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‘Mister Dessie! I’m sorry to be disturbing you, Mister Dessie, but there’s a lady Garda officer out here wants to have a word with you urgent-like.’

Mairead tried the door handle, and rattled it, but it was locked. ‘It’s never locked, not usually,’ she told Katie, and her voice was becoming increasingly panicky. ‘It’s the health and safety regulations, you know. And the fire hazard, like. And in case there’s any trouble. Not that we have any trouble here, don’t be thinking that.’

She knocked again and called out, ‘Mister Dessie! Zakky! Zakky, would you open the door, would you, girl? I’ve got the guards out here! Zakky!’

There was still no answer from inside the bedroom. At that moment, however, the bathroom door opened just behind them and Zakiyyah appeared in her orange tiger’s head T-shirt with a towel wrapped around her head.

‘Did you want me, Mairead?’

Mairead stared at Katie and then turned around and stared at the locked bedroom door. Then she turned back and stared at Zakiyyah.

‘Your room’s locked and I’ve been knocking but I can’t get an answer. I thought you were in there with Mister Dessie. Is Mister Dessie still in there?’

Zakiyyah nodded. Katie went up to her and put her hand on her shoulder. ‘Zakky? Is that your name?’

‘Zakiyyah. But they call me Zakky.’

‘What’s going on here, Zakiyyah? Is Mister Dessie in your bedroom?’

Zakiyyah nodded again.

‘What’s he doing in there, Zakiyyah? Mairead here thought he was in there with you.’

Zakiyyah’s bottom lip began to tremble and two large tears rolled down her cheeks.

‘There’s no need for you to be upset, Zakiyyah. I’m a Garda officer, police. I’ll look after you. Just tell me what Mister Dessie is doing.’

‘For the love of God, Zakky!’ snapped Mairead. ‘Just fecking tell us, will you?’

‘Mairead,’ Katie cautioned her. ‘No need for that.’

Zakiyyah wiped her eyes with the corner of her towel and said, ‘Mister Dessie came in to see me. I was asleep, but Mister Dessie woke me up.’

‘All right, then what?’ said Mairead. ‘Holy Mary, Mother of God, you’d get more sense out of a plank of wood!’

‘Go on, Zakiyyah,’ said Katie, gently. ‘Mister Dessie woke you up and what did he do after that?’

‘He wanted a gobble. He said he wanted to make sure I was good at it.’

‘Well I’ve heard some fecking lines,’ said Mairead, shaking her head.

‘Did you do it for him?’ asked Katie.

Zakiyyah shook her head, so that her towel slipped. ‘There was a lady in my room. She was hiding behind the curtain. She came out and she had a gun and she told Mister Dessie to stop.’

‘There was a lady hiding in your room with a gun? What did she look like?’

‘She was black, the same as me. She was wearing black clothes. She had a necklace that was all made of bones and things.’

‘And you say she had a gun? What did the gun look like?’

Zakiyyah held up her two index fingers, only about four inches apart. ‘Very small, like a toy gun. Only I don’t think that it was a toy.’

‘So she came out from behind the curtain and told Mister Dessie to stop. Then what happened?’

‘The lady told me to get out of the room and to go and have a bath and put my dress on. So I did. Well, I’ve had a bath. I haven’t put my dress on yet.’

‘It didn’t enter you head to come and tell me what was going on?’ said Mairead. ‘Jesus, girl! If you had two brains you’d be twice as stupid.’

‘The woman said not to tell anyone,’ said Zakiyyah. ‘I didn’t know what else to do.’

‘Is there any other way out of that room?’ Katie asked Mairead. ‘Is there a fire escape, or a ladder, or a roof you can climb out on to?’

‘There’s a fire escape, but you couldn’t get out of the window. The little fanlight opens, but Mister Dessie had the main window bolted shut because the girl in there before kept getting out and running away. Three times she done that. Chinese, she was, and always crying, too.’

‘So – as far as we know, both Mister Dessie and the woman are still in there?’

‘I’d say so, yes. They must be. There’s nowhere else they could have gone to.’

Katie called Detective Horgan. ‘It looks like Mister Dessie’s still here, but our suspect could be here, too. It seems like she got into the flat somehow and was waiting for him to show up. She’s locked in one of the bedrooms with him and according to a witness here she’s armed with that shotgun pistol she used on the other three victims. We’ve tried knocking but there’s no response so far.’

