Page 53 of The Altar Girls

Lottie thought she looked relieved. Was she expecting this to be about something else? Before she could get a word out, she was almost flattened by a dark-haired child with long legs running straight at her.

‘Annie!’ Sinead yelled. ‘Manners.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry, Mammy. You’re having a lot of visitors today.’

‘What do you want, chick?’ Sinead seemed flustered.

‘Juice.’

‘Get it and go back to the sitting room.’

‘Carol’s boring. I want YouTube and she wants to watch Tipping Point.’

‘Annie, juice and go.’

The girl rolled her eyes and fetched a small carton from the refrigerator, waving it as she left.

‘Sorry about that. She’s hyper without school. And for your information, I never intimidated anyone.’

‘You accosted Alfie Nally on the street.’

‘Accosted is a bit strong. I approached him. Asked him a question but he said he’d been told not to talk to the media. He ran off and then this priest came at me like a bowling ball. I should have reported him, not the other way around.’

‘He didn’t report you. I was told in passing by a third party.’

‘What’s the story with Isaac Kiernan? I heard there’s a high court application to get him released on bond.’

‘Where did you hear that?’ Lottie wasn’t giving Sinead anything that might feature on the six o’clock news.

‘My sources are good.’

She suspected one of her team could be feeding the reporter. Another notch on her to-do list.

‘What do you know about the Kiernans, Sinead?’

‘I know that Julian Bradley is the man who was attacked by Isaac Kiernan. Bradley told me he was only doing a scheduled call and it was totally unprovoked.’

‘How do you know this? His name was kept out of court reports.’

Sinead looked at the ceiling, clicked her nails against the table and seemed to be considering her answer.

‘Bradley was here.’

‘In Ragmullin?’

‘In my house.’

‘How did that come about?’

‘A colleague of mine got his name for me and I emailed him. I wanted to meet him to get some background on the Kiernan family. Next thing I know, he’s knocking on my front door.’

‘How did he know where you live?’

‘He must be as resourceful as I am.’

‘Did you get anything from him?’

‘What do you mean?’ Sinead’s eyes widened, now fearful.