by Ford Murphy
This newspaper disagrees.
Rather, it is the view of this newspaper that there were not approximately thirty people in that bar on Saturday night. Instead, we believe that every decent citizen of this country was present in Nutt’s Haven on Saturday night. Therefore, this newspaper believes that it’s the duty of every decent citizen of this country to sign that sworn affidavit testifying to their presence there.
To do otherwise is tantamount to accepting that injustice should be allowed to continue unchecked and unfettered.
To do otherwise continues to give free rein to evil men to perpetrate their evil deeds on ordinary, decent citizens.
To do otherwise sends a message that we are unwilling and afraid to stand up for justice and the right to lead a normal life.
To do otherwise is to disrespect all of the men, women and children who have suffered at the hands of evil thugs.
To do otherwise is to abandon the hope that was beginning to shine in our town.
This newspaper believes now is the time to rise up and let our voices be heard. Now is the time to look evil in the face and say, “No More.”
The staff of this newspaper wishes to make it known that we were all present in Nutt’s Haven on Saturday night and we are witnesses.”
About an hour after the paper was published, a woman from Lissadown called into the top-ranked radio show in the country and read the editorial over the air where it was heard by over half the country. Within minutes, signs started to appear in the windows of shops, offices, factories, hotels, schools, hospitals and homes all carrying the same message: “We were in Nutt’s Haven on Saturday night and we are witnesses.”
Within an hour, residents of Lissadown were lining up to sign affidavits. By ten the next morning, there were almost a hundred people in line waiting to sign. By noon, the number had grown to over five hundred and stretched out from the police station past the Cathedral, along the wall of the army barracks and out beyond the old Lissadown railway station. By then, the number of signatories who swore they were in Nutt’s Haven, with Finn Lane at the time of the attack on Saturday, was over four hundred.
And still they came.
First it had been townspeople, then as news trickled out, people from surrounding areas joined the queue. Once the story had been picked up by the media, people started to come from all over the country.
In the middle of the afternoon, every single employee of Roan Pharmaceuticals marched from the plant to the center of Lissadown to sign their names. As they passed, workers from other companies in the industrial estate joined them. Shops and pubs along the route were shut as more and more people joined in.
Pupils from the local secondary school began to walk out of their classes, ignoring their teachers’ threats and orders to get back to their desks until finally the teachers joined the march too.
Declan Byrne and his camera crew filmed the growing phenomenon and the pictures were beamed to television sets around the country, spurring even more people to head to Lissadown. By six, over a thousand people had signed affidavits and over two thousand still waited in line.
The traffic jams into Lissadown stretched for miles in all directions.
Local businesses started to provide soup and sandwiches free to those standing in line. Pubs and residents allowed people to use their bathrooms. The police tried to persuade people to go home for the night but no one would budge. Instead, they continued to come, a never ending stream of determined citizens who felt let down by the system and who were now going to make a stand. To accommodate the crowds, the police set up extra stations on the cathedral grounds and manned it with volunteers to expedite the process.
Rows and rows of portable toilets were set up in the town center. Extra trains were put on from Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Belfast. A convoy of ten busloads of students from the university in Cork had become almost one hundred buses and nearly two thousand cars by the time they reached Thurles. The convoy doubled again in number by the time it reached the outskirts of Lissadown.
Brendan Macken’s plea for support for Finn had become a rallying cry for the entire country against injustice and Lissadown was now the epicenter of a people power movement that showed no signs of abatement.
The camera crew walked the line of people waiting, beaming their faces not just to the country but to the whole world as the story of the amazing developments in Ireland began to reach a global audience. The camera showed them all: young, old, rich, poor, standing there together, united in their mission. This was a demonstration unlike anything the country had ever seen.
~ * ~
In Dublin, the Prime Minister convened a meeting with the State Attorney General, Joe Delany’s boss. The Prime Minister was in a foul mood. “This situation is getting out of control. It could bring down the whole government if we don’t get a handle on it.”
The Attorney General nodded. “Yes, sir, I agree.”
“You agree? Of course you agree. Only an idiot wouldn’t agree. What’s your recommendation?” But before the Attorney General could utter a word the Prime Minister continued to rant. “It doesn’t seem to me that we can keep this man in jail. Do we even have any evidence against him? My God, I’m wondering why he was arrested in the first place? I swear to you, heads will roll—starting with yours—if I don’t get answers soon.”
The Attorney General looked around the table at the grim-faced ministers. “It’s true that Dr. Lane may have been rather precipitously arrested and that there is as of yet no direct evidence linking him to the crime.”
The Prime Minister leapt from his seat, his face red with rage. “Crime? Crime?” he spluttered. “Do you think there is one person in Lissadown right now who thinks a crime has even been committed? In their minds, whoever assaulted those thugs did the town a favor. And from what I’ve heard, I agree with them. And then there are all of the witnesses who swear they were with Dr. Lane? What about them? Are you going to arrest all of them, as Delany has suggested you would?”
