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unnerve him. The good doctor is showing distinct possibilities.
    ‘Next time we meet, Ellie, we can really get things rolling, how does that sound to you?’
    ‘Just dandy.’
    Standing up, he walks me to the door, guiding my movements with his extended arm as if somehow I might have forgotten my way out.
    ‘Till next time, Ellie.’ He shakes my hand like I’m a normal person. It surprises me. I don’t expect touch. I don’t expect anything. Not any more.

Dublin Mountains
Friday, 7 October 2011, 8.00 a.m.
    DETECTIVE INSPECTOR O’CONNOR WAS ONLY moments away from an early-morning meeting in the squad room at Rathfarnham Garda Station when he got the call about the missing girl. She hadn’t been seen for two full days – never a good sign for a Category 1 high-risk disappearance. Although O’Connor’s district was based in Rathfarnham, it also covered Templeogue, Firhouse and had jurisdiction over the southwestern side of the Dublin Mountain zone. O’Connor had investigated his fair share of murders and missing persons over the years, and he knew more than anyone that for every case solved, many others remained open.
    The C1 disappearance had been the talk of the Dublin district. That morning, when Chief Superintendent Nolan’s number lit up his hands-free set, O’Connor took the call and listened, grim-faced.
    A sheep farmer had found freshly dug up soil. The storm from the previous night had brought down a fence on his land, and caused his sheep to ramble. When his dog refused to leave the area where the stray animals had been retrieved, he was forced to walk farther in. It was then, just as dawn was breaking over the sprawling city of Dublin, that the grave – suspected to be of Caroline Devine – had been discovered.
    O’Connor turned his car around and headed straight to the location of the suspected burial site. Driving towards the mountain road, O’Connor rapped the steering wheel in frustration. He wasonly too aware that the first forty-eight hours of an investigation were critical. One of the first pieces of information his team sought to establish in any missing person case was the last known sighting of the subject. Caroline Devine had last been seen after finishing school, waving goodbye to her friend Jessica Barry on Rathmines Bridge at the canal. Her family in Harold’s Cross had expected her home shortly afterwards. All the potential routes Caroline could have taken home had been examined, but nothing had turned up so far. A diving team from the Underwater Unit had already dragged the base of the canal, from both the Rathmines and Harold’s Cross ends. The canal didn’t have a major water flow. If the girl had fallen in, accidentally or otherwise, they would have found her.
    Nolan had told him that he had already advised Mick Rohan, the Chief Press Officer at Garda HQ, about the site location and possible finding, but no official statement had yet been released. O’Connor knew he had a number of calls to make, one of which would be to DI Frank Gunning, who had been heading up the missing person’s enquiry from Rathmines. Gunning wouldn’t be happy about O’Connor taking over the case, but if it was Caroline Devine’s body up in the mountains, it was O’Connor’s murder now and not Gunning’s – the investigation always follows the corpse.
    ‘Hiya, Frank, it’s O’Connor here.’
    ‘I’m on my way up there. Where are you?’
    ‘At Bohernabreena Cemetery,’ O’Connor replied. ‘I should be there in less than ten. A couple of uniforms are already in situ from the first call in.’
    ‘Right, I’ll see you shortly, turning at Kiltipper now.’
    ‘Frank, just to tell you, Nolan has already advised Rohan about the possible outcome, but nothing official is going out until we know what we’re dealing with. I’m getting a full squad in place, and I have Morrison on standby in case we find anything.’
    ‘Where
is
our talented state pathologist today?’ Frank asked.
    ‘Golfing