head back to Hannah’s. To his surprise, he found Meabh waiting outside the main block entrance.

‘Not answering your phone?’ she asked.

‘Long story. You okay?’

‘Sort of, not really. I was wondering if I could ask a favour. Do you know Glenville? There’s a Mass Rock just outside it. My mother’s on her way there now.’

Meabh’s visit home had ended before it had even got under way. Her mother was dressed up and on her way out the door as Meabh arrived. She didn’t want to speak to Meabh or talk about Noelie’s visit.

Noelie and Meabh went upstairs. He asked her if she wanted to come in for a coffee but she said she didn’t have time.

‘I got to thinking about what we talked about last night, about what happened to me and how it could be linked to my father’s death. There’s this other man who was close to my dad and to Robert Donnelly. I’ve only just found out that he’s dead. It’s strange because this man helped our family, me in particular. He paid for my college fees.’ Meabh sighed. ‘That’s where my mother was going, to this man’s month’s mind. It’s a Mass said for someone–’

‘Hang on.’ Noelie went into the spare room and retrieved the box with the miraculous medal. He showed it to Meabh. ‘Is this him?’

‘Where did you get that?’

‘Actually I took it from your mother’s. I was intrigued but I had no idea who he was. Hannah recognised him though. He was a big player in the property market in this city. Apparently loaded.’

Meabh looked at the card with the picture of young Leslie Walsh.

‘How did your father know this man?’

‘Let There Be Light.’ Meabh pointed to the initials on the back. ‘It’s an organisation my father was in. Mr Walsh was in it too.’

‘Who or what are they?’

‘They’re religious. They do good works, that type of thing.’ Meabh showed Noelie the emblem. ‘I heard the story of this many times. Jesus is present. The tree represents nature, life and growth. Jesus is protecting us all.’

Noelie thought about this. ‘Do you know how Leslie Walsh died?’ Meabh shook her head. ‘He threw himself from the Elysian, the glass tower beside City Hall. Apparently he had an apartment there.’

Meabh examined the box and medal. ‘Suicide?’

‘It seems so. Why do you want to go to the month’s mind?’

‘Because of what we talked about last night. Robert Donnelly will be there. There will be others too.’

Noelie looked at the time. Glenville was about a forty-minute drive away and it was already close to noon. He explained his dilemma, about his planned meeting at the train station with Hannah at 2.30 p.m.

‘Could you call her?’

Noelie showed Meabh his battery-less phone and told her what Casey had said. She suggested he use her BlackBerry. Noelie figured it was worth the risk. He called Hannah’s work but he couldn’t reach her; he left a message with reception. His plan was to take Meabh to Glenville, drop her there and return in time for the meeting.

They took the Dublin road and, at Fermoy, the road west. There was more traffic than Noelie had anticipated and progress was slow. Noelie asked Meabh about Amsterdam and how she had ended up there.

‘Chance really. I wanted to get out of Ireland and I had a friend there. First port of call and I stayed.’

She worked at furniture restoration. She had a degree in psychology but had never worked in the area. In Amsterdam her friend had friends who did period renovations; a subspeciality was furniture restoration. She had taken it up and liked it. She was now in the final stages of her guild exams.

Meabh asked Noelie if he’d ever lived abroad. He told her about his long stint in the States.

‘Why did you go there?’ she asked.

‘Like you in a way, convenience. I had a social security number from my J1 time there and New York appealed to me. Plus I needed to get away. The eighties were bad. The recession, no divorce, a constitutional ban on abortion. Back then it was even a crime to buy a condom.’ But he regretted not finishing his PhD. ‘Jacked it in with only a year to go. Crazy. Now I could do with those letters after my name.’

Meabh asked if he had liked it in the States and he replied that he had. ‘But I was never going to stay there either. I knew that even before I went. Didn’t stop me staying thirteen years though.’ He told Meabh about nearly getting married. ‘It was going to happen and then her brother got ill and she wanted to go back to Colorado to help him. It was nearly the other side of the States, out in the boondocks as they say over there. I just couldn’t go. I stayed on in New York but eventually decided to come home.’

