The Doll's House

‘I would hate for you to be any other way.’ She attempted a laugh. ‘I’m all ears.’


‘You’d better put that kettle on again so.’

‘And you’d better have good reason for keeping me up at this hour of the morning, and turning me into your housemaid.’ Kate hoped her lighter tone would encourage him to get off his chest whatever was eating away at him.

‘They say it’s good to talk.’

‘This thing you want to talk about, has it been bothering you for a while?’

‘Months.’

‘Is it to do with work?’

‘Yeah … well, kind of.’ O’Connor fidgeted in the chair. ‘I’ve done something stupid. I’ve made a mistake.’

‘None of us is perfect. Making mistakes is part of what makes us human.’

‘Someone paid the price for my stupidity, Kate, a big price.’

‘Have you spoken to anyone about this before?’ Kate could tell by his manner that they were dealing with something big. And a part of her wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear it.

‘It’s been keeping me awake at night. The only way I seem to be able to get any sleep is if I drink myself out of my head and then some.’

‘Drink doesn’t change anything, O’Connor. Whatever troubles you have, they’ll still be there in the morning.’

‘I know that only too well.’

‘For what it’s worth,’ Kate sat down opposite him again, ‘anything you tell me will be in the strictest confidence.’

‘Am I one of your clients now?’ And for the first time since he’d arrived, he smiled.

‘No, not quite, but I am a friend.’

‘Are you, Kate?’ He was staring at her now. ‘It’s just that sometimes, with work and all, it’s hard to tell where professionalism ends and friendship begins.’

His words made her uneasy. She knew it wouldn’t take a lot for them to cross the line. She wasn’t ready for that, not yet. ‘Look, O’Connor, why don’t you tell me what’s been bothering you? No matter how long the two of us sit here, it’s not going to feel like the right time.’

‘I covered up for a guy.’

The awkward moment had passed. Kate thought about what he had just said. ‘What guy?’

‘A young fella. He was brought into the station a few months back.’

‘Arrested?’

‘No, brought in for questioning. He had no priors.’

‘How did you cover up for him exactly?’

‘Do you remember Donoghue?’

‘The bookman on the Devine and Spain case?’

‘That’s the one.’

‘What about him?’

‘It was his son. He managed to get himself into a bit of trouble.’

‘What kind of trouble?’

‘He fell for some young one.’

‘O’Connor, I’m not quite following you. What has the love life of Donoghue’s son got to do with you?’

‘It should have nothing to do with me, but Donoghue got me involved. The girl wanted to press charges.’ O’Connor looked down at his feet. ‘Donoghue said there had been a misunderstanding. Both kids got drunk at a house party, the inevitable happened, the girl, he said, must have regretted it afterwards … and his son was a good kid, never in trouble with the law.’ O’Connor looked up at Kate. ‘He said he knew it would shake him up – if the charges went anywhere. An innocent teenager marked for life.’

‘The girl said he raped her. Is that what you’re telling me, O’Connor?’

‘Donoghue said it was consensual. It just got a bit out of hand. Donoghue thinks both of them were given, or had taken, something at the party. The boy knocked the girl about a bit.’

‘It doesn’t sound consensual to me, O’Connor.’

‘I know it fucking doesn’t. The point is, Kate, when Donoghue approached me, he said I was the only one he could trust with it. He needed it sorted. All I had to do was apply a bit of pressure on the girl, point out the complications involved, how hard it would be for anything to be proven – you know, her word against his kind of thing.’

Kate purposely kept her voice calm, knowing that if she came over top heavy with O’Connor now, he would close up shop completely. ‘Why did you cover it up, O’Connor? Why didn’t you tell Donoghue that there wasn’t anything you could do?’

‘I met the boy.’

‘And?’

‘And he was a mess, nervous as hell. He looked like a good kid, exactly as Donoghue had described him, quiet, nerdy and bright. He had his whole life ahead of him, and these things can fuck up a guy’s head.’

‘Not to mention a girl’s.’ Kate’s voice was low. ‘So what happened next? Something tells me this isn’t the end of the story.’

‘No, Kate. It’s not the bloody end.’ O’Connor stood up. ‘I made a fucking wrong call.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Two months later the kid was pulled in again.’

‘Another accusation of rape?’ Kate couldn’t keep the shock out of her voice.

‘Yeah.’ O’Connor looked straight at her, his voice strained. ‘This time the girl was badly beaten up. You should have seen her, Kate. Only an animal could have done it to her.’