‘The Mountains Wild’

My mother singing. That’s one thing I remember. “Molly Malone,” “Red Is the Rose,” “Danny Boy.” 

I was twenty-two that fall, a too-thin girl with shoulder-length brown hair that I always wore scraped back

While I try to get the boxes back together, I think about giving Brian his stuff tonight, just to get it out of the basement. 

I remember the long, whitewashed hotel from before. It’s close to the road, making its stand in the landscape.

I met Roly Byrne for the first time at the Irishtown Garda Station. When we got back from Glenmalure

The faces around the table blur and I take a deep breath, feeling my brain click into vigilance. This is my chance

In the morning, I find myself a quiet table in the hotel’s dining room and spread out my notes and laptop and a piece 

Niamh Horrigan’s parents have great faith in the Garda Síochána. That’s what they say on the news when

It was nine, still not quite raining but almost, the moisture hanging there in the air as though it was just waiting 

Whatever they found down in Wicklow has everyone excited. The news announcer doesn’t know what it is, but that

There was no listing in the Dublin phone book for a Hackman O’Hanrahan, but there was a listing 

The Americans Erin had been talking to at the Raven were William and Gerald Murphy from Boston and they had 

It’s eight a.m. before they can get all the files set up in the conference room at Pearse Street and get the necessary 

Griz and I are back at Pearse Street by seven a.m., ready to go. As soon as I see her, I know there’s been a development.

The morning after I was followed, I woke up to a note by the phone in Emer’s writing: 'Erin’s da rang. Talked to Detective Byrne.'

The morning after Conor walked out of the Gordon Street house, winter came for real. On Sandymount Strand

The wind is whipping dead leaves all around the park. Conor and I stand there just staring at each other 

Conor and I stay in bed all morning, fortified by room service coffee and scones. We watch the news, our legs 

When I finally wake up, the sun is a bright knife through the gap in the curtains. I sit up for a minute. It’s eleven 

Roly calls at seven. I’m still in bed, staring at the ceiling, and I jump up and scramble for the phone. “Roly?

Roly finds the address Joey gave him and calls ahead so Alice O’Murchú knows we’re coming. She lives near

Roly and I find a pub on the road back toward the coast. The fire is burning, it’s warm and welcoming inside

The cottage looks different now, the trees casting long shadows, the sound of our tires on the gravel driveway

Conor’s house is dark and quiet. He turns lights on and makes tea. He puts Miles Davis on and we lie on the couch

He comes all the way down the stairs and, without looking at me, he walks a tight loop around the basement