Private Dublin

Chapter 53

“Yikes!” Andi exclaimed as we shot along a dark, narrow country lane, the high hedges zipping past us in a blur. “They must have been watching for the Kearneys to come back.”

I nodded. “We were lucky.”

It felt as though electricity was coursing through my veins and it was all I could do to stop myself from shaking with the power of the adrenalin rush I was experiencing. I forced myself to breathe, to try and take the edge off my body’s potent response to danger.

“You’re probably right about them using the stud as a cover,” I said, trying to direct my mind toward something other than an all-consuming flight from death. “If they were helping bring in the medicines, Noah and Mary Kearney must have done something to make their business partners mad.”

“But taking shots at us?” she remarked. “This goes beyond an internal drug feud.”

“I think it proves the Kearneys are linked to whatever Propaganda Tre is doing with the drugs. Why else would you station a shooter at their house? Takes a lot of manpower to keep a constant watch on a place like that,” I replied.

“But why target us?” Andi asked.

“We’re on their list,” I said. “That was no random shooter waiting for the Kearneys. That was someone connected to the investigation who knows who we are. They must also know that the higher-ups want us dead.”

She glanced in the rear-view mirror. “I don’t think we’re being followed.”

I checked and nodded, and she took her foot off the gas.

As the car slowed, I said, “Can I borrow your phone?”

She slipped it out of her pocket and handed it to me.

I called the Garda and reported seeing a man with a gun in the vicinity of Kearney Stud. It was unlikely to yield anything as the shooter would be long gone, but it was the right thing to do; a police presence might help protect the Kearneys and their children if they ever came home.

“What now?” Andi asked when I handed back her phone.

“Head for Fitzwilliam Square,” I replied. “Try to get some rest and regroup.”

I sensed she had something on her mind.

“You don’t agree?”

“I do,” she replied. “God knows, I’m exhausted. I was just thinking about our possible leads and I realized we’re running thin.”

“I know,” I conceded.

“I think we should pay Lawrence Finch another visit,” she said. “If Kearney is involved in the drugs trade, then a racing supremo like Finch might have heard rumors. And if we’ve missed something and Finch really is part of Propaganda Tre, then he’s probably involved himself and it won’t hurt us to give the tree another shake.”

I wasn’t sure about the advisability of returning to see Finch when we were still unsure about him, but Andi’s logic was reasonable. “We’ll go first thing tomorrow,” I told her.