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Kate goggled at him in disbelief, then bit her lip as the penny dropped
.  And she said dully, beyond emotion, ‘I’m such a fool.  Michael told me himself, told me he was computer illiterate.  He could never have set up that little postman figure delivering the email. 
Your
email.’

Guilfoyle
nodded, a sneer that was almost a snarl marring his handsome features, ‘And Michael will tell them whose computer it is when wakes up.  It won’t be hard to prove.  My apartment, my computer, my email address.  It’ll all come out soon enough.  Because of you, you nosy, interfering bitch.  Snooping through my private possessions, prying into my family.  I’ve got a false passport, thanks to a friend in high places, and I’m going to run for it.  But not till I’ve settled the score with you.’

Kate’s mouth was dry as dust
with gut-wrenching fear but she knew she had to stall him so she croaked, ‘And it was you who abused Grainne, not Michael.  And you killed your sister too, didn’t you?  Because she found out what you had done to Grainne.’

‘What Grainne and I had done
together
,’ he corrected her, ‘She was always a slut, even at fourteen.  When I came home from Australia she was always hanging around me, couldn’t get enough of me.  She wanted it, and she got it.’  He sneered at her revolted expression and snapped, ‘You’re no one to judge me!  I might like young girls but not children, not like your precious
father
.  Or do you flatter yourself it was only
you
he wanted?’  He took a step forward, into the kitchen, and continued, ‘Grainne told her about us, and Therese rang me, in tears, raving and screaming down the phone.  Drunk, of course.  She wanted me jailed.  I put her straight on a few things.’

He
grinned suddenly, shocking her by looking so normal, so
ordinary
.  And he said, ‘Therese was always a burden to Michael, though he never complained, and when he entered politics she became a positive liability.  Which made her drink all the more.  So I gave her a choice.  Expose me and cause a scandal and I’d ruin Michael’s dreams of a career in politics.  Or keep her mouth shut, whereupon I’d blackmail my politician friend to make sure that her husband’s ambitions were fulfilled.  And quickly.’  He shrugged, ‘She knew there was no real proof against me except Grainne’s word so she agreed.  She didn’t want the family name dragged into the mud any more than I did, you see.  Besides, the firm I work for had landed a five-year contract in Cork, so none of them would have to see me again.’

‘Michael never knew?’

He shook his head, ‘Therese forced Grainne to keep her mouth shut, though I don’t know how, what she said to her.  The little slut went completely off the rails and started drinking and taking drugs but as long as she kept her mouth shut I didn’t care.’

‘But Therese did?’ said Kate softly.

He nodded and took a seemingly casual step toward her, ‘Correct.  Guilt ate away at her.  You see, she always hated Grainne, right from her birth.  And that only made the guilt worse.’  He shrugged again, and said bitterly, ‘Then Grainne cleaned up her act.’  Incredibly, he seemed to feel hard done by.  ‘Michael got me to pay off Jimmy Shiels, to leave her alone, and she went into rehab.  Michael didn’t want to dirty his hands, and his reputation, by consorting with the likes of Jimmy in person so he asked me to do it.  When Grainne came out of rehab she went to her mother and said she wanted to report me to the police.  Wanted to wipe the past clean and start over.’

He blinked, his gaze inward
and long ago as he said, ‘I was in Cork when Therese rang me, pissed, telling me I was going to be exposed. 
Jailed
.  She seemed delighted but she might have listened to reason eventually, but Grainne wouldn’t.’  He shook his head, seeming genuinely puzzled, ‘The little bitch wanted to see me suffer, wanted to ruin me.  Obviously I couldn’t let her talk.  I drove up from Cork but I was clever; I left my mobile behind.  They can track you that way, you know.  I bought some drugs from Jimmy and went to the house.  Therese was out of it, never woke up at all, even after the fire started, but Grainne put up a fight.  Not that it did her much good after I injected her with the speedball.  I doused the place in petrol and legged it back to Cork.’

He looked at Kate with utterly unfathomable eyes, ‘Even t
hen I was clever.  When I got there I smashed one of my car windows and called the police.  They never even came out and spoke to me, but the important thing was that the report was logged into their system.  And the call was logged on my mobile, from Cork.’  He shrugged, ‘I was just unlucky.  I gave that little slut enough dope to kill a fucking horse and she somehow survived.  I think that dumb mutt of a dog must have tried to play Lassie and drag her from the house, but all he succeeded in doing was to bite her leg.  But the pain must have woken her up and she got out before the whole place went up.  I nearly went out of my mind worrying about what she’d tell the police.  That was when I got the false passport, but I didn’t want to run, to give up my entire life unless I had to.  The investigators questioned me, of course, but they believed my story.  For the moment.  But there was worse to come.  About a week after the fire I got a speeding ticket sent to my flat.  A ticket with the time and date of the fire on it, and a picture of me driving on the motorway near Foxrock when I was supposedly in Cork.’  He shrugged, ‘I knew that if the police investigated me in any depth it was all over, what with the lies I told the Cork police as my alibi.’  He looked at her with angry eyes, ‘You wouldn’t
believe
how much I’ve suffered, wondering what that little tramp was saying about me.  That’s why I wanted your case, to read her file.  To see if I was safe or if there’d have to be another fire.’

