Little Criminals (42 page)

He didn’t want to make excuses, or pretend that what he had done was the right thing to do. He knew it was the wrong thing to do and he knew it was what he needed to do, he thought it was right that he should do it and he knew that in a couple of weeks he wouldn’t believe that any more. He knew he could never explain this, he wasn’t sure anyone could, and he knew it didn’t matter to him now.

After a while, the solicitor was standing in front of Stephen, introducing a tall plainclothes policeman with the bearing of the officer class, but Stephen didn’t catch the name. He saw that the uniformed garda by the door was standing with a very straight back.

The grand panjandrum
.

Stephen noticed the detective’s thin brown hair was dyed. The man nodded at Stephen, sat down, took out a notebook and said, ‘Let’s get started, shall we?’

Thanks to Julie Lordan, who encouraged
Little Criminals
from the beginning; to agent Peter Straus, who took the book on; and to Jason Arthur, who published it. Their advice was invaluable. Along the way, Evelyn Bracken, Pat Brennan, Tom Daly and Rowan Rowth were generous with their support. Thank you all.