confident then even she thought she had a right to be. ‘Glad to hear you haven’t lost your faith in me’.
‘Oh for crying out loud, Patty, I don’t blame you for what you did with regard to your father because it sounds like he didn’t deserve any mercy. But you’ve also admitted to having been in a relationship with a terrorist and that’s knocked me for bloody six. I don’t fully understand the cause because I’m not Irish and I didn’t have to live through what you had to. I accept that. But you’re lucky I’m still here to be honest’.
Patricia suddenly felt very frightened. ‘You wouldn’t leave me?’
‘Tell me the rest of your story, Patty’ said Dennis. ‘It’s already beginning to sound pretty sordid’.
‘Sordid? Well now there’s a nice wee word for what went on back in Northern Ireland when I had to grow up so fast I could barely take notice of anything’.
‘Is that when you were going out with Fergal? Did his associations show you things you never should’ve seen? Is that why you ran?’
‘Being involved with Fergal wasn’t what made me run, Dennis’.
‘Then what did? And where does your brother Padraig come into it? Was he friends with Fergal?’
‘Oh yes’ Patricia confirmed. ‘They were as thick as thieves. They were more like brothers’.
Dennis was beginning to put two and two together. For it all to have ended so dramatically and with Patricia cutting herself from her family all this time must mean that the close bonds between players must’ve been compromised potentially in a fatal way. Patricia, his wife and the mother of his children had already revealed herself as being a totally different woman from the one he knew and loved so dearly. She’d admitted to having gone out with someone who must’ve been involved in the killing of innocent people. Like a lot of Australians who couldn’t claim Irish descent his only knowledge of the Irish ‘troubles’ was from what he’d seen on the nightly news and read about in the paper. He knew there was a peace agreement over there now that had brought much of the violence to an end but he also knew that many had fled from the North of Ireland during the seventies and eighties to a new life in Australia where they’d found peace and an opportunity to leave all that stuff behind them. He could understand if that’s what the story was with Patricia. But she was stirring it up. She was making her own situation sound far more sinister than he’d ever heard before and he wondered just how close she’d come to being part of the IRA herself.
‘Did you cover for Fergal or Padraig, Patricia? Is that what this is all about?’
‘No’.
‘Then what the hell is it all about?’
‘They covered for me!’ Patricia blurted out.
Dennis thought the world had stopped spinning for a moment. ‘Would you mind explaining yourself, please?’
‘If you’re looking for the one with blood on their hands then look no further because that was me’ Patricia admitted, tearfully. ‘They paid the price. I got away with it’.
‘What? Are you talking about Fergal and your brother Padraig?’
‘Yes! And a woman called Deirdre Murphy. Let’s not forget her’.
THROWN DOWN FIVE
Detective Superintendent Jeff Barton had little experience of dealing with crimes that carried a sectarian connection to the Northern Ireland troubles. In fact he’d had only one such case to deal with during his career and he was still at school when the IRA bombed Manchester back in 1996. But the more he looked into where he was going to find the answers to the murders of both Padraig O’Connell and Barry Murphy the more he believed that there was a link between the two cases that would make finding those answers all the more difficult.
‘This looks like a professional hit to me’ said the pathologist June Hawkins as she stood in the middle of Barry Murphy’s office and looked at the blood stained
‘Oh for crying out loud, Patty, I don’t blame you for what you did with regard to your father because it sounds like he didn’t deserve any mercy. But you’ve also admitted to having been in a relationship with a terrorist and that’s knocked me for bloody six. I don’t fully understand the cause because I’m not Irish and I didn’t have to live through what you had to. I accept that. But you’re lucky I’m still here to be honest’.
Patricia suddenly felt very frightened. ‘You wouldn’t leave me?’
‘Tell me the rest of your story, Patty’ said Dennis. ‘It’s already beginning to sound pretty sordid’.
‘Sordid? Well now there’s a nice wee word for what went on back in Northern Ireland when I had to grow up so fast I could barely take notice of anything’.
‘Is that when you were going out with Fergal? Did his associations show you things you never should’ve seen? Is that why you ran?’
‘Being involved with Fergal wasn’t what made me run, Dennis’.
‘Then what did? And where does your brother Padraig come into it? Was he friends with Fergal?’
‘Oh yes’ Patricia confirmed. ‘They were as thick as thieves. They were more like brothers’.
Dennis was beginning to put two and two together. For it all to have ended so dramatically and with Patricia cutting herself from her family all this time must mean that the close bonds between players must’ve been compromised potentially in a fatal way. Patricia, his wife and the mother of his children had already revealed herself as being a totally different woman from the one he knew and loved so dearly. She’d admitted to having gone out with someone who must’ve been involved in the killing of innocent people. Like a lot of Australians who couldn’t claim Irish descent his only knowledge of the Irish ‘troubles’ was from what he’d seen on the nightly news and read about in the paper. He knew there was a peace agreement over there now that had brought much of the violence to an end but he also knew that many had fled from the North of Ireland during the seventies and eighties to a new life in Australia where they’d found peace and an opportunity to leave all that stuff behind them. He could understand if that’s what the story was with Patricia. But she was stirring it up. She was making her own situation sound far more sinister than he’d ever heard before and he wondered just how close she’d come to being part of the IRA herself.
‘Did you cover for Fergal or Padraig, Patricia? Is that what this is all about?’
‘No’.
‘Then what the hell is it all about?’
‘They covered for me!’ Patricia blurted out.
Dennis thought the world had stopped spinning for a moment. ‘Would you mind explaining yourself, please?’
‘If you’re looking for the one with blood on their hands then look no further because that was me’ Patricia admitted, tearfully. ‘They paid the price. I got away with it’.
‘What? Are you talking about Fergal and your brother Padraig?’
‘Yes! And a woman called Deirdre Murphy. Let’s not forget her’.
THROWN DOWN FIVE
Detective Superintendent Jeff Barton had little experience of dealing with crimes that carried a sectarian connection to the Northern Ireland troubles. In fact he’d had only one such case to deal with during his career and he was still at school when the IRA bombed Manchester back in 1996. But the more he looked into where he was going to find the answers to the murders of both Padraig O’Connell and Barry Murphy the more he believed that there was a link between the two cases that would make finding those answers all the more difficult.
‘This looks like a professional hit to me’ said the pathologist June Hawkins as she stood in the middle of Barry Murphy’s office and looked at the blood stained
Similar Books
