Original subtitles

I want the name of the man in the file Lee carried.

The man who was going to be destroyed because of the information in it. He had

the most to gain by Lee being killed before he could hand it over.

It's no longer vague threats anymore.

She's got something in writing that could destroy this firm and send a lot

people to prison.

Sarah Manning is coming straight at Hoffman and you're a little too close to

for comfort.

I want to find the man who killed my husband and see him punished.

Is that what you want?

The death of Sarah Manning's first husband is now a murder inquiry.

I have a witness.

This inquiry involves issues that are way out of your league. All I try to do

follow the case to where it led.

Your career's over.

Lee's got all these details about how you financed the properties you and

Patrick got into.

There's also a lot of things about Patrick's legal problem.

I really don't have anything to say about Lee, and I resent being cross

-examined. I need to know.

How much do you think she really knows about that deal with Kieron? She has no

idea. I hope she never does.

He's taken back complete control of the operation.

Emma Byrne is out the door. But after this, I won't have nothing to do with

deals with you or anyone in your firm.

That's stuff you need to be made aware of sooner rather than later.

I'm on my way.

She's dead.

Did you get a look at that car?

Did you see?

No, I... Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

She'd been phoning someone.

She needs help. She needs phone for help.

She's gone, man.

She's gone.

I'll report it.

Put that away.

We have to do this right. If she was on the phone, if she talked to someone, if

she told someone that you were angling for a bribe... Take that back.

You never said no. Take that back! Did you say no? Did you walk out?

I don't think so.

She'd be a witness.

You weren't here.

As long as you don't make that call, you can deny it.

You can say you weren't here, and nobody can prove you wrong.

a senior guard to office because she told what she heard. If she blurted it

how long do you think you're going to be a guard?

I did nothing wrong.

I was just sounding the two of you out to see how far you'd go.

Try that out in court. See how far you get.

You never said no.

That's enough to hang you.

I'll take care of this.

Go!

I have to report a hit and run.

Mom, look at the time.

We'll be late for school.

I'm sorry.

Let's get breakfast sorted.

I did it.

Sarah? Aidan.

I wonder if Deirdre's in the office yet. She called me last night. I've been

trying her phone and I'm not getting anything.

Is she what?

No. She's not here. Do you not know?

He didn't see the news this morning.

Head of Human Resources at the pharma giant, Combiner Fisher.

Gardie had named the woman a Deirdre Kilbride.

The driver failed to remain at the scene.

A guy the spokesperson has appealed for witnesses or anyone with information on

the incident to contact them.

What happened last night after you left the cottage?

You didn't answer the phone. I called you a dozen times. I told you I failed

find her. I drove home. I had some business I had to attend to the rest of

night.

That isn't the car you came in.

For security reasons, I am required to change cars every few weeks. That's the

car I took possession of this morning.

Where is the car you came to my place in?

Don't you have an official car and driver?

Where were they last night? That wasn't official business.

Oh, was it to make sure you had no witness after who you met?

But the love of... I cared for her. I really did.

If it wasn't an accident... You know how dangerous those country roads are.

She was in shock when she left. That's what she had heard you say.

Don't try to pin this on me.

Maybe she simply failed to see the car that hit her or saw it too late.

Or perhaps deliberately put that in front of her.

If it wasn't like that... Then you should go to the police with your

I have spoken to Chief Superintendent Nolte already.

He agrees that the meeting between the three of us did not take place.

It would be impossible to explain his being there and also preserve his

reputation. That is what he values most in the world.

I might take you to the guides.

I might just do that.

Then tell them everything.

Be fearless.

Destroy your marriage and your career.

It's your choice.

Look me in the eye and tell me you didn't drive the car into her. I could

the same of you. You had a very personal reason for wanting her out of the way.

Not dead.

Or perhaps it was the chief superintendent who drove after her.

You just left.

We heard the bang moments after. I cannot say what happened one way or the

other. That would be for the police to decide. All I know is... But I wasn't

there.

Go home to your wife and children, Mr. O 'Hannon.

You have seen what it requires to play for the biggest stake.

It's not for you.

Are you mad, Sarah, coming to me now?

It wasn't an accident.

You've been away from the law for a few years. Maybe you need a refresher

course. We're still dealing facts, evidence.

There's no proof Deirdre's death wasn't exactly what it looks like, a hit -and

-run by a drunk on a country road. I came to you with some of those facts the

day ago, like who Lee was going to meet in Montreal and what you knew about it.

I know about the files you were carrying.

