The Truth Commissioner Read Online Free PDF Page B

coffee? It was very cold down there.’
    â€˜Sure,’ she says.
    â€˜And, Laura, get one for yourself and then we’ll go through today’s meetings.’ He watches her leave the room. She’s wearing
a blue trouser suit with a short bolero-type jacket and a pink silk scarf at her neck. He wonders if her Neanderthal fiance
has been biting it. For the first time he notices the slight swell of her hips. Hips that will shell children like peas. He
looks again at his mobile but as always there’s no call from Emma and he’s a little cross with himself that he continues to
divert valuable emotional energy from his own needs, that he continues with this charade of unacknowledged birthday and Christmas
cards. If she doesn’t want to be his daughter, he should accept that, respect her decision. He tells himself that life goes
on, that perhaps it’s better in the long run to live unencumbered, that travelling lightly gives him the freedom he needs.
    He would rather Laura could find a cup and saucer to serve his coffee in, instead of a mug with a ridiculous slogan, but accepts
it politely. She sits on the other side of his desk and when she takes her first sip from her mug leaves a little smudge of
lipstick on the rim. There’s something already about her that begins to disappoint him a little.
    â€˜So who’s first up?’ he asks, already knowing the answer.
    â€˜It’s Connor Walshe’s mother and sister.’
    â€˜Right, and you’ll take notes?’
    â€˜Yes. Do you want tea and biscuits?’
    â€˜No, I think we’ll forgo that, so many to get through today. We don’t want anyone to stay longer than they need to or we’ll
end up with a backlog.’ He watches her nod and studies her face as she tilts it upwrards. She’s wearing a little too much
make-up and it puddles on her cheekbones but her eyes are bright and – he can think of no other word than sparkly. Sparkly
like the ring on her finger. But he is always the optimist and he has not quite yet given up all hope. Who knows what working
closely together in emotionally intense circumstances for an extended period might bring?
    â€˜So you’ve read the file?’ he asks her.
    â€˜Yes, and I think it was the right decision to deal with the disappeared first of all. They’ve had to wait so long for answers.’
    â€˜Yes, I’m sure it was,’ he says, savouring her approbation. ‘Only right, only right. But of course we have no absolute guarantees
that the necessary answers will be forthcoming.’
    â€˜What can be gained now by withholding the truth?’
    For a second he thinks of trying to explain that the truth is rarely a case of what will be gained, so much as a case of what
might be lost, but the phone rings and a secretary tells him that the Walshes have arrived.
    â€˜They’re early but that’s no matter. Will you meet them and bring them to the chamber?’ He watches her leave before turning
his eyes to the file on his desk. Its contents make him nervous because the possibilities are so starkly flagged and coming
so early in the process it has the potential to be portrayed as a symbolic success or a failure that will throw a long shadow
over the Commission’s credibility. He needs a body. Simple as that. Other types of cases can be fudged, blurred at the edges,
but this one, like all those of the disappeared, requires an entirely tangible outcome and he’s not convinced as yet that
he can pull it off. Still, if he succeeds it will be a real feather in the cap and preclude any of the other commissioners
stealing an early advantage. It’s a risk he has no choice but to take.
    With the file under his arm, he walks down the long corridor of the city-centre building that was formerly Church property,
past the leaded windows and into the large chamber room which at its far end also contains two large windows. The