Norton watches as Vaughan whispers something to his minder and then disappears with Gina through the revolving doors.
The minder walks over, informs Sullivan that Mr Vaughan will meet them at Richmond Dock in twenty minutes.
‘OK, Phil,’ Sullivan says, ‘thanks.’
The minder turns and leaves.
‘Yeah, so, er… it’s two per cent, or two and a half, three tops, but the point is it’s doable.’
‘Whatever, Ray. Can we go now?’
‘Take it easy. We’re going.’
Outside, as they climb into the back of a silver Merc, Sullivan asks about the girl.
‘She’s just… the sister of a… a colleague,’ Norton says. He doesn’t want to get into it.
Though he is going to have to do something here.
Sullivan laughs, and Norton looks at him. ‘What?’
‘Jimmy. He’s fucking incorrigible. Chasing skirt at his age? He can’t resist a pretty face. The man’s had four wives, and who knows how many affairs.’
They’re on Nassau Street.
Norton stares out the window. The other car can’t be too far ahead.
What could they possibly be talking about?
As the Merc glides onto College Green, Norton begins to feel a thumping in his chest and stomach. He’s used to feelings of anxiety, but this is a level – almost of panic – that he’s unfamiliar with.
‘Look, Ray,’ he says, staring straight ahead, unsure what he’s about to say next – and surprised when he hears the words coming out of his mouth – ‘I think she might be dangerous.’
‘Oh, that’s the kind he likes. He comes over all old-school, but believe me, deep down he’s really -’
‘No, no, I mean dangerous, a threat, security-wise. I’m not sure that she’s quite… stable.’ Once he starts he can’t stop. ‘She has a history. She… she’s been sort of, well, more or less stalking me, and making claims, outrageous stuff.’
‘What? Jesus Christ,’ Sullivan says. He pulls out his mobile phone. ‘Is she a psycho? Who the fuck is she?’
Norton explains. He mentions about Noel, and adds that she’s possibly delusional, paranoid, deranged with grief. This is the best he can manage by way of a pre-emptive strike.
Sullivan has the phone up to his ear. ‘Phil? Yeah. Woman you’ve got there in the car with you? Keep an eye on her. When you arrive, don’t let them out of your sight. Stick close by the old man. We’ll be there a few minutes after you.’
He closes the phone.
‘Jesus,Paddy,’ he says. ‘If this bitch pulls anything, I swear I’ll…’ He sighs. ‘Christ. How did you let this happen?’
‘You took me aside,’ Norton says. ‘You distracted me. And anyway, I’m the one she has the problem with, and I don’t think…’
But Sullivan isn’t listening. ‘Hey, driver,’ he’s saying, ‘step on it there, would you?’
They turn onto Custom House Quay.
Norton wonders if this Phil in the car up ahead is armed.
‘… so we’re in this hotel suite, at the Plaza I think, and I’m left standing there waiting. Bobby’s in front of me, shirtsleeves rolled up, on the phone. He’s pacing back and forth. Behind him, at a table, five or six aides are sorting through campaign leaflets. One of them is working a telex machine. TV’s on in the corner.’
Gina nods along, finding this more than a little bizarre. In 1960, her parents had just moved to Dolanstown, part of the city’s new suburban frontier. Noel was still a baby, with no sisters. She herself – his fourth sister – wouldn’t be born for another fifteen years.
‘On the far side of the room,’ Vaughan continues, ‘there’s a closed door. It opens, just slightly, and Jack appears. He lingers in the doorway and straightens his tie. He looks as if he’s still talking to someone in the room he’s just come out of. Then Bobby goes over to him, holding the receiver to his chest, and as they’re speaking the door opens a little further, and who do I catch a glimpse of? Sitting at a vanity table? Looking into the mirror, applying lipstick?’ Vaughan laughs. ‘My goddamned wife is who.’
‘Wow.’
‘My first wife, that is,’ he says, shaking his head. ‘Though not for long, of course.’
Gina stares at Vaughan, intrigued, but also wondering if she’s going to get a word in edgeways, and what it will be if she does.
‘Anyway, the penny soon drops and all of a sudden Bobby starts waving his arms about. Then in seconds flat the door is slammed shut and I’m being scuttled out of the room.’ He laughs again. ‘Six months later I’m at the Treasury.’
‘Incredible.’
‘Yeah, I laugh about it now, but at the time… boy.’
Her opportunity comes a couple of moments later when the building looms into view.
‘So,’ she says, pointing ahead, ‘how big a stake?’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘You said you have a stake in Richmond Plaza. How big is it?’
Vaughan stiffens. She can see that he’s a little taken aback by the directness of this. He turns to look at her, and hesitates, holding her gaze, as though trying to calculate something.
Gina is nervous now, and acutely aware of the two men up front.
But it seems to be OK.
‘Fifteen per cent,’ Vaughan says eventually, still holding her gaze. ‘Of course, we have Amcan, too, as the anchor tenant.’
‘I see.’
‘It’s going to be their European headquarters.’ He pauses. ‘Ray Sullivan? Tall guy back at the hotel? He’s their CEO. Good man.’
‘I see,’ she says again, nodding her head.
‘And I don’t know if you know it,’ Vaughan continues, almost in a whisper now, as though telling her something intimate, ‘but we’re changing the name as well.’
‘Oh?’ she says, matching his whisper. ‘I didn’t know. What to?’
He whisks a hand through the air in front of her, conjures it up. ‘The Amcan Building.’
‘Of course,’ Gina says. ‘The Amcan Building, what else?’
She is suddenly irritated, and unable to hide it.
Vaughan stiffens again. ‘Well, it was a strategic decision -’
‘Oh, I’ve no doubt,’ she interrupts him. ‘None at all. But the thing is, Jimmy, what’s happening now? I mean, you’re here, and this Ray Sullivan is here.’
‘So?’
She shrugs. ‘The big guns are in town.’
It’s as if she’s thinking out loud.
‘Well, I don’t know about that, Gina. I wouldn’t exactly -’
‘And everyone’s on their best behaviour. Or supposed to be.’
Vaughan furrows his brow. He’s irritated now, too – she can see it. He’s confused by her tone, and at the same time put out that their flirty little exchange has gone flat.
She needs to be more careful.
What’s to stop Vaughan from having her thrown out of the car before they hook up again with Paddy Norton?
‘I’m just sorry,’ she then says, turning to him, ‘that my brother can’t be here.’
She feels her face going red.
‘Of course, of course.’
It’s funny, Gina thinks, how you can be lying to someone and telling them the truth at the same time.
The car pulls up at Richmond Plaza.
Before the second car – the silver Merc – has come to a complete stop alongside the kerb, Ray Sullivan is reaching over to get the door open.
He climbs out.
Norton waits. From where he is, he can see Gina Rafferty and Jimmy Vaughan standing in the middle of the concourse at the foot of the building. Phil is a few feet behind them. Vaughan is pointing upwards and Gina is nodding. They seem to be having a reasonable, normal sort of conversation. It’s just not obvious what they are saying exactly, what she is saying.