“When did you hear?” Quirke asked.
“About our friend there?” Hackett said, glancing back in the direction of what remained of Joe Costigan, crumpled at the foot of the charred tree. “Anonymous call, made from a phone box. No leads, nothing. I’d say”—he sniffed—“I’d say, Dr. Quirke, this’ll be one of those unsolved ones.”
Quirke nodded, avoiding his eye. “You think so?”
“I have that feeling.”
Hackett fumbled in his pockets for his cigarettes, offered the packet to Quirke, and took one himself. Then he brought out a lighter, and flipped up the lid and flicked the roller with his thumb, and at once the wick caught. “A handy thing, the Zippo,” he said, hefting the lighter in his palm. “Lying there in the grass for God knows how long this evening, in the rain, and still it works.” He dropped the lighter into his pocket. “Can I give you a lift, Doctor?” he said.
“No, thanks, I told the taxi to wait.”
“Ah. Right. I’ll be off, so.” He started to move away, then stopped. “Did you ever hear,” he said, “of the Battle of Jarama, and the heights of Pingarrón? No? Spain, you know, the civil war. Remind me to tell you about it, sometime. Sam Corless was in it,” he added.
Quirke was stony-faced. “Was he?”
“Aye. A fierce scrap, it was, men killing each other with their bare hands.” He glanced back to where Costigan’s corpse was being transferred into the ambulance. “A terrible thing, having to learn how to break a neck.” He studied Quirke’s impassive features. “Wouldn’t you say, Doctor?”
Quirke said nothing, and the detective tipped a finger to the brim of his hat, and was gone.
Quirke stirred himself. “Good night, Inspector,” he called into the glistening darkness, but no response came back.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barry McCall, Photographer, www.barrymccallphotographer.com
BENJAMIN BLACK is the pen name of the Man Booker Prize — winning novelist John Banville. The author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed series of Quirke novels — as well as The Black-Eyed Blonde, a Philip Marlowe novel — he lives in Dublin. You can sign up for email updates here.