“I understand your concerns Prime Minister, and clearly, this is a highly unusual situation. It seems to me, however, that we cannot just drop the charges and release the suspect simply because the people want us to. That would set a dangerous precedent, in my view. I recommend that we continue to hold him and I will look into the matter first thing in the morning. I’ll review all the evidence with Delany to make sure the arrest is valid and will report back to you immediately afterwards.”
The Prime Minister’s tone was deadly calm. “No, you won’t. You’ll do it tonight. This cannot wait until the morning to get started. Be back here at eight with your recommendation. By the way, I’ve heard rumors that Delany has links to those crooks. If I find out that’s true, I’ll see the bastard locked up for the rest of his days.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Wednesday, August 13, 1986
Week Eight: Day Three
Crowds had continued to flock into Lissadown in droves throughout the night. They were now coming from farther and farther afield as the “Free Finn Lane” movement gathered a head of steam domestically and internationally. The story dominated headlines everywhere and as media coverage expanded exponentially, the pressure on the Irish government to do something increased.
Mike McGill surveyed the throngs of people with growing trepidation. The atmosphere had remained peaceful so far but he knew it wouldn’t take much of a spark to convert it into a full scale riot. He had no wish to do battle with people who had simply decided to stand up for their own rights and he was certain none of his men did either. Furthermore, he felt bad for Finn. He had genuinely grown to like him these past few weeks and was very pleased that he and Julia had gotten together.
Nonetheless, given the nature of the attacks, he would have bet his life that Finn had carried them out. McGill wasn’t sure how he’d so completely covered his tracks but it was impressive. There wasn’t a shred of physical evidence and not only was the Nutt’s Haven alibi pure genius, now it was un
breakable.
He had even heard a report that a rally demanding Finn’s release was planned for Saturday in Dublin. Initial estimates were that over four hundred thousand people could attend. He was on tenterhooks, but it was out of his hands.
To his great relief, by ten that morning, the Attorney General released a report indicating that there were grounds to drop the charges against Finn but that further investigations of the attack should be carried out. The report also suggested that possible links had been discovered between Joe Delany and the criminal gang whose leaders had been attacked.
Within minutes, McGill’s phone rang.
Less than an hour later, Finn was a free man.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Monday, August 18, 1986
Week Nine: Day One
Finn had hoped that the modest crowd who had been at Nutt’s Tavern that night would confirm his presence there. Two months earlier, when the entire populace of Lissadown was in the gang’s grips he couldn’t have counted on that. But in that time the tide had begun to turn against the gang. Still a very small part of him worried. That every single person there that night came forward had quieted that fear.
But the editorial published in The Lissadown Examiner had touched him. McGill personally brought Finn a copy as soon as he became aware of it. Finn had read it over and over.
Now is the time to look evil in the face and say, “No More.”
That had summed it up for him.
However, the outpouring of support from the entire country left him speechless.
It had taken until Monday for things to settle down into something that resembled normal. When Finn sat down at his desk on Monday morning it felt as if he were starting a fresh, new chapter in his life.
Laura hadn’t arrived to the office yet. He smiled to himself. She’d been seeing this guy for weeks now. After the first few weeks, she had regained some balance and gotten back into a more normal routine. However, this past weekend the entire town had celebrated. She and her boyfriend must have indulged a bit too freely as well.
Finn realized that he had been so focused on Julia and the gang situation over the last few weeks, he had never asked Laura about this guy. Given everything that had been going on, he figured she’d forgive his poor manners, but he would have to be a little more sociable going forward.
Laura arrived over an hour late, looking completely hung over and wearing clothes that looked, and smelled, as if she had spent the entire weekend in them. He had never seen her like this.
“Jesus Christ al-frigging-mighty. What the hell happened you?”
“I know, I know,” Laura replied. “It doesn’t look good but I have to get to a meeting or I’ll be in trouble.”
“Whoa,” said Finn, standing up. “No way you can go to that meeting, you’ll get sacked. Go home, get a shower and get cleaned up. I’ll cover for you. Then you tell me exactly what happened. This I’ve got to hear.”
“Thanks.” Laura looked relieved. “I don’t think I could honestly sit through a three hour meeting in this condition.”
When she returned it was well after noon and Finn had just made himself a cup of tea. “Perfect timing. I’m all ears.”
Laura sighed. “I shouldn’t be telling you this but I have a feeling you’d pester me forever if I don’t. So you know I’ve been seeing this guy for a while.”
“Yup, but you’ve never told me anything about him. Who is he? How’d you meet him? What does he do?”
“Jesus, give me a chance to answer one question before firing off a dozen more. You know a bunch of the single Roan employees go out for a pint or two at Nutt’s Tavern every Friday.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Ah, well, I was going to ask you to join us on your first Friday there but you caused a bit of a stir that day and you weren’t in any shape to go out. By the next week it looked like you and Julia were an item, so I didn’t bother. So anyway, a bunch of us hang out at Nutt’s Tavern on Fridays. It’s kind of the unofficial ‘Roan Pub’.”
“I know that, Laura. Can we get back to the story?”
