by Paul Charles
She sat down beside McCusker and O’Carroll and played mother, by pouring out the tea and smiling as she offered out the sliced buns.
They chatted for a few minutes and then, quite close to tears, she said, “I won’t allow the actions of my father to hurt this family any more. Our Adam would have been very disappointed in me if I let this ruin my life as well. I remember being very upset at his decision to come over here to study and I asked him why he wanted to do that and he went very quiet and just said ‘I need to get as far away from him,’ meaning our father, ‘as possible.’ He must have known a lot more than he admitted.” She stopped talking again; her pride not allowing her to falter like she had on previous occasions in the company of the detectives, and instead hid her real feelings behind expressing enjoyment at the baked goods. “These wee buns really are a marvellous invention. It really was so kind of you to bring them for me McCusker. But look, there’s one thing I’m having trouble working out. I would have thought you would be happy now you’d solved this case, but if anything you seem very down?”
McCusker thought long and hard about how to answer her question. He too used a mouthful of Paris bun to buy himself some time.
Eventually O’Carroll filled in the gap for him. “In the short time I’ve known him,” she started, avoiding all eye contact with McCusker, “I’ve come to realise he’s more preoccupied in protecting the innocent than he is in punishing the guilty.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
The detectives left Julia, who invited McCusker, and then, clearly as an afterthought, O’Carroll, to come back and pay her a visit any time they were in the area.
About ten minutes later, as the fuss down below at The Arc subsided, O’Carroll took a call on her mobile. She bent her head and started speaking in quieter tones, the way McCusker felt one only did with a lover. Perhaps at long last she was enjoying some success in the romantic part of her life. But, unusually for O’Carroll, she hadn’t mentioned anything about her recent nocturnal activities for a few days now. Perhaps the blind date had something to do with it, and that now she was fixed up with someone, she was keen for her sister to make a connection as well. He quickly chastised himself for returning the blind date to his consciousness.
He walked across to the water’s edge and sat down to think – about Adam Whitlock and how his father, motivated by greed, made a silly error of judgement that would later cause Adam to lose his life. The fact that he’d been living in a strange land and the incident in question had happened thirty odd years ago hadn’t altered the eventual outcome.
Lily walked across to him, head still firmly down and talking quietly and smiling a lot. She sat down beside him and said into her mobile, “Okay, okay, I’ll put him on.”
She passed to phone to McCusker.
“Is she still there beside you?”
It was O’Carroll’s sister, Grace, and McCusker recognised her sensual voice immediately from their one previous conversation.
“Aye.”
“The wee skitter...” Grace said. “Tell her toodableedin’loo from me and tell her to scoot off and give us a bit of privacy.”
“Tell her I heard that,” Lily said, laughing and starting to walk away. “The wee skitter herself – tell her some of us still have work to do anyways.”
“I feel like a referee at a John McEnroe tennis match,” McCusker said, addressing both of them.
“I’ve told you before, McCusker, don’t show your age!” Lily said, wagging her finger back at him.
“So,” Grace began, as McCusker stared out over the lazy Lagan in the direction of the Black Mountains, “I believe congratulations are in order. I hear from our Lily you’ve turned out to be a bit of a Sherlock Holmes?”
“Oh, I was just lucky enough to have been assigned to run the case on behalf of the Super – really, the whole team worked hard on solving it.”
“Modest as well,” Grace continued on the other end of her sister’s mobile. “Listen, I never got a chance to thank you for helping Lily out with Terry – the man with the odd socks. You know, I should have thanked you at the time but I just didn’t want our Lily to find out I was involved.”
“It’s totally fine Grace,” McCusker said, feeling there was something intimate in addressing her by her first name for the first time, especially after having been involved with Lily in so many conversations about her. “I was real happy you did tell me because your sister certainly wouldn’t have.”
“The thing I remember most from that telephone conversation was talking to you for the first time, of course I was very nervous, I’d heard so much about you from our Lily, and you asked if everything was okay, and I said ‘Not really.’ And you immediately, without even a moment’s hesitation, said ‘What can I do to help?’ There was no pussy-footing around to see if it was something you’d be bothered to get involved in. No, you just said it, straight out, and I was so moved that our Lily would have such a great friend that I very nearly had to set the phone down.”
“Listen, your sister has been very good to me, at a time when I…” McCusker started confidently, but Grace had to come to his rescue.
“So what’s all this about standing me up on our big date then?”
McCusker laughed, but didn’t say anything.
“Do you think our Lily sabotaged it?”
“I think she was so concerned about the outcome she made a genuine mistake over the locations.”
“It wasn’t a nice feeling, I can tell you,” Grace admitted. “The last time I was stood up was by a wee boy...oh, best forgotten...So?”
McCusker filled in the silence. “Look, would you like to try again – perhaps go out to dinner one night?”
“Phew, that was close – I was starting to think you’d never ask and I was going to have to ask you out,” she laughed. McCusker just loved her sensual laugh. “Yes, Brendy, that would be very nice – I’d like that.”
“How about the weekend?” McCusker asked.
“A whole weekend?” she chuckled. “Goodness, that’s very adventurous, not to mention forward for a first date!”
“No sorry, I just meant...” McCusker gushed.
“It’s okay Brendy, I know exactly what you meant,” she replied in a more sympathetic tone. “Look, what about tonight?”
McCusker was relieved – as he’d offered to take her out on the weekend, he suddenly worried she’d meet someone else before then. “That’s perfect,” he said, “I’ll see you tonight.”
“Right. Look, you’re not very good at this are you,” she said and then quickly added, “and that’s a quality by the way. But, ahm…we’re meant to pick somewhere to meet?”
“Oh yes...of course.”
“Look, shall we just keep this simple and meet in the usual place and go somewhere from there?”
“Yes, right,” McCusker replied, now very confused and hoping he wasn’t sounding too flummoxed. “Er, the usual place?”
“Right…okay, sorry,” she said, “our Lily obviously hasn’t told you then?”
“Told me what?”
“Well, we haven’t exactly met before,” Grace started hesitantly, “but we’ve both seen each other, you know, a few times in fact, always in McHugh’s. Yes, I believe you refer to me as ‘French Bob’.”
And with that, McCusker realised that the girl of his dreams was also the girl on the other end of the phone and he started to babble ever so slightly.
“Stop drooling McCusker,” she said, “I mean, it’s extremely flattering and all, but it could be considered unhealthy when you’re by yourself. I look forward to seeing you tonight in McHugh’s at 7.30 sharp; you can book somewhere else for dinner for 8 p.m. Toodaloo!”
* * *
McCusker sat looking at O’Carroll’s phone for a few seconds trying to figure out how to turn it off. But he was still lost in his thoughts: French Bob was Lily’s sister? And not only that, but he was also going out on a date with her that very night.
“Don’t!” O’Carroll s
aid, walking over to McCusker and retrieving her mobile.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t look like the cat that’s just got the milk.”
“Sorry?”
“It’s not becoming of a man your age,” she continued, “and besides – you know what they say...”
“Pride comes before a fall?” he offered.
“No,” she said thoughtfully, “I was thinking more that unless you’re very careful there is a good chance that in all the excitement, the milk might get spilt.”
McCusker noted her caution but still couldn’t resist doing a wee jump and attempting a heel click as he set off after her.
The End
