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unperturbed as a man waiting for a doctor’s appointment, instead of an interview on a charge of murder. He may have been bad-tempered before, but now he seemed to be completely at peace with himself.
    ‘Detective Superintendent Maguire,’ he said, as she sat down. Kyna sat next to her and Katie couldn’t help noticing her perfume.
    ‘I intend to plead guilty to killing Ruarí Barrett and all those other boys,’ Fergus continued. ‘You really don’t have to give me the third degree.’
    ‘You should have come to us in the first place,’ said Katie. ‘We could have dealt with them.’
    ‘I’m sure you could,’ said Fergus. ‘But what kind of punishment would a judge have given them? A couple of years in jail. They took my precious daughter’s life for their own perverted pleasure and as far as I’m concerned there was only one possible punishment for that.’
    ‘So you’re prepared to make a statement to that effect?’
    Fergus nodded. ‘No, I’m not. I’m prepared only to admit to killing them. I don’t have to give an explanation. I don’t want my Caoimhe’s name dragged through the mire.’
    ‘A judge will need to know why you killed them, Fergus. And he’ll probably go much easier on you if he understands why.’
    ‘I don’t care. My life ended when I found my Caoimhe hanging in the garage.’
    ‘I can produce her note to you in court.’
    ‘I know. I wanted you to read it, because I wanted somebody to understand why I killed those boys. But I’m begging you now, just as Caoimhe begged me, please don’t tell the world what they did to her. I want her memory to shine clean and unsullied forever.’
    *
    Katie returned to her office while Fergus wrote his statement. When he had finished it and signed it, Kyna came up to show it to her.
    ‘You shouldn’t feel like you’ve failed, ma’am,’ Kyna said gently.
    ‘I gave him Ruarí Barrett’s name. He probably couldn’t have found him if I hadn’t done that.’
    ‘Well, I think you gave him Ruarí Barrett’s name because God wanted you to. Sometimes I think we have to remember that we’re only the agents of justice, not judges, and we’re not executioners, either.’
    It took Katie only a moment to read Fergus’s statement. All he had written was, ‘I drowned those five boys and I stabbed Ruarí Barrett because I heard voices in my head and they told me to.’
    ‘If he sticks to that story, they’ll probably only send him to St Stephen’s,’ said Kyna.
    Katie put the statement to one side. Underneath, in a clear plastic sleeve, was Caoimhe O’Farrell’s suicide note. She looked down at it for a long time.
    I beg beg beg you not to tell anybody why I have decided that this is my only way out. I have suffered enough shame already without the whole world knowing why.
    Katie took out the note and tore it into small pieces. She dropped them into her wastepaper basket, and then she stood up.
    ‘You realize that it’s an offence to destroy evidence,’ said Kyna.
    ‘It’s a worse offence to destroy a young girl’s memory. Besides, as you said, God wanted me to.’
    She put her arms around Kyna and held her very close and kissed her. Then she stood back, and smiled, although she had tears in her eyes – not for herself, but for Caoimhe, who would always be virginal now and pure.
     
     
     

    We hope you enjoyed this book!
    Graham Masterton’s next book,
Dead Girls Dancing
, is coming in Winter 2016
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First published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by Head of Zeus Ltd
    Copyright © Graham Masterton, 2016
    The moral right of Graham Masterton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may