St Ernan's Blues: An Inspector Starrett Mystery by Charles Paul

Author:Charles, Paul [Charles, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Novels
ISBN: 9780802360311
Publisher: Dufour Editions
Published: 2016-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

Day Three: Friday

‘You do know that the Norwegians claim the highest skies, but it’s Donegal that actually has them?’ Starrett declared to Gibson first thing the following morning.

Starrett’s head and heart were heavy with Mrs Annette Newton Cunningham’s words from the previous evening. So as far as he was concerned, Norway versus Donegal wasn’t a debate, it was more a statement of fact. Gibson seemed to pick up on this because she didn’t contradict Starrett, but, equally, that could simply be because she also knew that Donegal’s skies were the highest.

‘How was Mrs Orla O’Connor when you left her yesterday evening?’ Starrett asked the ban garda.

‘She was quite upbeat actually,’ Gibson started, ‘Sean Clarke, the American, arrived long before Francis did and he’s a very nice man. He and Orla were getting on like a house on fire.’

‘I’ve never really got to grips with that one, Nuala,’ Starrett mused.

‘Sorry?’

‘People getting on like a house on fire. I mean, really, think about it – that’s one of the last things people should like to get on as, don’t you think?

‘Well, I’ve never really thought of it that way before, but now you come to mention it,’ Gibson replied, clearly humouring her senior.

‘Anyway, sorry,’ Starrett offered, as though he’d just managed to solve the eighth Wonder of the World, ‘you were telling me about the American.’

‘Oh yes,’ Gibson said, seeming happy to pick up her thread again, ‘Sean is very talkative – maybe he was nervous, but he immediately went into a positive gear. Orla said she couldn’t tell him what had happened, maybe she did, the moment I left the house, I don’t know. He claimed he was happy to get out of the house and was up for a bit of good old chin-wagging. She talked a little about her husband.’

‘Oh,’ Starrett perked up, ‘anything interesting?’

‘Well, just that, in retrospect, she had to admire him in that he was totally transparent; what you saw was exactly what you got. Unlike someone she’d recently had dealings with. Apparently her husband was a womaniser and never tried to hide it from her. Sean confessed to Orla that his wife had been perfect, he just regretted that he’d never realised that when she was still alive.’

‘So Orla was okay then?’

‘Well, I thought I could see where it had all gone wrong,’ Gibson said.

To her surprise Starrett nodded her on past Steve’s Café, up to the right, past the Presbyterian church, which was on the left and badly needed its steeple cleaned due to the fact that the weather had in recent years taken a turn for the better and the current rainfall was no longer sufficient to cleanse the steeple. They drove on up Church Street and left at the fork by the Church of Ireland with its brand new roof, then up the hill a bit, bearing right and then a very quick left at the Cup and Saucer and onto the Letterkenny Road. ‘I’d breakfast with Maggie and the kids and besides, Maggie says you’re only humouring me by going into Steve’s with me.

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