Yeats had summoned me the next evening, along with a group of servant girls and former acquaintances of Miss O’Grady, to one of the estate’s oldest buildings, a disused Roman Catholic church. The building was so overrun by creepers that only its entrance door was visible, a blackened arch of seve...
In the days following she brooded on the scene of her recent encounter with Nancy, dimly aware of her own mishandling of the occasion. She wished she could play it over again, perhaps by starting with a few positive comments about The Distant Folds before pitching in with the criticism. Or perhap...
Constable O’Neill had asked him to phone her at the station. “What’s happened?” asked Daly, expecting grim news. “Nothing too serious,” she replied. “I thought you might like to know. Eliza Hughes rang earlier looking to speak to Inspector Irwin. No one else would do. When Irwin got the message, ...
Returning their gazes, he saw the brazen curiosity in the faces of the up-and-coming reporters, and the cynical boredom in the long-serving hacks, the silent and lazy, whose greatest daily adventure consisted of finding the route home from their favourite watering-holes. What did they see in him,...
Opaque leaded windows, no larger than household bibles, ensured that little light penetrated the depths within. A group of women were holding a protest with placards at the gates when the Inspector and I pulled up. They had travelled from evening Mass to shout out the names of loved ones beneath ...
He could feel the weight of his anger rising in his chest, but he forced himself to be patient. He needed to control his emotions; otherwise, they might spoil all his preparations and the game he had devised this afternoon for Lena Novak. He must be calm, he told himself. He must remember the pat...
She’d been miles away. ‘Sorry, dearie,’ cooed the woman, who must have seen her startled expression because she patted her hand in apology. A sudden hot surge prickled at Madeleine’s eyes. It was the sort of random gesture of sympathy that could set her off these days, she didn’t know why. The wa...