It was going to be used to threaten to blackmail somebody into handing a gun to

Lena Fisher, a contract they couldn't win on a level playing field. I have no

responsibility for that. I'm just a middle... A middle -ranking employee,

Those are the ones who get sacrificed first aid.

Remember that I can put you smack dab in the sights of the FBI.

You talked about us having blood on our hands. What about you?

Do you have any part in Dietrich O 'Brien's death?

This crusade you're on, this obsession you have, is she a victim of it? If I

somehow cause her death, I'll have to live with it. Well, that's easy to say.

Nothing about any of this, believe me, is easy.

You taught me it's our job to defend the firm at all costs. You wore down

anybody who attacked it with motion after motion, dragged out the

countersued, refused to settle until they had no money left, and you made no

apology for it. So how dare you? You of all people come to me and make demands

of me.

Tell me to put my career on the line. Your life is on the line, Aidan. Don't

realise that?

Nobody's safe, not even in there.

Somebody who knew the hand was under Justin gave him quinidine, knowing it

only a matter of time before it triggered a heart attack.

Who's next?

You want me to help you pull the company down?

After everything I've given to it? I want you to help me save it.

The company, not Hoffman.

or whoever else is pulling the strings.

I believe in what we do in there. The end result.

The drugs we manufacture that make people's lives better.

I know, and that's what makes this hard.

But I'm on my way to see the man I loved for the last time.

The man I'll be burying. Next week they're going to be burying Deirdre

too. How many more?

We need to end this, Aidan, and we need to end it now before there are any more

funeral.

Nicholas Esther.

That's the name you want.

He's the German health minister's chief rival.

There's even a suggestion he had an affair with the minister's wife.

That makes it personal as well as political.

I don't know this officially, mind you, and we're not denied if I'm ever asked.

He was the subject of that file. He was the lead target. I'm not going there,

Sarah. As far as legal is concerned, everything done by ourselves in the

marketing team is completely above board.

Did you not do that sometimes?

Turn a blind eye to something it was better not to see for the good of the

Not with something like this.

Maybe you'd have done the same thing if you were still behind that desk.

I wouldn't.

Well, you'll never know that, will you?

Thanks for the health warning, but I can take care of myself. I need Lehan's

annual personal details.

And details of his compensation, including any performance bonuses, who

off on those bonuses, and the reasons given for that.

You want me to investigate our head of security? Your very ex -head of

who a witness says threw Pierron into the canal lock the night he died.

I can't just walk into Human Resources and grab the file. That's exactly what

you have to do.

They do random searches on the way out. If I get caught... There are fire alarms

all over that building.

They won't search it out until people rush into the exit.

I can't do that.

Oh, you'd be surprised what you can do.

You really would.

I've learned that in the past week or so.

What are you going to do with Esther's name?

Give it to somebody who can do something about it.

Nicholas Esser.

Rebecca, I hate to have to get a time like this. I know what you must be

feeling, but I need some of Deirdre's files.

Anything that's on the record about Mr. Lahan.

Let me check if Mr. Lahan's files are still here.

Why are you so interested in those files, Mr. O'Sullivan?

I need his personnel information.

At a time like this?

When the entire Gambino Fisher family is in mourning for another loss?

There's an insurance question on my desk as to whether his death happened on

company business or private business.

I need background.

You may leave, my dear.

Take a few days away from the office.

These are difficult times for us, Mr. O'Sullivan.

Even more difficult than events some years ago.

To survive, we need our best people to go beyond their usual professionalism

thoroughness. I always give 150%. Our ultimate loyalty in the end must be to

people we work for and alongside, don't you agree?

I appreciate that.

Sarah Manning, for example.

Has no loyalty to this company or anyone who works here.

Why should she? She's an ex -employee. That's true, Dr. Hoffman. But if there

are problems in our international sales division, if those dates and travel

details in the file she brought to our attention... File what? File.

Who saw it?

You?

Miss Kilbride, who, alas, is no longer here.

Perhaps there was no file.

Sarah Manning says there is.

As she has it. It is what you know about it that concerns me at this moment.

I'm a legal officer of this corporation.

If anything's wrong here and I fail to take action, I stand not only just to

lose my job, I could get struck off.

If it's true that Lee Manning carried a gun.

The Ciarán Boyle's death and Erlehan's and Deirdre's are connected.

Then this company is under attack from one of our rivals. Isn't that the most

likely explanation?

Our new head of security, once we have decided who that is to be, will provide

the answers.