“Right. Well, because it’s mostly the Roan guys there, I rarely meet anyone new. But one night—it might have been when you were in Lugano—there was a guy there I’d never seen before, sitting alone at the bar. We were all there, just talking about work and stuff and after a while, he just came right up to me and said, ‘You are such a beautiful woman. Could I please buy you a drink?’ Now let’s face it. Nobody has ever said this to me before so no way was I going to turn him down.”
Finn laughed. “Now that was a bold move. Smoooooooth.”
“Well, he is American after all. I guess it kind of goes with the territory.”
“American? From what part?”
“California, of course.” She grinned. “Blond hair, blue eyes. Your classic surfer dude.”
“So what’s he doing in Lissadown? Not a blessed wave in sight for miles?”
“He works for Innotech in the US and he’s been transferred to their branch over here for six months working on a secret communication device that he said he couldn’t talk about. So, we had a drink, then another. He was fun to talk. He wanted to know all about me and what I did and everything. Anyway, by the end of the night he asked me out and we’ve been dating since then.”
“So why did you come in so trashed this morning?”
“Everything was so crazy last week with everything that happened and all. And then everyone was celebrating. He doesn’t need much of an excuse to party. But Nutt’s has been packed all week, so Friday night we went to a nightclub and, well, we kind of got into the spirit of things. We left the club completely trashed and staggered to his apartment and kind of…carried on all weekend.”
Finn stared at her in amazement. “You never left his apartment all weekend? What the hell did you do all that time?”
Laura scrunched up her nose. “I think I’ve said too much already. Promise me you won’t tell anyone.”
“I promise.”
Laura put her face in her hand and a deep red blush rose in her cheeks. “Well if you must know, we drank, we smoked dope and we fucked all weekend. We hardly left the bed at all. There, how’s that for a weekend?”
“Wow.” Finn whistled. “I’m impressed. He must be quite a stud. I hope you were being careful.”
“Yes, well, here’s the thing.” Laura wrung her hands nervously. “I wasn’t careful, and given the time of the month and the number of shots on goal he took, if there’s any bit of fertility in either of us, I’m in big trouble.”
Finn frowned. “That’s not good. Still you had fun, right?”
“Yes, I did. Only…Finn Lane, if I tell you this and you don’t keep it to yourself I’ll never speak to you again. You can’t even tell Julia.”
“I promise. Not even Julia.”
“Oh God.” Laura groaned loudly. “I can’t believe I’m actually going to tell you this. He was a bit kinky.”
“A bit kinky?”
“Well, more than a bit kinky.”
“In what way? You mean sexually?”
“Is there another way to be kinky?” Laura retorted. “Yes, I mean sexually. We were drunk and high and I let him do all kinds of things. At first it was just small stuff, like tying me up.”
“You consider being tied up a small thing?”
“In comparison to other thinks, yes.”
“What other things?”
“Spanking.”
“You let him hit you?”
“Just on the ass. At first it was kind of hot, but he got a little carried away and…uh…he…” She blushed a deeper red. She covered her face with her hands and blurted out, “He went in the back door. There, I’ve said it. Judge me now.”
Finn just stared at her. “He just…did it? Without asking or anything?”
“Not exactly. Like I said, I was drunk and stoned. I was scared and at first I said no, but it really pissed him off. So I let him. And that’s the st
ory of my lost weekend.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Sore and hungover, but okay.”
“So now that you’ve sobered up, are you going to kick what’s-his-name to the curb?”
“His name is Cam, and no. I really like him. We just let things get out of hand this weekend. It won’t happen again.”
“Be sure to tell him if he ever hurts you, I’ll kick his ass back to California.”
She grinned at him. “And Finn Lane is back on duty.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
October, 1986
Two Months Later
Life had gradually settled into a fairly relaxed routine for both Finn and Julia. The media frenzy continued for a couple of weeks after he was released but eventually it began to fade as other events took precedent. For Finn that couldn’t have happened a moment too soon.
Julia moved out of her house and into his. He fell more in love with her every day that passed and he could tell she was equally as happy. Things were definitely looking up. He was enjoying work and he was back to peak fitness, so much so that he began to consider returning to competition. Julia wasn’t crazy about this idea but didn’t try to put him off either.
“I’m just thinking about it right now,” he assured her. “I think I’ve gone soft. I’ve been away from it for so long.”
Julia just chuckled. “Yeah, right. There are loads of people out there who would beg to differ with you on that score.”
One Sunday evening, Finn was relaxing in the kitchen with a cup of tea, reading the newspaper as Bruce Springsteen played softly in the background. He had told Julia about Whitney Campbell and his time in America. Julia had felt such pity for Whitney and remarked that it put her own situation into a very different perspective.
The doorbell rang, disturbing the peace of the evening. Julia had just gotten into the bath.
“Damn it. Who could that be?” Julia had just gotten into the bath, so he set the newspaper aside and answered door.
Mike McGill stood there.
“Uh oh, the last time you made a house call here, Chief Superintendent, it didn’t work out that well for me. Should I be worried?”
