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some of who were also at the club. Got anything to add to that, guys? Did any of the kids get a good look at
     this fella?’
    The two detectives shook their heads and launched into a dull summation of why everything they’d got there tallied exactly
     with what had been reported already. Mulcahy was hardly even listening, still simmering over Healy, over Cassidy, over being
     stuck on a shitty Sex Crimes case. Christ, he hadn’t been forced to deal with this kind of crap for years.
    ‘Okay now, lads.’ Cassidy was up at the board again. ‘Tasty as this guy may look, one thing we did manage to get from our
     victim was that her attacker came out of nowhere, and apparently on the street. She only referred to him as, quote, “a man”,
     which implies a stranger. Isn’t that right, Inspector Mulcahy?’
    Mulcahy looked up, surprised to be consulted.
    ‘Uh, yes…’ he stumbled, ‘you could say that. Although, from the little the victim was able to give us, it’s hard to know whether
     or not she got a proper look at him at all. One thing she did say was “everything went dark”, so maybe something was pulled
     over her head. Anyway, her whole emphasis was on how sudden and brutal the attack was. She gave no sign of knowing who her
     attacker was.’
    ‘Which would seem to rule out the fella she’d been snogging all night,’ Cassidy went on, various heads bobbing inagreement. ‘But not necessarily. So, we need to find this guy, pronto.’
    ‘It might be a case of him not getting what he wanted,’ one of the others interjected.
    ‘It
might
.’ Cassidy cleared his throat and pointed at the medical folders again. ‘But something to bear in mind is that one of the
     first things the medics pointed out to us was that the victim’s burns weren’t the result of flames, but the application to
     the skin of a flat, almost certainly red-hot, metal surface, like a branding iron or something.’
    There were one or two gasps as this piece of information struck home.
    ‘Technical, obviously, have to come back to us on that, but for the moment it’s pretty clear that this fella would’ve needed
     some kind of equipment with him to inflict these kinds of injuries – a blowtorch at the very least, and a metal bar, or whatever,
     to heat. Not the sort of thing everybody carries around with them in the wee hours. Also he’d have needed something to restrain
     the victim. There’s severe bruising on the girl’s wrists and ankles consistent with being tied up or otherwise restrained.
     Probably with cable ties or similar. None of which is easily done out in the open. And what about the screams? The girl’s
     injuries are of a severity nobody could take quietly. Yet we’re told there’re no obvious signs that she was gagged. So, pinning
     down the scene of the assault is vital. Who knows, maybe Technical will find something. The point is, this probably wasn’t
     a random spot-and-drag-into-the-bushes job. All the signs are that theattack, if not necessarily the victim, was carefully planned in advance.’
    Brogan pushed herself away from the desk and again took centre stage.
    ‘Thanks, Andy. So, guys, apart from the CCTV and the guy she left the club with, a house-to-house on the Kilmacud Road has
     to be our other big priority for today. An attack as violent as this… somebody’s got to have seen or heard something. Donagh,
     you can organise that with the help of our two colleagues here from Dundrum. The station sergeant over there’s said we can
     have some extra uniforms for today and tomorrow as well, so make the most of them. And remember – don’t give out any details,
     especially about the girl’s nationality. A “vicious assault on a young woman”, that’s all we call it. Okay? Any questions?’
    She obviously wasn’t expecting any, so it was with a look of strained patience that she pointed to one of the young uniformed
     guards, a skinny, carrot-haired lad of barely twenty years, who’d raised