In the meantime, I worry about your safety.

My safety? You are a valuable member of... The Campina Fisher family.

It may be the moment to send you further afield in your own interest as well as

ours.

Do you like to travel? To travel?

You have done well here in Dublin.

However, it can't be fatal to a career to spend too long in the same position.

We are an international corporation.

We're expanding our operations in Singapore.

I've spoken on your behalf to the International Division.

Singapore.

The greatest rewards of all come to those who put the company first.

Dublin today, Singapore next month.

After that, who knows?

There is always room at the top for an ambitious executive.

And...

If this is also a matter of your own personal safety.

Do I still need to see those files?

I don't know. I don't think so.

I need you to be sure.

I'm sure.

Why not leave Dublin right away?

After Mr. Lahan's funeral, say.

I think that would be a good idea.

Yes. Miss Kilbride.

Her personal life.

Relationships she may have had.

Things she might have shared with you.

We were colleagues.

That's all.

I don't know anything else about her.

If the God he asked.

I'll be leaving Dublin later today anyway.

I predict a long and successful career for you in this company, Miss Rose

Sullivan.

Aiden.

Thank you. Now I want every detail of the conversations you've had with Sarah

Manning.

Who has she been talking to? Who else is asking questions? Who's helping her?

Where does she get her information from?

She's not working alone.

She can't be.

Who?

There should be music, you know, to keep you in queue.

Like in the film.

You should cry now.

It's okay.

I can't.

I am.

I'm hanging on by my fingertips to the idea that he only lied to me because he

thought it was best for me and the kid that his job wasn't him.

It was just what he did.

Maybe he was going to blow the whistle on that firm because he was sick of the

lies, especially the ones he had to tell me, and everything was going to change.

Mostly I keep thinking about... I keep thinking about

how lonely he must have been.

Having no one to share with, not even me.

Because when you love someone, you want to give them everything, don't you?

Everything.

But you just said to me, Sarah, listen.

That that would have put you in danger. Even so.

What would you have done?

What could you have done?

I don't know.

And that's the worst thing about him.

Because I'm never going to know the answer to that.

Get Detective Byrne.

Tell her to come to my office.

Now.

Can't do it.

I'm sorry.

If you want to know more about Lehan, you're going to have to go about it

another way.

What do you suggest?

I go up to his widow after the funeral and ask her if she knew that the man

she's burying killed somebody for his boss?

To prove his loyalty to the firm? You asked me if I wasn't afraid for my

Sarah.

Well, I am.

And you're asking me to keep going until maybe I get myself killed too.

Did he make a threat?

Or did he make you an offer?

I have to do what's best for me and my career. Offer or threat?

I'm going to Singapore.

Are you glad all the way?

You can laugh. I'm not laughing.

If I said no to this offer, I'd be yesterday's man. You're that already,

Don't you get it?

Hoffman gave you a show, then you fell over. He won't forget that.

Easy twitches are no use to him or the firm.

He'll give you six months, then he'll find a reason to fire you.

You're finished.

You're in danger. You are to yourself.

This is a painful time for Mr. LeHan's family.

and for all of us in Camp Beneficia.

Though our company operates all over the world with tens of thousands of

employees, we never forget that our success is based on the hard work,

dedication, and professionalism of each individual who works for us.

I would like everyone here who worked alongside Barry LaHan to remember the

meaning of his work, our work.

The purpose we dedicate ourselves to every day, making the world a better,

safer, disease - and pain -free place for all of us.

I need some answers.

Dr. Hoffman, Detective Charles Duquesne, Montreal Police Officer.

I need some answers too.

I've been trying to speak to you in connection with my inquiries into the

of one of your employees in my city.

I'm afraid I can't help you. You should speak to our security advisors.

Alas, they are just about to lay Mr.

Lehan to rest.

Something of which you spoke so eloquently.

Is it possible that you could talk to me, confirm that Lee Manning is carrying

file to a Herr Nicholas Esser?

I'm not sure where your information comes from.

We will be appointing a new chief of security here in Dublin as soon as

possible. I'm sure they will be happy to answer all your questions. Until

then... Could it be possible that Mr. Lerner...

He's somehow connected to that death in Montreal.

It seems unlikely, but that is why you must wait to speak to the experts.

I'm sure Mrs. Manning here, more than anyone, would like to get these matters

cleared up once and for all.

Aidan O'Sullivan told you that I know what Lee did for you.

