Free The Broken Shore by Catriona King Page B

Hollywood romance. Any minute now Mulvenna would try to justify his past as a war, seeing himself as a warrior of some kind. Something about the scene bothered Craig and then he worked out what it was. Mulvenna was a romantic. The murder of Ronni Jarvis didn’t fit his approach to life. Mulvenna waved them to a seat and poured them a waiting coffee as Craig reluctantly drew closer to the conclusion he didn’t want to reach. Mulvenna started talking before he had a chance to speak.
    “I know why you’re here and before you even ask, the answer’s no. No, I didn’t kill Ronni Jarvis, no matter what the courts decided. And no, I had nothing to do with the death of the girl on the beach last week.”
    Andy went to interject and Mulvenna stilled him with a look. Craig saw its steel and nodded inwardly. This was the menace he’d expected to see. He was shocked by Mulvenna’s next words.
    “I deserved to be put away in ’83, and for a lot longer than I was.”
    He paused, not as if he was expecting an argument but in thought. “I killed a lot of your lads and army as well, but…” He stared at them earnestly, as if challenging them to disagree. “Whether you believed it was or not, we saw it as a war. We didn’t have the guns and tanks and uniforms you had so we did what we could, how we could, to get the British out.”
    Craig interrupted angrily. “You’re trying to justify what you did?”
    Mulvenna shook his head slowly. “No. Not justify. Explain.”
    He stared Craig straight in the eyes, as if begging him to understand but knowing he never would. After a moment he sighed and shook his head. “I don’t feel guilty about killing them but I regret every man that I killed. Every one of them. I’m sorry they’re dead and I’m sorry for their families, but I can’t turn back the clock.”
    Andy leaned forward, spotting a gap. “And what about every woman?”
    They were surprised by the strength of Mulvenna’s next words. “NO! I’ve never harmed a woman, never.”
    Andy went to continue but Craig quietened him imperceptibly, wanting to hear what Mulvenna had to say. Their coffees sat untouched, as if to drink them would be a betrayal of their dead colleagues. If Mulvenna noticed he didn’t say, he was long past sticks and stones in the pain stakes.
    He sipped at his drink and dropped his eyes to the floor as if remembering the women he had known. When he spoke again it was falteringly, his voice quieter than it had been since they’d arrived.
    “I didn’t even know Veronica Jarvis, and I know what you’re going to say. Lots of men kill women randomly, women that they don’t know, so why not me? Well here’s why not. I was in love, really in love for the first time in my life. I was happy. Why would I kill some woman I’d never even met?”
    His eyes were hidden, but Craig knew what they would hold. Tears. He could hear them in his voice. The romance hadn’t ended well, that much was clear and Craig thought that it wasn’t just because he’d been sent to prison. Andy shot him a puzzled look. This was totally unexpected. They sat in silence waiting for Mulvenna to restart. Finally he did, in clearer tones. His voice was curious, a mixture of soft country tones and hard Belfast picked up from his colleagues in jail. Craig could imagine some women finding the contrast attractive.
    “If Ronni Jarvis was an informer then the IRA could have been to blame, but we usually claimed our kills.” He looked at them defiantly. “And rape wasn’t our weapon of choice. Ronni Jarvis was killed by someone who had nothing to do with the IRA, mark my words. And if they could have got their hands on him in ’83 he would have been dead for getting them and me the blame.”
    His eyes dropped to the floor and he sat in silence for so long that Craig wondered if he would restart. He finally did. “Before you ask, the person I loved left me around the time I was charged and no, I won’t give you their name. I owe