The Doll's House

‘Why would you help me? Why the hell should I trust you?’


She was being cagey, but he could tell her nerve was starting to give. Stevie figured she wouldn’t say no to a hit.

‘Why don’t you give yourself a little buzz with some of that charlie over there?’ He pointed to the drawer. ‘I’m not the fucking Drug Squad.’ He didn’t want her flaking out, but he needed her to soften. He remained standing all the while Ruby snorted. Stevie could be a patient man when he had to be. It didn’t take her long to lose some of her harder edges.

Kneeling in front of her, he said, ‘Feeling a bit better now, Ruby, are we?’

She didn’t answer him.

‘You wanted to know why I would help you.’

‘Yeah.’ Her voice softer, slower.

‘Let’s just say I’m an old and close friend of your mother.’

She stared back at him. ‘You know my … mother?’

He needed to play it carefully. Ruby was on the ropes, and he had a pretty good idea why. ‘Dublin is a small place, Ruby. Keeping bad company gets you noticed.’

‘What?’

‘Sugar daddies pick on little girls for a reason.’ He moved closer to her. ‘We both know who we’re talking about, don’t we?’

‘He’s a prick.’

‘I know he is.’

‘Do you know my fucking dad too? You’re not going to tell him shit, are ya?’

‘Not a word, Ruby.’ Then, with as much sincerity as Stevie could muster, ‘I know exactly what he’s like.’



Stevie’s meeting wouldn’t be for another quarter of an hour, but he was glad he had decided to get there early, and all the more poignant that they should meet near the old house in Sandymount. Stevie had been a lot younger the last time they had spoken face to face, but some impressions are lifelong ones. His conversation with Ruby McKay had been educational. Fear has a way of concentrating the mind, even for a tough little junkie like Ruby.

At first, he’d thought she had been afraid of him, but the way she’d stood her ground had contradicted that. There was another shark afloat, the one old enough to be her grandfather, and someone who really knew how to scare precious Ruby. If he played his cards right this time, getting embroiled with the Hamiltons could turn out to be a very lucrative move indeed.





Mervin Road


By the time Kate curled up on the couch on Monday night, she was exhausted. Charlie hadn’t gone to bed until after ten o’clock, and it was another hour before he’d fallen asleep. Alone, Kate thought back to her phone call with Declan, realising how ill-prepared she’d been for it. Notwithstanding the difficulties in their marriage, she hadn’t expected that. The whole conversation had felt alien, as if she’d been transported into someone else’s life, and the person at the other end of the phone wasn’t her husband any more but this other man. A man she no longer knew.

Within seconds of hearing the words ‘I’ve met someone else’, a wall had been built up between them different from anything that had gone before. Declan had wanted to talk to her about this stranger, this woman who had become part of his life. It had felt abhorrent to Kate to listen to even the smallest detail. She hadn’t wanted to know any of it. And it wasn’t simply thinking she wasn’t good enough for him any longer. It went far deeper than that, a throwback from her being an only child, that feeling of detachment from the world around you, and a sense that, ultimately, you would end up alone.

Kate had put her mobile phone on silent, not wanting to talk to anyone, but jumped when it quivered on the armrest. She had lost track of time, and despite it being after one in the morning, she was somewhat relieved to realise it was O’Connor rather than Declan.

‘Kate?’ His voice was higher and snappier than her current mood.

‘What is it, O’Connor?’

‘There’s been another killing. Same as Jenkins, knife wounds to the lower chest, body floating in the canal.’

Kate wasn’t ready to answer.

‘Kate, are you still there? Did you hear me? There’s been another—’

‘I heard you, O’Connor. What part of the canal?’

‘Parnell Bridge, five bridges down.’

‘I assume the first location is still being monitored.’

‘You assume right, Kate.’

‘He would have been a fool to go back to the first location.’

‘Not unless he was looking for some police volunteers.’

‘Another male victim?’

‘Yeah, early sixties, maybe more. It’s hard to tell at this point.’

‘Any connection to Jenkins?’

‘They didn’t mix in the same social circles.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Our victim slept rough, no fixed abode.’

‘He was homeless?’

‘That’s right, with a capital H, and it’s something he’s been doing for a while.’