When All Is Said(43)

‘It’s full. A private function apparently. What will we do now? She’ll not be happy. You’d better tell her. She accepts things better from you.’

‘Like in the car, you mean. She’s your sister, you tell her.’

Sadie turned away, betrayed. I looked at the picture one last time, making sure my memory couldn’t produce a name, but nothing came in the end and I walked off defeated. When I found Sadie again she was standing at the entrance to the bar, flummoxed, looking about her.

‘Well, where is she?’

‘If I knew that, Maurice, I wouldn’t be standing on my own now would I?’

Back firmly in my box, I surveyed the crowd, but couldn’t make her out in the hustle and bustle. And then, there arose a familiar sound.

‘Sparkle, sparkle!’

We moved quickly. Scurrying through the crowd, we followed its summons, wondering whose pockets she’d rifled or whose change she’d stolen this time and how we’d talk ourselves out of it. We arrived right where I am sitting now, to find none other than Thomas Dollard attempting to wrestle a coin from Noreen’s hands. She, of course, was having none of it and was batting him away with her powerful swipe.

‘Madam! I beg your pardon. Give me back my coin at once. Madam!’

Had Sadie not rushed to Noreen’s aid, or perhaps it was Thomas’s she was more concerned with, I’d have gladly stood back to watch that pantomime for as long as it lasted. Priceless. A grown bully, wrong-footed by a woman half his size who, by the looks of it, was winning the contest.

‘Noreen!’ My poor wife’s pleas called me from my reverie of Noreen punching him in the face.

‘Noreen, give it to me. Noreen! Maurice! Could you help, please?’

But before I could take a step towards them, Noreen was before me, having bounded over, even more excited than was normal with one of her discoveries.

‘Look! Your sparkle. Your sparkle, Maurice,’ she said, holding her fist far too close to my face.

‘My sparkle? Noreen, how’s it my sparkle?’ Smiling, I placed a calming hand on her shoulder and lowered her fist so I could focus on what she held.

‘Come over here and show me,’ I said, leading her to a nearby table, the occupants of which had quickly left to give us space.

Sadie instinctively knew to hold his highness back, throwing him a warning glance to leave me be. He danced an infuriated jig at the bar, while keeping his eyes firmly fixed on me.

‘Right, Noreen, show me my sparkle, so?’

She unfurled her fingers and there I saw my, or rather, Thomas’s, coin. Time stopped as I swallowed hard. He’d found me out, I thought. Somehow, he’d broken into my house and ransacked it until he’d retrieved the only evidence of the theft – the coin itself. There could be no other explanation. The Gardaí were possibly outside at that very minute, waiting to take me away. Or perhaps something more sinister, perhaps Thomas wished to finish what I always suspected he had truly wanted – to kill me and now he had the justification. I placed my hands over Noreen’s, closing them, willing the thing to go away, willing time to transport me back so that I could keep walking, never bending down to pick up the blasted thing in the first place.

‘Uncle, what is the matter?’ Emily passed by me, making her way to Thomas, bringing a momentary distraction, a relief.

‘Your sparkle Maurice, in my pocket,’ Noreen added excitedly.

Releasing her hands from my grip, she proceeded to pound one hand against my chest, while her other rummaged in her pocket. She made no sense, nothing made sense.

‘Uncle, are you alright? You look awful. What’s going on?’ Emily’s eyes followed her uncle’s to where I sat. ‘Oh, it’s you, Mr Hannigan.’

‘That, that … lunatic has taken my coin, Emily. The family coin! She’s a mad woman.’

It amazed me that the man hadn’t recognised me. Not even my name rang a bell. After all those years of beating the living daylights out of me, he hadn’t a clue who I was. My name, my face, had mattered nothing to him after all. For a moment I felt slightly offended, but then realised his ignorance gave me an upper hand. I was ready to unleash the charm. I smiled as I rose and approached this woman of reason who held sway with the brute rearing and snorting behind her.

‘Emily,’ I said reassuringly, ‘there’s nothing to worry about—’

‘Nothing to worry about! I beg your pardon—’ I held up a hand to halt Thomas’s protest.

‘As I was saying, Emily, all will be fine. I merely need a moment with my sister-in-law here and the issue will be sorted. She … if I could just have a quiet word with you over here,’ I suggested, taking her by the arm and leading her to the corner of the bar, beckoning Sadie to take my place by Noreen. ‘As I was saying, my sister-in-law is, what you might say, a little … slow, if you get me, and she has a love of all things shiny, well, actually a love of shiny coins and—’

‘Oh, God, don’t say any more, Mr Hannigan. It’s that bloody sovereign isn’t it? I had hoped he might have left it behind for once. But to my horror I saw him prancing around with it earlier. If I hear one more time about how valuable it is and how we lost and found it, I’ll scream.’

‘Found it?’ I asked, still trying to remain as calm and composed as I could, and no doubt failing, ‘what do you mean found it? You never told me he’d found it.’ I hadn’t meant to give such a forceful response but my head was so confused that I couldn’t help myself.