Chapter One
This novel uses British English spellings and slang, so anything with which you are unfamiliar, is to be found in a handy list at the back of this book.
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR Joe Rafferty had just beaten a couple to the window seat in The Railway Arms. He ignored the dirty look they directed at him, and sat down, the raised glass of Jameson’s that he’d been anticipating for the last hour of listening to Superintendent Bradley’s rhetoric, tightly clenched, when the landlord’s urgent voice stayed his hand.
So intent had he been on his first mouthful of Irish, that he hadn’t noticed Andy Strong’s approach. Andy leaned across the small table in the saloon bar, and in a harsh whisper, said, ‘We’ve what could be a dead man in the car park, Joe. At least, if he’s not dead, he’s a blo
