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voice then dropped to a near whisper before he added, ‘Told the court that when they found me guilty but they didn’t believe me.’ He hunched his shoulders. ‘Didn’t believe my mother either, they didn’t, when she screamed from the gallery that they were making a big mistake.’
    ‘We understand that,’ Sally softly said, leaning over to tap the table in front of Irish. ‘But why were you transferred to here?’
    ‘Simple. I went crazy. Berserk. I couldn’t stand not being able to go back to sea – to be free – to be able to go and have a piss without permission. And then the psychos thought I was some kind of wife mutilator and …’ He stopped and looked Sally straight in the eye before whispering, ‘Can you imagine what it feels like to be knocked out cold against the shower room wall and all you were doing was washing the filth from your body? Shit scared I am to even take a shite in here.’
    Sally leaned back. Her head shook from side to side. Tears welled up and spilled from her eyes. She was still very delicate from her recent car crash and was therefore emotionally frail. However, she knew she had to look straight into Irish’s eyes because she wanted him to know she believed him. No way , she argued with herself, could the gentle Irish whom she had served in her bar have brutally ended his sweet Marie’s life.
    Luke sighed. ‘Irish, are you saying you became violent to protect yourself and in doing so you landed up in here?’
    Banging the table with a clenched fist, Irish began to cackle. ‘Do you really think,’ he sneered, ‘that they sent me here for the good of my health?’ Irish then raised his hand in despair. ‘Can’t you see this is a place of no hope, no redemption. It’s filled with the criminally insane – paedophiles, sexual deviants, and all I can do to survive is keep my head down and my back always to the wall.’
    Luke nodded and leaned over towards Irish. ‘Look, son,’ he began, ‘what I want you to do is not retaliate no matter how much you are goaded. Do all that is asked of you. And I will see if I can get you a transfer back to Saughton.’ Luke paused. He could see Irish was not convinced, so reaching out to pat Irish’s hand he gently added, ‘Your mother could come over from Ireland and visit you there. You don’t want her coming to this place, do you?’
    Irish nodded in unison with Nancy and Sally.
    ‘Now why I am here today is … I want you to try and remember everything about the day, everything you did that day, the day Marie was …’
    The clock on the wall ticked the long seconds while Luke, Sally and Nancy waited for Irish to respond. Nancy shifted uneasily in her chair as she silently willed him to tell them anything he could.
    As if talking in a dream Irish began, ‘My ship was supposed to come in on the late tide but we had had a fair wind from Spain and we arrived on the early one. I was so madly in love with her that as soon as the gang plank was down I was running down it. Couldn’t wait to surprise her, I couldn’t.’ Pulling at his nose with one hand then with the other he pulled at his hair before going on, ‘But it was me that got the surprise. Shock really. You see, there standing at the door of the wee flat I had rented for her were two men. One of them had the bloody cheek to say to me that Marie was with his mate and he and his other pal were next in the queue. Suggested he did that I go to the pub and get a drink and then come back. The bastard even said he would keep my place so I could have her after him. Me, her legal, stupid husband, was to wait in line to get a service from her!’
    Irish began to sob.
    Luke waited until Irish began to get some control back. ‘Now, can you remember what these men were like?’
    ‘Sailors like me. Just docked I think.’ Irish gnawed on his thumb. ‘I remember lashing out at the two of them and telling them to get the hell out of it. They just laughed and lunged at me and I fell