‘What’s the plan, then, ma’am?’

‘Have Dooley go around to the rear of the building. Apparently there’s a fire escape there that gives access to the bedroom window. The window’s supposed to be bolted shut but she may try and break the glass and escape, especially since she can fire shotgun shells.

‘Call for armed back-up and then you and Garda Kelly come up here. I’ll have the front door opened for you.’

‘Right you are, ma’am.’

‘There’s several girls up here, too. I’m not sure how many.’

‘Four,’ mouthed Mairead, putting up four fingers. ‘That’s including meself.’

‘There’s four girls and I’ll be evacuating all of those immediately. Tell Garda Daly to take them to his patrol car, but call for a van to pick them up and take them to the station. Ask for two female guards to take care of them. And make sure they’re treated with respect.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

By now Lotus Blossom had appeared at her bedroom door. ‘What is happening out here?’ she said crossly. ‘I have a customer inside and all of this noise is putting him off.’ She made a drooping gesture with her finger.

Elvira came out, too, wearing only a red and black corset with dangling suspenders. ‘Mairead? What’s going on?’

Katie turned to Mairead and said, ‘I want all of you out of here now. If you’re not decent throw something on as quick as you can and get out. Get your customer out, too.’

‘But he has paid me one hundred and sixty euros already! It is for one hour special service!’

‘Then give him a refund, or a voucher for next time. But get him out.’

Zakiyyah went into the bathroom and immediately came back out, struggling to get into her rose-patterned dress. Katie gave her a hand to tug it down and zipped up the back for her.

‘Now,
go
,’ she said. ‘I don’t want any of you getting hurt.’

Zakiyyah clung on to Katie’s sleeve and said, in a low voice so that Mairead wouldn’t hear her, ‘Please – after this, will you help me? I don’t want to come back here. Please.’

Katie gave her a quick, tight smile and nodded. ‘Don’t you worry. I’ll see you back at the Garda station later. Stay there, and don’t let anybody take you away. Nobody – not even anybody who says they’ve come from social services. Tell them you’re not allowed to, because Superintendent Maguire wants to ask you some questions.’

‘Superin—?’

‘Just say Katie Maguire. Now, get out of here.’

A balding man in glasses came out of Lotus Blossom’s room, zipping up his trousers. He glanced at Katie and Katie recognized him as a city councillor. She pretended not to have realized who he was and turned back towards Zakiyyah’s bedroom.

Mairead was the last to leave. Before the door closed behind her, Katie could hear feet clattering up and down the three flights of stairs. Detective Horgan and Garda Kelly must be on their way. She lifted her nickel-plated Smith & Wesson revolver out of the holster attached to her belt and cautiously approached the bedroom door, holding the gun in both hands with the muzzle pointing upwards.

She listened intently, although she didn’t press her ear against the door in case the woman suspected she was out there and fired a shot through it.

She was sure that she could hear a mewling noise. It sounded like a cat that wanted to be let in out of the rain. Then she heard a woman’s voice, although she couldn’t make out what she was saying.

Detective Horgan burst in through the door at the opposite end of the corridor, closely followed by Garda Kelly. At the same instant, Katie heard the key turning in the bedroom door and it was opened up wide. The young black woman was standing there, with her right arm held out straight. The sunlight was shining through the window behind her, so that Katie was momentarily dazzled.

‘Stay there, do not move!’ said the woman. ‘You move, I shoot him!’

It was then that Katie saw that Mister Dessie was lying on the purple velveteen cover of the king-size bed, naked and white and fat, and smeared all over with blood. He was holding up both of his arms in the way that a drumming toy monkey holds up its arms, except that he couldn’t have held any drumsticks because he had no hands. He was mewling and sniffing and occasionally coughing.

The woman had a black plastic bag tied to her belt. In her right hand, she was holding the small Heizer pistol that Colin Cleary had sold to her.

Katie pointed her revolver at her and said, ‘Drop that weapon, please.’

The woman leaned sideways a little so that she could see down the corridor. Detective Horgan had stopped outside the bathroom door and taken out his SIG Sauer automatic.

‘Has everybody else gone?’ the woman asked.

‘There’s nobody here but you and us,’ said Katie. ‘Please drop the weapon. I don’t want to have to shoot you.’

