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‘What’s up?’
    ‘It’s the Michael O’Neill case.’
    ‘Has something turned up?’
    ‘You could say that.’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘I know you’re not on the case, and I don’t want to be pulling you into—’
    ‘It’s fine. If you have a question, ask it.’
    ‘I’ve been contacted by a Detective Lee Fisher from NYPD.’
    ‘What? New York?’
    ‘That’s right. It seems they have unidentified DNA from a murder scene in Manhattan a few months back.’
    ‘So?’
    ‘Fisher sounds like a needle-in-a-haystack kind of guy. The victim in New York was Irish. He got it into his head that there could be more to the Irish connection.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘Interpol in Washington contacted our Interpol division in the Phoenix Park. The principal impetus behind the enquiry was vis-à-vis murders or suspicious deaths in Ireland, those with a similar gender, age, social profile and, of course, nationality as the New York victim. Fisher didn’t think the killing was a one-off.’
    ‘Okay.’
    ‘With the suspicion behind O’Neill’s death, for DNA purposes we quarantined the lengths of tape used to seal off the area around the air vents. We needed to establish whether or not O’Neill had done it. We managed to extract sweat marks, probably from the victim’s fingers. Long story short, they were his, but only after we pulled a full DNA profile from the victim.’
    ‘That was fast.’
    ‘No comment.’
    ‘I’m sure the chief super was very close to his late brother-in-law. He must be very pleased with the efficiency.’
    ‘Let it go, Kate.’
    ‘Fine, but the results from the tape will only add credence to it being a suicide. I’m still not getting how this is connected with Fisher’s case.’
    ‘That’s what we thought initially, but the DNA profile was sent to our guys in the Park.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘It turns out they’ve found a match with the Manhattan case.’
    ‘I didn’t think the US and Ireland could share that kind of information, what with jurisdictional boundaries, international data confidentiality, et cetera.’
    ‘No, but with both victims being from Dublin, and the other similarities, it was enough to legitimise the contact. There is a goodrelationship between the two countries. We were able to exchange the information on an intelligence basis.’
    ‘I see.’
    ‘If it goes any further, Kate, and by that I mean if the US wants something admissible in court, they’ll have to produce their own sample. Information collected using intelligence isn’t admissible in court proceedings.’
    ‘Meaning they’d have to come over here to produce their own DNA profile.’
    ‘Or have it brought to them for analysis.’
    ‘You said they found a match? What details do you have? Was O’Neill’s DNA found at the Manhattan killing?’
    ‘The killing was vicious. The victim had parts of his body amputated. The unidentified DNA is from a pen they believe the killer used to mark the incision lines. The sample was taken in the same way as in the O’Neill case, from palm or finger sweat. It’s O’Neill’s DNA on the pen.’
    ‘You can’t be serious?’
    ‘Never more, but it gets better.’
    ‘How?’
    ‘O’Neill has never been to New York, and certainly not when the murder happened. He hadn’t left the country in the last twelve months – and get this, when Mason was being chopped up, O’Neill was with the chief super all weekend, playing golf.’
    ‘Mason?’
    ‘That’s the victim’s name, Tom Mason.’
    ‘The politician?’
    ‘Ex-politician. Why? Did you know him?’
    ‘My father knew someone by that name a long time ago.’ Kate leaned into the car. ‘Sorry, honey, Mum needs another couple of minutes.’
    ‘Don’t be long.’
    ‘I won’t – promise.’
    Once the car door was closed, she picked up her conversation.‘None of this is making any sense, Adam. If O’Neill wasn’t in New York, does Fisher think the DNA was planted?’
    ‘He does, and he’s not the only