“So you know why we’re here?” Donoghue asked.
The man said nothing, just turned and walked back inside the dimly lit flat. Donoghue, Sussock, and the two uniformed constables followed.
The living room of the flat was more in keeping with an Army barracks than a family home. There was little evidence of a wife and children living there, but plenty of evidence of a soldier — camouflage jackets, books, bayonets, knives, maps, compasses, everything short of a firearm.
Muirhead stood facing the policemen, deferential to authority, but the sort of man who would, thought Donoghue, lay down the law to his wife and children. “I’m in the Territorial Army,” he explained. “More or less full-time since I lost my job.”
“So which knife did you kill him with?” said Donoghue.
“That one,” said Muirhead, with a sudden frankness that disarmed the four men.
“We’ll have to take you in,” said Donoghue.
Sussock picked up the commando knife to which Muirhead had pointed. “Why did you kill him?”
“He killed my child.”
“There may have been a good reason for that.”
“Look, my wife is sick, I can see that. She sees our doctor for depression. She’s not in a fit state to decide whether she wants a child or not. He should have seen that. He had no right to pull my life out of her and throw it in an incinerator. That was my child — it wasn’t his life inside her, it was mine. He had no right to keep me in the dark.”
“You complained. That should have been enough.”
“It did no good. The medical people, they just cover up for each other.”
“So you killed him.”
“Aye. Wouldn’t you?”
“No.”
“I found out where he lived and I waited in the shrubs. I waited a long time. I’ve been trained in certain things. I went there late Saturday and waited. I didn’t get a chance to move until yesterday afternoon. Lying still for nearly twenty-four hours was tough, but I’m a warrior — I do what I need to do. When it was clear he was alone I went up to the door, rang the bell, pushed my way in when he answered it, and stuck him like a pig. He ran to the dining room, bleeding. I followed and made sure he knew who I was and why I was going to kill him. A life for a life, I said. Then I started to puncture him, around the heart. I’m a killing machine when I want to be. I’ve been trained like that.”
Later, Donoghue bought Sussock a beer in a bar.
“It’s never really cut-and-dried, is it, Ray?” he said, handing the older man his drink. “If he pleads guilty due to diminished responsibility, he’ll be out in three years. Good health.”