IT WAS AFTER ten o’clock by the time I made it into the office. Leah looked at me curiously, but I didn’t offer an explanation.
“Where is he?” I whispered. I kept expecting a gray suit to jump out from behind a filing cabinet and ask me to trace a cheque.
“He’s in the front office going through the books. He says he won’t need you this morning. I can get him whatever he needs.”
I looked at my watch. “Just as well. I have to be in court in half an hour.”
She nodded in the direction of the waiting room. “Alison Kelly is waiting for you though.”
“Damn it, I was supposed to get back to Liam before she came in.”
“It’s all right, she’s four hours early. Her appointment wasn’t until two.”
I stuck my head in the door of the waiting room. Alison was sitting, legs elegantly crossed, staring at the wall opposite. When she looked up, her dark eyes appeared deeper set than usual, with heavy shadows underneath.
She stood up. “I’m sorry. I know I’m not supposed to be here till this afternoon, but I have to get to the hospital.”
“It’s okay. I have a little time. Come on up.”
She followed me up the stairs. Even her tread seemed somewhat heavier than it should be.
“How is Ray?” I asked as I closed the office door behind us.
“Not great, I’m afraid.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do?”
“I wish there was. There’s nothing much anyone can do.” She took a deep breath. “Ray has a brain tumor. He was in remission, but it’s back. We’ve only just found out.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“He was given the all-clear about two years ago. But we’ve lived with the possibility of it returning for a while.”
“And it’s serious?”
She nodded. “We had a scare a few months ago, but it’s definitely back this time. With a vengeance. That’s why we went to the States recently. New treatment, last-ditch attempt. But it didn’t work, unfortunately.”
“I see.” I offered her a seat.
She sat down heavily as if she’d just run a mile rather than walking upstairs.
“Ray was exposed to radiation on a building site he worked on in the States when he was about nineteen, long before there was an awareness of the dangers. We have an ongoing civil case over there; another reason we went over. But I can’t see it resolving in time to be of any use to us now. That’s why we’re so desperate to sell this damn church.”
I sat down opposite her. “Oh?”
“We need cash. So we can get away for a while in the time that Ray has left.”
“It’s at that stage?”
“Yes. He hasn’t long. To be honest, the church was the last thing I thought we’d have to sell. I hoped we’d be able to hold on to it. But none of our other properties are moving.”
“Everything’s a little slow at the moment,” I acknowledged.
“Although we’re selling the pubs now, too. All of them. At least we know they’ll sell, even if we have to take a cut on the asking price.”
“Is that necessary?”
She sighed. “Unfortunately, yes. I’m just about to go and arrange it. We’ll be gone by the time they’re sold, but Liam’s agreed to handle everything for us. We want to be able to spend the last bit of time we have left together without the stress of having to run a business. Do the traveling we always planned to do.”
“Of course. I understand.”
She gave me an odd look. “Do you?”
“I think so.”
“I wonder.” Her eyes flashed suddenly. “I’ve always thought that life was too damn short, that you should grab it by the throat and take whatever happiness you can while you can, but that’s taken on a whole new meaning for me now. I’m not sure you can truly understand that, unless you’re faced with losing the person you love.” Her tone was unexpectedly angry.
I looked down, chose not to respond this time, not to play whatever game she was playing. I suspected she just needed to vent.
Maybe she realized it herself. For whatever reason, she pulled back. “Anyway, look, one thing’s for certain. All our assets have to be sold, and I need to know that you can process the sales quickly when they come through. If you can promise to do that, and at a good fee, we’ll use you.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“If not, I’ll find someone who can.” The edge was back.
I started to go through the contracts for the sale of the church, and Alison was immediately in focused, capable mode. She took notes on the outstanding documents I required, said she would organize tax-clearance certificates, and took the envelope of declarations I needed her husband and herself to sign and return.
“There are some documents in there that need to be witnessed,” I said. “Now, anyone can witness them, but if you’d rather I did, I can bring up a set to the hospital and do it. That’s no problem.”
“I’ll talk to Ray and see what he wants. He may not be there very long. There’s not much they can do for him at the moment, so he’ll be sent home in the next day or two, I expect.”
“Okay. Whatever you need, I’ll do.”
Her eyes softened unexpectedly. “You know, it’s so strange, he doesn’t even look that sick. Sometimes you’d never even know.”
“I wish there was something more I could do.”
She put the envelope in her bag. “This is all we need. To push this through as quickly as possible.”
“Just as well that English couple came back on board,” I remarked.
She nodded. “I hope to hell they stay put this time. Is that everything?”
“Almost. I’m still waiting on planning documentation from the County Council. They said they’d call us when they had the file copied. And I’ll also need a copy of Paul Doherty’s survey.”
