Deadly Intent Read Online Free Page B

escape to one of the world’s great cities – Berlin, Singapore, New York, Rio de Janeiro – where he could feel the ceaseless throb of activity on all sides. Noisy crowds, a clamourous din and, best of all, not a soul who knew him.
    But his visit to Beara was not a holiday outing, it was part of his job as a garda. He had been posted to Bantry station six months earlier, after a few stints in small towns in the midlands. In his own mind, he was marking time while he awaited a move to a city station. His dream job was to be a detective in one of the troubled suburbs of Dublin or Limerick, abuzz with action and danger.
    â€˜I’d like to deal with this business in Derryowen as quickly as possible.’ His companion, Detective Inspector Trevor O’Kelleher, was shuffling through a pile of notes as he spoke.
    â€˜I made the arrangement as you requested, inspector, and Nessa McDermott is expecting us at three o’clock. But if you wish to amend the timetable—’
    â€˜Jesus, I don’t wish to amend anything, as you put it. All I mean is that I’d like to leave time to sniff around the quay in Castletown later.’ The inspector spoke quietly, but Redmond noted the impatience in his voice. He found it hard to hit the right tone with his senior officer.
    He also felt too much of an outsider to use the local abbreviation of the fishing port’s name. ‘What’s happening in Castletownbere?’ he asked after a moment.
    â€˜There’s trouble brewing with that Russian ship at the quay,’ O’Kelleher replied. ‘It’s been there for weeks, so it’s obviously been abandoned by its owners.’
    â€˜I remember hearing something on the local news a few days ago. But surely the owners have legal obligations?’
    â€˜Well, if they do, you can bet they’re trying to dodge them. They must be some shower of blaggards, to leave a crew of men stranded without as much as a loaf of bread to feed themselves.’ O’Kelleher turned a few pages of his notes. ‘Anyway, our man Conor Fitzmaurice has covered a lot of the ground for us in Derryowen so I don’t think we’ll be detained there too long.’
    Redmond nodded politely. In his view, there was little substance to the incident reported from Beara the previous night. But he was always keen to accompany Detective Inspector O’Kelleher on his rounds, in the hope of displaying his own abilities. Bantry station was the garda district headquarters and as a senior officer, O’Kelleher kept regular contact with a number of smaller stations in west Cork.
    There was also a built-in bonus to the day’s outing. Redmond was curious to get his own impressions of Nessa McDermott. He knew of her reputation as an investigative journalist, supposedly relentless in her pursuit of the unpopular or unsavoury facts. Indeed, according to a quick online search Redmond had done the night before, it had caused some surprise in media circles when she had left it all behind for the good life. But O’Kelleher seemed to be wary of her, judging by his comments in Bantry that morning. ‘Our lads in Castletown are checking out this business on the hillside,’ he said. ‘But I wouldn’t mind having a look for myself. After all, who knows what trouble we may have on our hands, when our friend in Cnoc Meala is involved.’
    â€˜So tell me, Redmond, what did you think of Maureen Scurlock?’
    Redmond delayed his answer for a moment, his eyes on the traffic in the centre of Castletownbere. He was also reluctant to admit that he could not make up his mind about the patient he had interviewed in Bantry hospital that morning.
    â€˜She says she has no clear memory of what happened,’ he said, once he had negotiated the narrow turning beside the port town’s supermarket. ‘But even the details she claims to remember seem unreliable.’
    â€˜Did she admit, by any happy