“Was he, em, in some class of a hurry with this, er…?”

She paused before replying. “Well, Matt, now he didn’t say as much, but…I think so. But if it’s any trouble to you, don’t have anything to do with it. I told Mr Crossan that you were a very busy-”

Minogue thought of her laughter, her radiant smile, the hospitality she had showered on them over the years. She and Kathleen had grown to be like sisters.

“Ah, you’re all right there, Maura, oul’ stock,” he said. “Don’t be worrying. Keep that thing out of the floods you have and give it to me tomorrow evening.”

“God bless, Matt!”

Kathleen watched her husband unwrap another chocolate.

“Leave a few for the children, can’t you.”

He rolled the foil into a ball, placed it on the telephone table and began flicking it about.

“Did you know anything about that?” he asked.

“The barrister fella? Yes I did. If you want my opinion, he put her in a corner. If I meet him, I’ll tell him to his face, too. They’re all the same, that mob.”

“What are you saying?”

“‘The best in the county, Mr Crossan,’ Maura tells me. Of course she went straight to his office in Ennis when Eoin was arrested. She would have sold the bloody farm if that was what it’d take to get Eoin out. As it turned out, this Crossan wouldn’t take any money from her.”

“So why are you dropping rocks on him?”

“I maintain that he knew all along that Maura was related to you and that he knew she’d feel under the obligation to him. That way she’d put him in touch with you. That’s the way country people are.”

“Tell me more about country people, Kathleen.”

Kathleen didn’t take the bait but examined her nails instead.

“Probably knew they were hard up for money as it was. Probably has some dirty work for a client that’s willing to pay him buckets of money.” She looked up from her nails. “Wants something under the table from you, no doubt,” she declared.