“You’ll have that this afternoon.” She stood up. “I’m going up to meet him now. He wants to check a couple of things with me.”
Before she reached the door, she paused and turned. “Please don’t mention Ray’s illness to anyone. We’re keeping it to ourselves for the moment. He doesn’t want people to know.”
“Of course.”
Leah was finishing a call when I came down the stairs.
“I’m going to head over to the County Council offices,” she said, standing up and reaching for her coat and scarf. “That planning file on their sale is ready.”
“Good. I think we need to get moving on it as quickly as possible.”
By six o’clock the audit was finished, and I felt obliged to take the man from the Law Society for something to eat before he started the drive back to Dublin. I hoped that didn’t count as bribery. Leah came with us. He left shortly after seven, anxious to make the capital by midnight.
“Thank the Lord that’s over for another while.” I leaned back in my chair with a sigh. “Fancy a glass of wine to celebrate?”
I was still waiting for her to decide what she wanted to drink when I felt a breeze on the back of my neck as the door behind me opened and someone entered the pub. Leah looked up. I asked again what she wanted to drink, but she didn’t respond. Her gaze was fixed instead on whoever had entered the pub as they headed up to the bar. Her mouth was slightly open.
“Fuck. When did he reappear?” she said at last.
I turned to see who she was talking about. A man and woman were standing at the bar. Leah continued to stare openly at them, and I realized she wasn’t the only one. As I glanced around, it looked as if the entire pub had stopped chewing at exactly the same moment and were gaping at the couple. Even Tony was standing stock-still behind the bar, looking utterly shocked. Unshockable Tony.
“You won’t believe who that is,” Leah hissed.
The man was of average height, dressed in a long coat. His curly hair was receding a little and starting to gray at the temples. As he turned to the bar to order, I finally got a view of his face. There was no question about whom I was looking at: the photograph in the newspaper had stayed in my mind as if I had glued it to a noticeboard. He was slightly heavier and was sporting a tan his ex-fiancée would be jealous of, but other than that, he had changed very little. The man was Conor Devitt and the woman with him was his sister, Claire.
“Conor Devitt,” Leah breathed, staring at him as if he was liable to disappear if she took her eyes off him. She shook her head in disbelief. “Imagine just walking in here after all these years as if nothing had happened.”
Tony served up two takeaway coffees. How he managed to hold it together I’ll never know, but Tony’s not scared of an audience. There was no conversation though, and that wasn’t like him. The drinks were ordered, served, and paid for as if the man were a complete stranger, after which Claire and her long-lost brother turned on their heels and walked back down the length of the pub.
Conor kept his head up and his gaze fixed on the door. He must have been aware of the fact that everyone was looking at him, but he didn’t speak to anyone and he didn’t catch anyone’s eye. Claire, on the other hand, appeared to be relishing the attention. She beamed broadly and her eyes darted around the pub like an insect.
The second the door closed, the hum of conversation started up again, quietly at first, then rising gradually to a semi-hysterical din. After a few minutes I went outside. The Devitts had disappeared. The street lighting had come on and there was an orange hue over the square; the air was smoky and still. I dialed the garda station. Molloy answered, and didn’t even let me finish my sentence.
“Before you say anything, yes, we know Conor Devitt is back. Yours is about the tenth sighting we’ve had. I think we can take it he’s not considered missing anymore.”
“Have you spoken to him?”
“He’s just been in with us.”
“Oh right.”
Molloy sighed. “Says he got back last night. Went straight to his mother’s house. We’re going to talk to him again, but it all seems above board. That’s one file we can finally close.”
“So where has he been then?”
“England, he says. Won’t give us any details as to why he left in the first place, although I guess he doesn’t have to. He’s an adult. But he’s bloody well wasted a lot of police time.”
“So why now? Why come back after all this time? Is it to do with Danny?”
“That’s what he says, that he had to come back after his brother’s death, for his mother.”
“So now he’s concerned about her,” I said with more than a hint of sarcasm in my voice.
“We’ve no reason not to believe him,” Molloy said. “Although yes, you’d think he’d have got in contact with her at some stage in the past six years to stop the poor woman worrying.”
“How did he hear?”
“Hear what?”
“About Danny’s death. Do you think someone was in touch with him? Someone who knew where he was?”
“He said he heard it on Highland Radio. He must be able to get it on the Internet or something over there.”
“It took him five days to get back all the same,” I said. “You’d think he could have made it in time for the funeral.”
“And he arrives back to the news that there is to be a murder investigation.”
As I hung up, it hit me that Mary Devitt must have known that Conor was back when I went to see her that morning. That was why she had been so anxious to get me away from the house. He was probably in the bloody kitchen. I felt duped.