Meabh had been to the Mass Rock as a teenager but she couldn’t recall exactly where it was. Finding it turned out not to be a problem. With the crowd attending, there was gridlock in the area. Finally they saw a sign, Carraig an Aifrinn. People were parking on the roadside verge so Noelie did too. He pulled in a short distance from the site. He was worried about how he’d get out again. They sat in the car for a moment.

‘Yesterday, in the pub, I asked you why you were involved in all of this. You didn’t answer,’ she said.

Noelie looked at Meabh and thought about his reply. ‘There’s something’s wrong, I know that. That’s a good bit of it. But I guess I’m tired too. This is my second recession. Our so-called betters have ruined the country again. Now I’m hearing that beautiful refrain, let’s just pay the bondholders. It’s a case of sweep everything under the carpet again. I just can’t be doing with that any more. It makes me very angry.’

They got out. Noelie was still thinking about the question. Some part of him suspected that there was some connection to his nephew’s death too. Of course he had nothing go on in that respect – just timing and the comment made by Cronin about ‘that crowd’.

He rang Hannah’s new pay-as-you-go using his own and got a ‘You cannot be connected at this time’ message. He looked around. It could just be the poor reception but he realised also that he had made an error. He had left his main phone in Cork without establishing contact with Hannah using the new phones. Shit, he thought and texted, in glenville by fermoy. walsh month mind. returning asap. Hopefully his message would get through.

There was a dip in the country road where there was an old stone bridge. It was pretty around here, quiet apart from the sound of the nearby river. Meabh pointed through the tree canopy at a sheer rock face about a hundred metres upriver. There was a steel cross impressed on the stone. Under it lay a natural shelf of rock that was being used as an altar; it was dressed with white and yellow flowers for the memorial Mass. A sizable congregation was already present.

Noelie was torn. He wanted to stay and yet he knew that if he was going to make the meeting with Hannah he needed to get moving. He tried Hannah’s pay-as-you-go again. When he had no luck he asked Meabh to try; she had no success either. Noelie reckoned it was the location. There were hills on both sides of the river.

A narrow gate led to a path through pine woods. A young priest was directing mourners onto the riverside embankment. Noelie was distracted, half listening to Meabh’s suggestion that they brazen it out and go in when he saw Inspector Lynch. The senior garda was out of uniform and was coming directly towards them. Noelie buried his head in Meabh’s shoulder. ‘Someone I know. I can’t be seen,’ he whispered urgently.

Lynch didn’t appear to notice Noelie. He was with a bald-headed man also in civvies. Noelie was reminded of Kojak, the lollipop-sucking New York detective from the TV series of the seventies; this man was smaller but had the same distinctive bald round head.

Seeing Lynch decided Noelie: he needed to stay. As soon as the Mass was over he’d head for Cork and hook up with Hannah then; she would probably still be with the Danesfort contact.

A short distance along from the entrance the roadside ditch had collapsed allowing passage onto the pine-covered hillside above the riverbank. They made their way up this to the crest of the hill. Continuing down the far side, they rejoined the river upstream. They followed it back to the edge of the congregation and very close to proceedings.

Meabh winked. ‘Good enough?’

‘Perfect.’

The Mass was in Latin; Noelie hadn’t attended anything like it before. Three priests celebrated the Mass. Two were in green and white, while the lead celebrant was in elegant red and purple robes. There were lines of chairs on one section of the grassy bank for family and close friends. Noelie wasn’t able to see their faces. He spied Inspector Lynch, though, standing on the edge of proceedings, downriver from their location.

