LITMIR.BIZ

      11

      ‘I remember them opening this place in seventy-one,’ Brosnan said to Mary. He was standing at the window of the sixth-floor room of the Europa Hotel in Great Victoria Street next to the railway station. ‘For a while it was a prime target for IRA bombers, the kind who’d rather blow up anything rather than nothing.’

      ‘Not you, of course.’

      There was a slight, sarcastic edge which he ignored. ‘Certainly not. Devlin and I appreciated the bar too much. We came in all the time.’

      She laughed in astonishment. ‘What nonsense. Are you seriously asking me to believe that with the British Army chasing you all over Belfast you and Devlin sat in the Europa’s bar?’

      ‘Also the restaurant on occasion. Come on, I’ll show you. Better take our coats, just in case we get a message while we’re down there.’

      As they were descending in the lift, she said, ‘You’re not armed, are you?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Good, I’d rather keep it that way.’

      ‘How about you?’

      ‘Yes,’ she said calmly. ‘But that’s different. I’m a serving officer of Crown forces in an active service zone.’

      ‘What are you carrying?’

      She opened her handbag and gave him a brief glimpse of the weapon. It was not much larger than the inside of her hand, a small automatic.

      ‘What is it?’ he asked.

      ‘Rather rare. An old Colt .25. I picked it up in Africa.’

      ‘Hardly an elephant gun.’

      ‘No, but it does the job.’ She smiled bleakly. ‘As long as you can shoot, that is.’

      The lift doors parted and they went across the lounge.

      Dillon walked briskly along the Falls Road. Nothing had changed, nothing at all. It was just like the old days. He twice saw RUC patrols backed up by soldiers and once, two armoured troop carriers went by, but no one paid any attention. He finally found what he wanted in Craig Street about a mile from the hotel. It was a small, double-fronted shop with steel shutters on the windows. The three brass balls of a pawnbroker hung over the entrance with the sign ‘Patrick Macey’.

      Dillon opened the door and walked into musty silence. The dimly lit shop was crammed with a variety of items. Television sets, video recorders, clocks. There was even a gas cooker and a stuffed bear in one corner.

      There was a mesh screen running along the counter and the man who sat on a stool behind it was working on a watch, a jeweller’s magnifying glass in one eye. He glanced up, a wasted-looking individual in his sixties, his face grey and pallid.

      ‘And what can I do for you?’

      Dillon said, ‘Nothing ever changes, Patrick. This place still smells exactly the same.’

      Macey took the magnifying glass from his eye and frowned. ‘Do I know you?’

      ‘And why wouldn’t you, Patrick? Remember that hot night in June of seventy-two when we set fire to that Orangeman Stewart’s warehouse and shot him and his two nephews as they ran out. Let me see, there were the three of us.’ Dillon put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it carefully. ‘There was you and your half-brother, Tommy McGuire, and me.’

      ‘Holy Mother of God, Sean Dillon, is that you?’ Macey said.

      ‘As ever was, Patrick.’

      ‘Jesus, Sean, I never thought to see you in Belfast City again. I thought you were …’

      He paused and Dillon said, ‘Thought I was where, Patrick?’

      ‘London,’ Patrick Macey said. ‘Somewhere like that,’ he added lamely.

      ‘And where would you have got that idea from?’ Dillon went to the door, locking it and pulled down the blind.

      ‘What are you doing?’ Macey demanded in alarm.

      ‘I just want a nice private talk, Patrick, me old son.’

      ‘No, Sean, none of that. I’m not involved with the IRA, not any more.’

      ‘You know what they say, Patrick, once in never out. How is Tommy these days, by the way?’

      ‘Ah, Sean, I’d have thought you’d know. Poor Tommy’s been dead these five years. Shot by one of his own. A stupid row between the Provos and one of the splinter groups. INLA were suspected.’

      ‘Is that a fact?’ Dillon nodded. ‘Do you see any of the other old hands these days? Liam Devlin for instance?’

      And he had him there for Macey was unable to keep the look of alarm from his face. ‘Liam? I haven’t seen him since the seventies.’

      ‘Really?’ Dillon lifted the flap at the end of the counter and walked round. ‘It’s a terrible liar you are.’ He slapped him across the face. ‘Now get in there,’ and pushed him through the curtain that led to the office at the rear.

      Macey was terrified. ‘I don’t know a thing.’

      ‘About what? I haven’t asked you anything yet, but I’m going to tell you a few things. Tommy McGuire isn’t dead. He’s living somewhere else in this fair city under another name and you’re going to tell me where. Secondly, Liam Devlin has been to see you. Now I’m right on both counts, aren’t I?’ Macey was frozen with fear, terrified and Dillon slapped him again. ‘Aren’t I?’

      The other man broke then. ‘Please, Sean, please. It’s my heart. I could have an attack.’

      ‘You will if you don’t speak up, I promise you.’

      ‘All right. Devlin was here a little earlier this morning enquiring about Tommy.’

      ‘And shall I tell you what he said?’

      ‘Please, Sean.’ Macey was shaking. ‘I’m ill.’

      ‘He said that bad old Sean Dillon was on the loose in London Town and that he wanted to help run him down and who could be a better source of information than Dillon’s old chum, Tommy McGuire. Am I right?’

      Macey nodded. ‘Yes.’

      ‘Good, now we’re getting somewhere.’ Dillon lit another cigarette and nodded at the large old-fashioned safe in the corner. ‘Is that where the guns are?’

      ‘What guns, Sean?’

      ‘Come on, don’t muck me about. You’re been dealing in handguns for years. Get it open.’

      Macey took a key from his desk drawer, went and opened the safe. Dillon pulled him to one side. There were several weapons in there. An old Webley, a couple

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