‘Tell those two men to go into that side room and close the door.’

‘I can’t do that. They’re Garda officers and they’re here to carry out their duty.’

‘If they come any closer, I will shoot Mister Dessie in the head and kill him. I think you understand that I will do that without any hesitation.’

‘You killed Mawakiya and Mânios Dumitrescu and Bula.’

‘Yes, of course. I have their hands to prove it. I intend to kill all of them.’

‘When you say “all of them” …?’

The woman’s right arm didn’t waver. ‘Tell those two men to go into that side room and close the door. I will give them five seconds and then I will shoot.’

‘You realize that if you do that I will have to shoot you.’

‘That will not stop me from killing Mister Dessie, and then you will be responsible for his death.’

Katie said nothing for a moment. She looked towards the window, but there was no sign of Detective Dooley out there on the fire escape.

‘One,’ said the woman. Then, ‘Two.’

Without turning around, Katie called back to Detective Horgan, ‘Horgan? Can you two go into that bedroom, please, and close the door after you? I’ll give you a shout when I need you. But call a white van. Mister Dessie’s in here and he’s hurt.’

‘Ma’am?’

‘It’s all right. Nothing to worry about. We’re having a little negotiation here, that’s all.’

Detective Horgan and Garda Kelly looked at each other and both pulled faces, but Detective Horgan shrugged as if to say,
She’s the boss
, and they both went into Lotus Blossom’s bedroom. As soon as she heard them door close the door behind them, Katie said, ‘Okay? What happens now?’

‘You explain to me why you did not punish these men for what they did to my sister.’

‘Well, I would if I could,’ said Katie. ‘But I have absolutely no idea at all who your sister is, or what these men are supposed to have done to her. I don’t know who
you
are, for that matter.’

‘My name is Obioma Oyinlola. My sister is dead. Her name was Nwaha, which in my language means “second-born girl”. She was very beautiful and she was a very talented artist. She was not political like me.’

All the time she was talking, Mister Dessie was moaning, and gradually his moans were growing louder and longer and more agonized.

‘Love of God—’ he gasped. ‘Love of God, what have you done to me?’

‘We need to get this man to a hospital,’ said Katie. She reached into her pocket and took out her iPhone.

‘
No
!’ said Obioma. ‘If you so much as press one single number on that phone, I swear that I will shoot him with no hesitation.’

‘I’ve already asked my officers to call for an ambulance. I just wanted to make sure one was on its way. He could die from loss of blood and then you’d be charged with four murders. You’re looking at a life sentence as it is.’

‘What did they give to my sister? That was more than a life sentence. They took her life away from her – everything that made her feel proud of herself, and womanly, and talented, and pure.’

‘Tell me what happened then,’ said Katie, much more quietly, although she kept her revolver pointed at Obioma’s heart.

‘My family comes from Lagos. My father was an English teacher at Lagoon Secondary School. We were two sisters and a brother, but my brother died when he was only five years old and because of that my sister and I became very close.’

‘Love of God, help me!’ groaned Mister Dessie. Obioma glanced at him briefly but then turned back to Katie.

‘My sister and I loved each other, but we were always different. She was always sewing and painting while I was playing adventure games with boys. When I was seventeen I fell for a boy who was active with MEND, and that was when I became political.’

‘MEND? What’s MEND?’

‘It is the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. An armed force of activists, fighting against the government and greedy big oil companies. We believe they should be giving their profits to the poor and disadvantaged people of Nigeria instead of creaming them off for themselves. They have polluted our land and given us nothing.’

‘Yes,’ said Katie. ‘Now you come to mention it, I’ve heard of them. But they’ve been responsible for all kinds of terrorist attacks, haven’t they? Shootings and kidnappings and piracy and bombings.’

‘It is the only way to make the government and those big monopolies listen to us. It was MEND who taught me to fight. But anyway, that is not why I am here. My sister is why I am here.’

‘Go on.’ Katie knew that the best chance of getting Obioma to give up her gun was to listen to this and then show understanding. She had once sat in Fitzgerald Park in a steady downpour for three and a half hours listening to a would-be building society robber with a sawn-off shotgun and an elderly woman hostage.

Obioma said, ‘My sister showed some of her embroidery at an exhibition in Lagos and a man came up to her and said he ran a design studio in Italy and would she come to work with him? She would make very good money and might even become famous.