Kate’s voice was rusty as she croaked
hoarsely, ‘Why did you kill Jimmy?’

‘He recognised my voice
on the phone when I hired him,’ came the prompt reply, ‘He was the only person I knew who’d carry out a burglary for money, but when he realised who I was he upped the ante.  I would have paid but he knew it was Grainne’s file I wanted and he would have put it all together, given time.  He was the one who sold me the drugs the night of the fire, after all.  The first fire, that is; Grainne got lucky a second time the other night, in the hospital.  If her room hadn’t been locked I could have used this.’  He hefted the knife in his hasnd and looked at her with eyes that were just empty black holes, ‘Jimmy forced me to kill him.  But the file wasn’t in his flat; I took his keys and checked.  I knew where he lived from the time I paid him off, see?  So I was back to square one.  That’s why I went to your office in Trinity.  I never meant to stab that copper.  I thought your office would be empty at that time of night.  I just wanted a look at that file, to see if I needed to flee the country of if I was safe.’

He shrugged again, ‘I should have just run away.  I’ll have to now anyway.’  His
vacant gaze coalesced into a hate-filled glare, ‘Because of you.  Because of one nosy, interfering bitch who couldn’t mind her own business.  I have to sacrifice my whole life, everything I’ve built up, but I’ll send you to hell before I go!’

‘She can meet you there, then,’ said a deep voice from the hall as Peter’s massive frame loomed
up in the doorway, ‘Because you’ll be following her straight down.’

Guilfoyle slowly pivoted
towards the open door, the gleaming point of his knife rising.  Kate froze in horror, feeling the old, hateful weakness rising inside her and making her want to curl up into a defenceless ball.  But she forced her terror away. 
I’m not a scared child anymore,
she thought,
I don’t have to just accept shit from anyone any more.  Not from my father, not from ANYONE!
  And she grabbed the kettle from the counter and flung the boiling water into the killer’s face.

Guilfoyle screamed and dropped his knife, his hands clutching at his scalded face, and Peter stepped for
ward swiftly and hammered a giant fist into his face.  The killer crashed into the wall before falling to the floor, already unconscious, and Peter dropped on top of him.  He flipped him over and knelt on his back before glancing up at Kate and saying urgently, ‘Ring the police, quick.  And an ambulance.  His head hit the wall a fearful crack.’  Incredibly, though his voice was hoarse and his breathing ragged from the adrenaline pumping through his system, he managed a smile, ‘And thank you; that knife was aimed right at my belly.’

‘Your second favourite organ,’ utte
red Kate through frozen lips.  Her attempt at humour soon faltered, and she burst into tears, but she rang the police first.

It was some hours before the police finally left and Kate and Peter were alone in the flat once again, with Kate preparing to visit Grainne and offer her an apology for getting everything so badly wrong.  To confess what a fool she’d been, and assure her that her real abuser was –finally- safely incarcerated.  Forever.  And to try and repair any damage her mistake might have done to their fledgling relationship.  Kate owed Michael an apology too, a big one, but she couldn’t bring herself to worry about him now; she could deal with that later. Grainne’s peace of mind and recovery was infinitely more important.  She got her spare car keys from her bedside locker and made her way to the front door, where Peter was finally getting round to repairing the broken lock.

‘
I’m off then.  Will you be here when I get back?’ she asked, trying to make the question sound casual.

He looked at her for a
long moment with those dark eyes before countering, ‘Do you
want
me to be here?’

Kate swallowed hard and replied, ‘I’ve learned a lot these last few days, most of it about myself. 
Not much of it good.  And what I’ve learned most of all is that I’m a damaged person.  I thought I had my past in control, that I could handle it, but that was just arrogance, and denial.  Now I know that my childhood has ruined my life as surely as Grainne’s childhood damaged her.  Instead of fleeing from my abusive past the way she did I built a wall around my heart, around my emotions.  It protected me but it made me hard too, and selfish.  All my life I’ve only been able to empathise with my patients, with
other
damaged souls.  I’ve saved the best of me, all the love and tenderness and
giving
I’m capable of, for them.  And I’ve largely just used the other people in my life, taking without giving much back.  I’m going to start therapy myself, to try to change, to free myself of my past.  To free myself of what my father did to me.  I want to be a warmer, more rounded person but it won’t be easy.  And there’s no guarantee of success.  So I can’t ask you to stick around on the off-chance that I might succeed.’  She managed a wan smile and lowered her gaze to the floor, ‘The old Kate might but if I want to change I can’t.’

Peter took a step closer and softly repeated, ‘Do you want me to be here?’

Kate looked up at him, vulnerability and naked need in her swimming eyes.  And she replied softly, painfully, ‘Yes, I want you here.  Always.’

He envelop
ed her in the vast embrace that always threatened to crush her but somehow never did, and gently kissed her cheek before whispering simply, ‘I’ll be here then.  Always.’

The End