He made his way around the bus queues along Abbey Street and slipped down the lane toward the back door of the pool hall. Thirty lousy quid for the leather jacket that O’Connell knew cost two hundred in the shops. Bastard. The look that told him he knew it was the lowest price he could throw at him without making him walk off. The camera was a surprise. He’d said forty and gotten thirty. He’d kept the Walkman but the batteries had run out.

It took him a count of seven before he could see anything beyond the lights over the pool tables. All he could make out were the figures moving, the smoke. James Tierney’s closely cropped head appeared in the glare over one table. He leaned in again to cue the shot.

“Howiya, Jammy, how’s it going, man?”

James Tierney dropped the cue with a sigh, closed his eyes and then regrouped to line up the cue again.

“Get lost, Leonardo,” he murmured.

The cue darted, the white knocked the red hard against the mat and into the corner pocket. By the time the red clicked amongst the other balls in the pocket, the white was still.

“Ace, Jammy! Brilliant, man! Fucking ace!”

Jammy Tierney stood up out of the light. Another man stepped forward. The balls on the table were mirrored in his glasses. Tierney stared at the table and chalked his tip.

“I’m in a game,” he said.

“Sorry, Jammy. Sorry, man. I just thought I’d, you know…”

“Take a fucking walk.”.

“Yeah, right. It’s okay! Sorry. I’ll wait outside like, you know. No problem.”

For the next twenty minutes he walked from the front door of the pool hall down the lane to the back. He thought often of sneaking back in and watching somewhere he wouldn’t be noticed. He imagined the perfect shot, the ball dropping into the pocket, the money changing hands. If he was Jammy Tierney, he’d be doing better than this dive. He’d be at it night and day until he got to the big time. He stopped by the back door again. What if Jammy was giving him the brush-off and was going to leave by the front? He took a step up toward the open door but stopped when he remembered Jammy’s face. He jogged to the front of the building in time to see the guy with the glasses leaving.