That's why you're sending him out of reach of the Gardaí.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Manning prefers to believe in conspiracies rather than

facts. What was your Draco Bride's death?

A way to keep her quiet?

As you can see in her grief, I have become the focus of her anger.

Ciaran was a good man.

He struggled with some things. Lahan and you used one of them against him.

His drinking.

It made the way he died believable. It made me not dig too deep.

Now you've gotten rid of Lahan too.

There was a witness there that night.

While her logic may seem impeccable, it is deeply paranoid.

With all respect, you should be aware of Mrs. Manning and her fantasies.

I hope for the sake of our past friendship that you seek expert help as

possible. Medical help.

I cannot allow a thick woman to defame the company.

Please, do not allow her to put your investigation on the ground.

My wife is unwell.

I've been thinking of taking some time off to care for her.

It may be months rather than weeks.

Maybe longer.

I'm the third generation to work in the force.

We have no children, so I'll be the last.

You never know what you'll find in yourself until the time comes.

And you better hope you've got a backbone.

You have that.

It takes 15 minutes to clear away 30 years of memories.

30 years of doing the right thing.

Or trying your best to.

How many decisions do you take in the job that we do every day?

10?

20?

How many in a career?

It only takes one wrong one to...

Remember that when you're sitting here.

Because one day you will.

I've reassigned most of the work that I've left undone.

It wasn't much. I always ran a tidy desk.

There's this one file, though.

You know which one it is.

You opened it.

I made you hand it over.

Do you want it back?

Depends on what the conditions are, sir.

Forget the sir.

You can have it if you want it. No conditions.

Follow it where it goes to whoever it goes to.

I'll give you what help I can, although I won't be behind the desk.

I'm recommending we officially reopen an accidental drowning case as a murder

inquiry. Then who?

I have a witness who can identify the killer as an ex -guard, one of our own.

As I've said, to wherever it goes.

But you better be sure of your facts. I am.

And I know where it goes.

To one of Ireland's most important companies.

Well, if anyone tries to put pressure on you to stop it, I'll back you as far as

I can.

I'll also be investigating a hit and run.

Which could also point back to the company and the man who runs it.

Well, if that is material to your inquiry.

It is if I can place him at the scene.

Can you do that?

Not at the moment, but I'm hoping to do so.

He's very good at covering his tracks.

Well, you can't even interview him unless he agrees.

The dead woman worked for the firm.

Can you tell me anything about her or the night she died?

As I said, I'll help you as far as I can as a fellow guard,

not as a witness.

That is my offer, my commitment.

The accident was reported by a TD who had a cottage nearby.

For questions asked a few years back as to how close he was to decisions made in

the sighting of the pharmaceutical plants in his constituency.

Well, if the facts lead you to it. What if it leads to someone else too?

Given his connections.

Some of them in very important jobs, in high positions.

Well, then you must do your job. Isn't that clear?

The job comes first.

You do what you have to do.

And I'll help you as far as I can.

Do you understand? As far as I can. Do you understand what I'm saying? I do,

I will take this as far as I have to.

That's your last word.

Doesn't it have to be?

I need to spend some time with my wife.

I would like to spend as much time as I can get.

That might be out of your hands, sir, if I do my duty.

That's all you can do, Detective Byrne.

Ymir, you do your duty to the Force, and I'll do my duty to the people who love

me and look up to me and need me to be there for them.

But you're supposed to be working on that voice.

I tackled Hoffman head on after the funeral.

It just came right.

He didn't even blink.

Took it on the chin.

He told me how worried he is about how I'm doing upstairs.

And for a minute there, I catch myself thinking, could he be right?

Am I out of my tree?

What am I thinking of taking on a man like that and a firm that big?

The lunatics that get things done, Sarah.

The rest of us are at home watching the telly doing the scratchers.

Please find out for me who to call in regard to a concern for the mental

of a mother. I'm concerned for her young and vulnerable children.

There was just you here last night, Mr. O 'Hanlon.

After you heard the bang, you went outside to look. You found her there,

didn't see the car that hit her.

That's right.

You're a bit out of the way up here.

Any idea why she was in the neighborhood or what business she had this way?

I don't know.

You didn't know her then?

I might have been in the same room as her the one time a week or so ago,

Just the one?

Yeah, at a press thing, the place she worked.

Gunby near Fisher?

It's possible she was there at the go -ahead for the new plant. I meet a lot

people.

She wouldn't have been here last night at the cottage for any reason?

I'd have put it in my statement.

Come here for a bit of peace, work on your paperwork and your speeches, if you

were here all night.

