The Doll's House

‘You killed them?’ Even saying the words sounds crazy. But now, it’s like Dominic has stopped listening to me. As if I don’t exist. Because he continues talking as if he’s thinking out loud. As if his words confirm his own logic. And all the while he has that horrible knife in his hand.

‘I’ve always suspected it was suicide,’ again the anger, ‘but suspecting and knowing are two different things.’ He looks at the pool of blood on the attic floor. ‘Alister thought he could fool me, like he fooled Dad. That I was there for the taking to do his dirty work for him.’

‘And you let him think that?’

‘He said he owed me an education,’ another smirk, ‘that he owed me the truth. None of that matters, Clodagh. Don’t you get it? They had to die.’

‘Dominic, what have you done with Alister?’ My voice is finding a new form of fear as I look at this man, my brother, who has become a crazed stranger.

‘It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done.’

‘Will you stop saying that?’ I realise I’m pleading. I stop talking. I stare at him again, the brother I have known my entire life, before I finally ask, ‘Is this all about her? Is this all about Mum? You covered up for her all those years ago, didn’t you?’

‘I envied you, Clodagh. You do know that? You were a child. You couldn’t see or understand the things that I could see.’

‘I saw more than you think, Dominic.’

He shrugs off my last words. ‘Maybe you did.’

I remember the light in the attic that night in Dominic’s bedroom. ‘You were here in this attic, Dominic, when Mum was attacked?’

I can see the pain on his face, etched across his brow.

‘Weren’t you? Answer me, goddamn it.’

‘I wanted to help her. I really did.’ Now it’s Dominic who sounds desperate, pained. ‘I was too afraid. I was a coward back then.’

‘You were only a kid.’ My mind feels like a seesaw.

‘No, I wasn’t, Clodagh,’ he roars. ‘I was old enough to see, to know, to stop it.’ Then he lowers his voice: ‘I was old enough to tell.’

‘Why didn’t you?’

‘You wouldn’t understand.’

‘You said we had time, Dominic. Give me the chance to understand.’ Again I’m pleading. And for what feels like eternity, there is a silence between us, Dominic staring at me, then looking away. Finally he says, ‘I didn’t want Dad to think any less of her. I thought if I kept my mouth shut, it would all pass, but none of it passed.’

‘What happened, Dominic?’ I sound unsure and nervous.

The crazed look I saw when he opened the door shrouds his face. I look at the knife, as he leans down and asks coldly, ‘Don’t you remember, Clodagh?’

‘Remember what?’

‘Daddy’s little girl,’ he says, mocking.

‘What about me? What are you saying?’

‘You were the one who told him.’

‘How could I have known? I was too young to understand.’

‘Do you remember when Emma, your doll, fell and her face cracked in two?’

‘Yes.’

‘After the row, the house was horrible. The anger caught up in every wall, every room, roaring even in the silence.’

‘Go on.’ Although I’m terrified of what is coming next.





74 Strand Road, Sandymount


The two men stood with their backs to the sea, while Merriman brought O’Connor up to date.

Despite the neighbour’s observation, the house initially appeared empty. But one of Merriman’s crew had picked up something on the last check. With the wind dying down on the strand, they thought they’d heard something inside: raised voices in line with what had been reported from the house-to-house.

Crossing from the strand, O’Connor and Merriman went to the back of the building, knowing that if either of them confirmed what the officer had reported, O’Connor would have no choice but to call in the Emergency Response Unit.

Within seconds, they heard a woman screeching from high in the house. Both men backed away. Once O’Connor was at a sufficient distance, he put in his call to ERU at Harcourt Street. An on-scene commander was immediately briefed. James Maloney was the same rank as O’Connor, but he would call the shots once the marksmen were deployed. If what O’Connor’s gut was telling him was true, Maloney would also be the ultimate decider in any potential hostage negotiation.

Knowing the ERU boys would be going in, O’Connor made a final call to Hennessy. McDaid had been very willing to talk about the old house, coming through with decent information that O’Connor passed on to Maloney, who had arrived within moments of the alert being received at ERU.