John Brady - A Carra ring

“Are you all right?” he asked.

His chest was still full of that airy, swollen feeling. Maybe he should have gone in for observation for a few hours. Malone was waiting for him to step out too.

“Boss? We’re not carrying the can for this, right?”

Minogue was up now. Tynan had spotted them, and had ducked back under the tape and was heading toward them

“They knew,” Malone went on, “they knew, there was something else going on with all this. Right? And they didn’t say a fucking word to us, so they didn’t. It’s all up to them then, isn’t it? The bastards.”

Minogue nodded. Malone’s bastards were Hayes and company, he supposed. Tynan covered ground quickly, he thought. The handshake, unexpected, reminded Minogue of the loser in a close bout.

“Matt?”

“Well I’m on me feet.”

“Tommy?”

Malone shrugged, took the handshake. Tynan stared at Minogue.

“At least get a lie down, will you?”

“No. I’m okay.”

Minogue stared at the crowd standing by the tape. Dolan had followed them from the car. He stood back now.

“No.”

Tynan looked back at the sheet covering Freeman, Murtagh writing something.

“You knew straightaway?” he asked. “After the shooting?”

Minogue nodded.

“Can you tell me what happened? The lead-up.”

“The fella behind was tracking us,” said Malone. “He was good. I only spotted him later on.”

Minogue shivered.

“But they definitely went after Freeman,” he said.

Tynan frowned.

“You don’t think they put him as one of yours? Ours, I mean. A Guard?”

Minogue waited for Tynan to out with it.

“Smiths?” he murmured finally.

Minogue shrugged and looked over at Malone, who shook his head once.

“They’d know us,” he said.

“I’m still going after each and every one of the Smiths’ crowd,” Tynan said. “Every last little hanger-on and gofer, every little worm that ever had anything to do with them.”

Tynan turned to Dolan.

“Can we clear these two to go?”

“Yes, sir,” said Dolan. “We can get a car in for them soon’s we get the word.”

“Please,” said Tynan. “And would you go into that bashed-up Nissan there and take out an envelope, a big one, with some fancy letterhead printed on it, and get it for us?”

Tynan watched him quickstep it back to the car. Minogue looked over at the Nissan and the roadway beyond. The chalk circles around the bullet casings looked like eyes.

“Did you sign over your pistol?” Tynan asked Malone.

“I did. To John Murtagh, he bagged it.”

“Good,” Tynan said. He threw a glance Minogue’s way. “I won’t bother asking you. Have you changed your bloody mind after this, then?”

Minogue said nothing.

“Now,” said Tynan. “We need to clear the decks sometime soon here. We’re going to sit down very shortly and sort out, try and sort out, what happened in that hotel room.”

Minogue tugged at the edge of his plaster again. He was aware that Malone was standing very still beside him. He didn’t want to look over at him for a reaction.

“Because that’s when things started to fall apart,” Tynan added. He waited until Minogue looked at him.

“What were you doing in this part of town, with Freeman in tow?”

“We were headed for the squad,” said Minogue. “An interview.”

Tynan looked from Minogue to Malone and back.

“Those papers Freeman had for you,” he said. “I know what’s in them. So did King, and so did Hayes.”

Tynan looked at the two site technicians by the Mondeo. Callaghan, one of them.

“Aren’t you surprised?”

“I am and I amn’t,” Minogue said. “I thought we were first in.”

“So did Freeman,” said Tynan. “He had called Boston to get the go-ahead after our Mr. Leyne took a turn and was put on the life support. He got the go-ahead to go to you. But we received a phone call here from the principals too.”

“Who, you?” Minogue asked

“No. Justice. Mr. Declan King.”

“Hayes?”

“That went around me completely,” Tynan said. “That’s why you and Head-the-Ball are not being given the treatment here at this very moment. At least your contrariness was out in the open — ”

“They were running us, John. They were trying to turn the case.”

Tynan set his jaw and looked over at Malone.

“Are you picking up on all this, Detective Garda?”

Malone nodded.

“Your CO here arguing the toss with the commissioner? At a murder scene? Right in front of a detective Garda, detective Garda from Dublin?”

Malone darted a glance at Minogue. Tynan’s blank stare went back to Minogue.

“I only heard of these calls after you two clattered King and company down at the hotel,” Tynan went on. “They’d come in on Freeman, and they were going to set you straight when you showed up for the meeting. That didn’t happen.”

“Set us straight how?”

Tynan gave no sign he’d heard Minogue.

“Oddly enough, Leyne seems to have formed some… ” he paused to consider his choice of words “… some attachment to yourself, Inspector. Seems to think you were all you were cracked up to be — and he checked, let me tell you, I found out. So he wanted to rely on you with this affidavit about the son phoning. But the lawyers beyond had their own ideas, and one of them was to notify the Department of Justice here that you were going to be given these papers. An insurance measure, you might say.”

Tynan looked down the street at the cordon.

“In my book, it’s that meddling made this come about. But now look: Freeman… There’ll be moves over this after the dust settles, let me tell you. Clean house, and sharpish. But this, this mess hangs on King and the others.”

He turned back to Minogue.

“You asked what King knew, and was going to let you in on?”

“Money, I’d be thinking,” said Minogue.

“Always a safe guess.”

Minogue gave him a hard look.

“Okay then: when do we get some real answers?”

Tynan looked around once, nodded at O’Leary.

“Right now, if that’s what you can handle. But not here.”

Minogue exchanged a look with Malone, who shrugged.

“Let’s go, then,” he said to Tynan.

“Fair enough, then,” Tynan said. Minogue didn’t mistake the new edge in his voice. “But, before we start, know this: you’re standing down from the case for now, the both of you. No arguing here about it either.”

O’Leary held up the cordon tape but it was Dolan steering them to Tynan’s Grenada, brushing off a man holding out a walkman. He insisted on shaking hands with Minogue and Malone as they sat in. Minogue’s knee gave him a stab as he pulled in his leg. He looked over at Malone. His colleague looked like he’d just been pulled out of a carwash.

Someone shouted Tynan’s name from the small crowd around his car. Tynan paused to answer a question. O’Leary shifted in his seat.

“A right mess,” he murmured. “Are you okay?”

“Not so great, Tony. Thanks. A mess is right.”

“You should have heard the boss,” O’Leary said, “when he found out what they’d done. Declan King and them. Never heard the like of it before. Ructions.”

Outside, Tynan broke away away from two reporters. O’Leary started the engine. Tynan sat in and pulled the door hard behind him. Minogue winced when the flash went off by the window. Tynan half-turned.

“The both of you could be going off for a bit of observation, you know,” he said. He looked at Minogue. “Especially you. Haven’t you blood pressure or something?”

“I’ll be all right. For now.”

“Have you phoned Kathleen yet?”