Then that's it.

That's all I have for you.

Thanks for your time.

You've got a lovely little place you have here.

If you ignore the leaky roof.

Why aren't the local guards handling this?

Why serious crimes, detective?

I couldn't be sending the guard on a rusty old bike to talk to a member of

Dáil. Somebody in the government like you.

Then again, they've had to run a bad look at the firm she worked for.

Combiner Fish has landed on my desk again.

I'm just looking at anything that has any connection to them.

I'm sure you'll do a great job.

I'll see you out.

Chief Superintendent Nolte passed the file on to me.

Oh, good man, Nolte.

He'll be missed.

He'll be what?

He's out.

You didn't know?

I haven't made the papers yet, but I'd have thought someone with their ear to

the ground like you might have heard.

He cleared out his desk this morning.

Do you know him?

I know everybody.

Everybody that matters. And I know the people they answer to.

Everybody answers to somebody, don't you find?

You heard a bang and you came straight out here, but you didn't see the car?

No.

I'll take a walk up the road.

Thank you again. And yes, I do find that everybody answers to somebody.

In the end, though, we all answer to the law.

However high up the pole we are.

That's the theory.

In practice.

Those tyre tracks you had company last night might have slipped your mind.

The press were here. The TV people.

When it got out that I was the one who made the call.

A lonely way to die.

Why was she even out of her car in the first place?

Why was she even within 20 miles of here?

If you have any questions you'd like me to answer, I'd be glad to hear them.

As it is, I have to get back to my desk.

I have a pile of papers before I have to get through.

You're an important man, Mr. O 'Hanlon. A very busy man.

I won't get in your way any more than I have to.

Thank you, Detective.

My lunch with Patrick.

How did that go?

Did he tell you what you needed to know? Well, the last thing he wanted to talk

about was that property stuff that Lee was digging into. He made a song and

dance about me even asking.

Left so fast, he nearly knocked a waiter over. I don't know how right in the

head he is these days. The coke, the booze, everything he's been to.

Couldn't you better be picking up the kids? What do you want me to do? When

set the meeting up, did you tell him what I wanted to ask?

He knew it wasn't just for old times' sake.

But can you remember what you said, exactly how you put it, the words you

Now, here's the thing, Sarah.

I know that you are going through what nobody should have to go through, but I

am not giving a deposition here.

What I said, what I didn't say, the exact words. He made the same complaint,

that I was talking like a lawyer.

I'll go get them.

You're off too now.

So you don't have to give me any answers.

They're my kids.

I'll pick them up.

And when I come back, I'll ask you like a sister, not a lawyer.

What is it in that file that Patrick doesn't want me to get the answer to?

That God help the pair of us you're trying to keep from me too.

Would you pop into my office for five minutes, Mrs. Manning?

One of the teaching assistants will look after her.

We won't be long.

We just need to have a quick chat.

Is everything okay? Are either of them in trouble?

Before we start, I just want to assure you that everything discussed here is

completely confidential.

We received a call concerning you and your children.

Who from?

I'm afraid that's also confidential.

We're a mandated reporting body.

We're obliged to take any concerns that are brought to our attention, even

anonymously, seriously, and pass them on to the duty social worker at the Child

and Family Agency.

Concerns.

That's what we've done.

We've an obligation to tell you that. Concerns about what? While there were no

allegations of physical abuse...

There were concerns about your children's welfare.

Does that mean I'm going to be investigated?

This is a difficult situation all round.

We have done what the law says we need to. Does that mean I'm going to be

investigated? A report has been made.

It's out of our hands now.

That's all we can say. That's all we are allowed. I get it.

You don't have to give me a name.

You know who I am.

You know I've been working with the police in Dublin.

You have many family connections in Canada, especially Montreal.

One of your relatives is currently in the Bordeaux prison there awaiting

It's a tough place.

Someone was recently beaten to death there by another prisoner.

Your relative would like to make bail.

I have connections that could help with that if in return you'd be willing to

give me one name.

The name of the man who was hired to kill a Mr. Lee Manning on behalf of a

named Nicholas Esser.

The photographs were all taken in the studio.

I didn't want to get caught in the Irish weather.

Oh, I'm pretty happy with that one.

Hoffman, Gambino Fisher. We met before at our reception at the embassy. I

remember, of course, Dr. Hoffman. Thank you so much for coming today.

These are all yours?

Ah, a hobby.

A little more than that, surely.

These are excellent.

