‘I want an interview with Smith Berry,’ Swallow said. ‘I’ll have it. After that I want to talk to the chief secretary. If it comes to it I’ll go to the lord lieutenant, or I’ll go to London to the bloody prime minister.’
‘Will you please sit down and stop pacing up and down like a wild animal above in the Zoological Gardens?’ Mallon said firmly. ‘I’ll ask Smith Berry for a meeting, but he may not want to agree to it. I’ve already asked him to see me and he’s put me off twice so far.’
‘He’ll see me if I have to knock down the blasted door,’ Swallow snarled. ‘I want Kelly’s head. I want him out of his job, out of the Castle, out of bloody Ireland. They can send him to Africa or China. With any luck he’ll get skewered by the natives or boiled alive in a pot.’
‘I understand how you feel,’ Mallon said. ‘If it was me I’d feel just the same. I’m really very sorry for you and Maria. It’s a shocking thing to have happened. Every man in G-Division is outraged about it. There might be other ways of dealing with Major Kelly though. I’m going to tell you something important in a little while.’
‘With respect, chief, that’s not nearly good enough. My wife is lying above in the Rotunda hospital. Our dead child will never see the light of day. Maria might have died herself if it wasn’t for getting good medical care so quickly. Somebody’s going to pay for it all, one way or another.’
Mallon groaned.
‘I can only say again how sorry I am. And Elizabeth too. She’s asked me to express her particular sympathy to you both. It’s a hard thing to lose an unborn child.’
‘We didn’t “lose” the child, chief,’ Swallow snapped. ‘A gang of blackguards broke into our home and killed it. This was murder, except we can’t charge anybody for it.’
‘I’ll put in another request to see Smith Berry,’ Mallon said. ‘But if he agrees to it we’ll go together. You’ve got to control yourself on this. We’ll need to agree on what you say and what you want from him. And you’ve got to be prepared for a very hard response. He’ll stand behind his people.’
‘Then he’d better know that I’ll stand for myself and my wife and our lost child. Either he deals with Kelly or they can have my resignation. And I won’t go quietly. I’ve got my own contacts in the newspapers too, and I’ll use them. These bloody people count on us to hold the country for them. We do a bloody good job of it, and this is the thanks we get. I’ll want every policeman and their families the length and breadth of Ireland to know how they’ll be treated if it suits the Smith Berrys and his like.’
Mallon raised a restraining hand.
‘Enough, Joe. You’ll say things you could regret. If you decided to hand in your papers, nobody could blame you, and I certainly wouldn’t. But if that’s your plan, stay quiet about it. They’ll find some way of sacking you instead. You’ll be out. No pension, and your name blackened. If you’ll be patient, as I said, there’s very likely to be another way of dealing with it.’
‘The hell with their pension,’ Swallow answered. ‘I don’t need their pension. There’s a business to be run in Thomas Street. The truth is I should have pulled out of this bloody job long ago like Maria asked me to.’
‘Look,’ Mallon said, ‘I feel a degree of responsibility for this. Now, I’m picking my words carefully here. I was the one who asked you to . . . shall we say . . . “locate” the protection logs. If I hadn’t done that there never would have been any search at your home.’ He paused. ‘You’re exhausted and you’re angry. If you could see the cut of yourself, you’d believe me. You need to go home, get them to fill a hot bath for you, take a few hours’ sleep and then come down to my house later. We’ll have a drink and you’ll eat supper with us. You’ll feel a lot better.’
Under his anger, Swallow knew that Mallon was right. He had not slept properly for three nights. His mind was racing to cope with too many issues. He needed rest in order to restore his judgement.
‘I’ll do that, chief,’ he said more calmly. ‘And I hear what you’re saying about the protection logs. There’s no fault on your part in any of what happened. You couldn’t have known they’d break into my home or threaten my wife. Civilised Englishmen aren’t supposed to do that sort of thing to senior officers of their own police force.’
Mallon nodded.
‘Thank you. I appreciate what you say.’
‘I’d just like to fill you in on what happened in Berlin,’ Swallow said. ‘I think we’re nearly home and dry on the Alice Flannery murder.’
‘I got the gist of it from your messages,’ Mallon answered. ‘Mossop kept me up to date on it. You’ve brought this fellow Carmody back, I know.’
‘Carmody’s in the Bridewell now, or in Mountjoy. I’ve enough to keep him in custody for as long as it takes. I’ll do a full written report of course, but in summary Carmody will give evidence of Stefan Werner threatening the girl because she wanted to claim compensation for the accident in the restaurant.’
‘It’s circumstantial,’ Mallon said. ‘You’ll need more.’
‘There’s more, chief. Werner left the restaurant early on the night Alice Flannery was murdered, and he made her tell him her address. And it turns out that Werner has a record of violence.’
Mallon nodded.
‘Well, that’s more persuasive. So what do you intend to do next?’
‘I’ll do like you said, chief. I’ll get some sleep and then I’ll bring Mr Werner in as a suspect for murder.’
‘Fair enough,’ Mallon said. ‘I’ll get the warrant organised. There’s two magistrates sitting in the police courts all day.’
‘There’s one other thing to tell you, Joe.’ Mallon attempted a humourless smile. ‘There’s some news in that could please you in the light of what we’ve been talking about.’
‘It’ll be a change to hear something good,’ Swallow said.
‘I thought about telling you this at the start of our conversation,’ Mallon said, ‘but I knew you’d want to get things off your chest about Kelly and Smith Berry, so I decided to hold back a little bit until you’d had your say.’ He paused. ‘Charlie Vanucchi came back on the Nellie Byrne murder with a name for Pat Mossop.’
‘So which of his fellows is it?’
‘It’s none of them. But Vanucchi told Mossop the identity of the man who was with Nellie before she was killed. Now he’s our prime suspect.’
‘So who is it?’ Swallow asked, professional interest asserting itself in spite of his exhaustion.
‘You’re not going to believe this, but it might change your plans a bit. It’s a fellow we both know. It’s Kelly.’
‘Kelly?’ Swallow could not believe his ears. ‘Kelly? Nigel Kelly? Major Nigel Kelly? So what are we doing about that information?’
Mallon looked at the wall clock.
‘Right now he should be in the Bridewell, I imagine. “Duck” Boyle and Mick Feore and half a dozen men in backup collected him from his bed, or more accurately from the bed of one of his lady friends in Mount Pleasant, a little earlier this morning.’
His smile broadened just a fraction.
‘So I imagine that we’ll get our interview with Mr Smith Berry very soon. Very soon indeed.’