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me about it I’ll tell you why.’
    Fionnuala Sweeney came up to Katie and said, ‘Sorry, superintendent. Can we just do a couple of quick reaction shots?’
    ‘How do you want me?’ asked Katie. ‘Grinning or grim?’
    ‘Oh, just your normal expression, please.’
    For a brief moment, Katie closed her eyes and thought:
My normal expression, what in the name of all that’s holy is that? Martyred? Disillusioned? Exhausted?
    She returned to her desk at Anglesea Street, carrying a skinny latte and an iced doughnut, as well as a green manila folder of case notes tucked under her arm. She hadn’t even sat down when her mobile rang.
And it’s no, nay, never –
no, nay never no more
—
    ‘John?’ she said, clearing a space on her desk. ‘Hold on a moment, John.’ Then, ‘How did it go with ErinChem?’
    Detective O’Donovan appeared in her open doorway but she lifted her hand to indicate that she needed a few minutes before she could talk to him.
    John sounded depressed. ‘How do you think it went?’
    ‘I don’t know. Didn’t they want you? I thought you would have been perfect.’
    ‘Well, that was the word they used.’
    ‘What?
Perfect
?’
    ‘Come on, Katie, you know I’m a genius! They did a whole lot more than give me the job. They want me to set up and run a whole new internet marketing division.’
    ‘You’re
kidding
me.’
    ‘No, you heard it here first! They’re giving me a free hand to hire my own team of web designers, data analysts, product managers, you name it. My official title will be International Online Sales Director.’
    ‘John, I’m so, so pleased for you. Well, I’m pleased for
me
, too. I can’t pretend that I’m not.’
    ‘Come on, sweetheart, if it hadn’t been for you –’
    ‘What
I
did is totally beside the point. They wouldn’t have hired you if they hadn’t thought you were exactly the kind of person they were looking for. You have it all, John, you know that. You have the experience. You have the talent. You have those chocolate-brown eyes.’
    ‘Careful, I won’t be able to get my head out of the door.’
    ‘We’ll have to celebrate,’ said Katie. ‘But not tonight, I’m afraid. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s been a homicide on Lower Shandon Street, so I’ll probably be working very late tonight. Well, no, the victim’s body was discovered this morning, but it’s probably been there for three or four days. Yes. Don’t ask. No.
Faugh
. I can still smell it now.’
    ‘So what time can I expect you home?’ John asked her.
    ‘I don’t know for sure. But don’t wait up. I love you, and congratulations. Oh – and by the way – how much are they paying you?’
    ‘Eighty k basic, but with excellent bonuses, and if the online sales do really well, the sky’s the limit.’
    ‘I love you, John. You’ve made my day.’
    ‘I love you, too, detective superintendent.’
    Katie put her phone down. She was so pleased that she couldn’t stop herself from smiling, even when Detective O’Donovan came back in. He looked at her quizzically, but said nothing. She had always made it clear that her personal life was private. Everybody at Anglesea Street knew about John Meagher, of course, and Katie’s relationship with him was the subject of daily gossip in the canteen, but nobody would have dared ask her to her face how she and John were getting along together.
    John Meagher had been born and brought up in Cork, but he had emigrated to America and up until three years ago had been running a successful dot.com pharmaceutical business in San Francisco. Then his father had suddenly passed away, and he had been called back to Knocknadeenly, north of Cork, to take care of his elderly mother and to run the family farm. Because he was the oldest, the rest of the Meaghers had expected it of him, and he hadn’t felt able to refuse.
    A series of murders had brought Katie to Knocknadeenly, and that was when she had met John for the first time. In the