Eye for an Eye Read Online Free Page A

altogether. All but four of them were men, wearing blue overalls with the Toolmate logo – a smiling cartoon workman carrying a shovel over his shoulder. They varied in age from boys who looked as if this was their first job after leaving school to hardened, middle-aged men with shaved heads and nicotine-stained fingers and tattoos.
    ‘Thanks for your time, all of you,’ said Redmond. ‘I know how busy you are keeping up with all our new orders. Tsunami isn’t the word for it! I don’t need to remind you that this has been Toolmate’s most successful year yet, and that we’re expanding exponentially.
    ‘However, we’re sparing a moment for the Garda this afternoon to show that we’re good citizens, and for Toolmate to play a responsible part in the local community. As you all know, a priest was found dead this morning in the garden of the house next door. Detective Superintendent Maguire here and Detective O’Donovan are investigating his death. They’d like to ask you a few questions to see if there’s any way you can be of assistance to them.’
    There was shuffling and coughing and scraping of chairs, and from the hostile way some of the older men were looking at her, Katie thought that if any other woman were to ask them a question, they’d give her a good slap and tell her get on with cooking their dinner.
    She waited until they were all settled and then she said, ‘Around nine-fifteen this morning, did any of you notice a person walking around the factory premises, somebody who wasn’t authorized to be here?’
    There was a general shaking of heads and ‘No, didn’t see nobody.’
    ‘This person may well have been dressed completely in black, with a black hat or a hoodie,’ said Katie. ‘It’s also possible that they were wearing a black mask, too, although they could have been African.’
    Again, there was head-shaking and a muttered chorus of ‘No, didn’t see nobody like that.’
    ‘What about sounds? Did any of you hear any unusual noises? Any shouting or screaming?’
    ‘Are you serious, girl?’ asked one of the older workers. ‘We have a forging press and a die-cutter and a broaching tool here, and they’re all banging out combination wrenches twenty-four hours of the day, not to mention about five hundred wrenches being dropped into a collection box whenever they’re ready. Even if we didn’t wear ear-protectors you could scream your head off like a banshee and none of us would hear you.’
    ‘All right, I understand, you couldn’t hear anything,’ said Katie. ‘But it seems like this person might have entered the next-door garden several times in the past few weeks, and they probably entered by way of the factory grounds. Are you all absolutely sure that none of you has ever caught a sight of them?’
    There was more shaking of heads, and now the workforce was becoming restless.
    Katie said, ‘That’s all, then. Thank you for your time. But if any one of you does happen to remember anything, you can always call the Garda Confidential number, or you can contact me personally at Anglesea Street. Nobody will ever know that you spoke to me, so there won’t be any comeback.’
    Redmond asked, ‘Is that all, Katie? Okay, that’s it. You can all go back to work now, folks – and thank you.’
    He walked Katie and Detective O’Donovan out to their car. ‘I’m sorry we couldn’t help you more,’ he told them. ‘All I can do is wish you good luck.’
    He leaned on Katie’s open car door as she buckled up her seat belt. ‘And – Katie – when you’ve cracked this case, which I’m totally confident that you will – my offer still stands. Dinner at the Hayfield Manor. Champagne, music.’
    ‘Thank you for your help, Redmond,’ said Katie, and slammed the door hard, almost catching his fingers in it.
    *
    She had tidied her desk and was just about to switch off her desk lamp when Eithne appeared at her open office door.
    ‘Eithne? What’s the story? Have you finished up