Communion started with the priests coming across the footbridge over the river. They took up positions to serve the Host and people formed lines in front of the chalices. The piety of the ceremony in the open-air setting was impressive. The good weather helped too; it was a warm sunny day. Noelie finally got a decent look at the Walsh children; they were all in their thirties at least. A woman that Noelie guessed was Mrs Walsh took Communion. He didn’t know her.

He wondered about the significance of Glenville. Was Walsh from the area or was it something else? Eventually he spotted Meabh’s mother. She was dressed in a black skirt suit and wore a dark headscarf. She looked as dour as when they had first met.

When Communion ended there was a hiatus. People waited and the priests returned over the footbridge to the altar. Then a group of men, all in long cream robes with hoods and narrow red cummerbunds, came forward.

‘Jesus,’ said Noelie quietly. ‘I haven’t seen anything like that for quite some time.’ In fact he had only ever seen something like it in Spain.

‘My dad occasionally wore a robe like that,’ whispered Meabh.

Noelie watched. Each of the men, seven in all, held an offering. These were simple items: bread, water, a Bible, a small cross, some form of a chain and what looked like a staff; two carried this. All the items were handed to the family. Shortly after that the ceremony came to an end.

Noelie told Meabh he was going up onto the riverbank hill to attempt calling Hannah again. She gave him her phone too, just in case. Again, he had no success and returned just as the congregation was dispersing.

‘Are you going to talk to your mother?’

Meabh was unsure. ‘Maybe.’

‘This Let There Be Light, what’s the story with them?’

‘They support Lefebvre. I think. That was quite a big issue when I was growing up. Lefebvre was excommunicated by the Pope but they stuck with him. To cut a long story short they’re the conservative end of the Catholic family.’

Noelie was keeping an eye on Inspector Lynch. He had approached the Walsh family and was standing with them. After that he went over to a man in a wheelchair. He held this man’s hand. Kojak stayed with him the entire time.

‘The man in the wheelchair is Robert Donnelly,’ whispered Meabh. ‘My dad’s old boss in the gardaí. He doesn’t look too good.’

Noelie moved to get a better look. Robert Donnelly looked poorly. There was a blanket over his lap and there was little sign on his face that he had recognised Lynch.

‘What about speaking to him, after the cops go I mean? You could say about knowing him and see if he recognises you?’

‘I don’t think that’ll be necessary. Look.’

One of the men in the cream robes was approaching. He was elderly. As he reached them, he lowered his hood and spoke to Meabh.

‘Aren’t you Sean Sugrue’s daughter? I’m Albert Donnelly, do you remember me at all? I knew your father well.’

Albert Donnelly had wavy bright white hair and large dark eyes. He was in his seventies but agile looking. He took Meabh’s hand like they were old, close friends and clasped it. Strangely Meabh acquiesced. Albert muttered something under his breath and Noelie realised that he was blessing her. It was an odd moment.

‘Your mother told me you were away.’

‘I am. But I came back for a few days.’

‘To be here?’

‘No, for another reason. But when I heard about Mr Walsh I wanted to be here.’

Albert looked at Noelie finally. Meabh introduced them.

‘To be honest,’ said Noelie, ‘it was me who dragged Meabh here. I’m working on a history of Danesfort Industrial School and I figured that it would be a good idea to come here and attend this event.’

‘I don’t follow,’ said Albert curtly.

Noelie chose his next words carefully. ‘I understood Leslie Walsh was close to some boys from Danesfort. I wondered would they be here.’

‘Leslie?’ Albert Donnelly shook his head. ‘Leslie was never at Danesfort.’

‘But all the same, wasn’t he familiar with some boys from there?’

Albert’s gaze didn’t flinch. He turned from Noelie and looked at Meabh once more. ‘It’s very nice to meet you again.’ He let go of her hand finally.

Noelie decided to go for it. ‘One more thing, Mr Donnelly. Your family had land at one time, beside Glen Park, that’s in Ballyvolane. Am I right?’

‘That’s going way back,’ Albert replied coldly. He turned and left.