Three years isn't really long enough to get under a country skin, but, um...

Photography helps.

This is your first year as legal attache, I believe?

Yes, that's right.

And afterwards?

Provided nothing goes wrong.

Paris, Rome.

Possibly.

Provided nothing goes wrong.

I can't see that anything is likely to.

I have just attended the funeral of my head of security.

He tried to intervene in an illegal surveillance operation carried out by an

employee of your embassy, acting in the name of the FBI.

I can't have this conversation.

Your employee installed tracking devices on vehicles belonging to one of my

workers and his wife.

This man was slated to murder in Montreal.

His wife is being persuaded to work with your employee in attacking my company.

I can't even listen to this.

That's unfortunate.

I came to you seeking a way to resolve this matter quietly.

I have a very efficient press and media operation.

You leave me no option but to raise this in public.

I'm listening.

Your agent seems obsessed with making a case against my firm.

I know nothing about this.

Really? But you should have.

Isn't that what Washington will say?

We have very good connections in Washington.

Lobbyists at the highest levels.

If somebody is trying to develop a legal case here, I can't derail it.

FBI personnel are required to check in with me when they arrive.

They're free to follow their own leads after that.

It's our, uh...

Company policy to spend a certain percentage each year on art.

I would be honored if you would allow us to purchase some of these photographs

to hang on our conference room wall.

Are you trying to bribe me? I am trying to resolve a situation that will

embarrass you more than me. And embarrass the FBI even more.

I am not for sale.

My legal department tells me you have ultimate responsibility for agents of

FBI. If your firm has nothing to hide... We are the most regulated industry in

the world.

Every single decision we make is scrutinized over and over again.

I'm prepared to stand by the decisions I have made in the years I have directed

comping officials' operations here. Are you prepared to stand by yours?

Yes, I am.

And the ones which have been made by others?

For which you will be blamed.

And what are you offering instead?

We can talk of that later.

If we can come to some agreement.

If our interests can be aligned.

If that's not possible.

Excellent work. I mean that.

The work, perhaps, of a gifted amateur. Forgive me.

rather than a professional.

But if you make the wrong decision now, you will have much time ahead of you to

practice.

All the time in the world.

You bugged Lee's car, you bugged Sarah's car, your real target was Hoffman. Did

you bug his car?

Off the record?

I'm back on the case officially. I can get you everything you need, off the

record or on.

Were you tracking his car?

Yes. You can tell me where he was last night?

If I can get the file from Mrs. Manning, we can make a trade.

You tell me where he was last night.

Help me place him at the scene of the murder. Help me nail him for the sad and

violent death of Dieter Kugler.

And you can get what you need. Bring that firm down.

How's that for a trade?

Patrick? I thought you said we'd have no more to talk about.

About me or anything.

This won't exactly be a social thing, Sarah.

Is this about that Lister, please?

It is, yeah.

What do you say, Sarah, for old time's sake?

For Ciarán's sake, say.

If you can stretch to it.

Let's put a bottle of champagne on the table.

This is going to be tough on both of us.

What a complicated life you're leading these days, ex -sister -in -law.

I thought I'd managed to tie my affairs in knots, but yours currently sounds,

you'd have to admit, Less fact than fiction.

What's your story been, Patrick?

Fact or fiction?

A bit of both.

Maybe a touch of true -life crime thrown in there, too.

Now they've got me cold.

I walked into Donnie and Nesbitt's the other day, and somebody who used to be

closest friend looked right through me and walked out.

I'd turned into a ghost.

What do you have to tell me?

Or are you just going to keep dancing around it?

Three years back.

The date's important. It was just before Ciarán died.

Go on.

I'd lost a lot by then.

Me and Nuala were divorced. I was still kidding myself I'd have come back in me.

Then Nuala turns up out of the blue one day and said she might have found a way

out of the mess we were both in. She takes me to see this piece of property.

I mean, talk about a location.

Next to the motorway, next to the airport, a greenfield site. Won't you

the buildings away that were on it?

We try not to get too excited about it, but...

If we could get it financed, we'd be back in the game again. Use the property

deal to get back on top.

First up, we'd declare the title, and it came up as belonging to a little firm

called Gumbiner Fisher.

Yeah, well, they bought the property years back, and they were still sitting

it, even though they'd done a lot of development on other sites, not one of

which were as good as that.

They owned it?

Freehold, with commercial zoning rights.

And anybody who would have known for property would know there was a bit of a

mystery there.

I mean, if you weren't going to build on it, why not flip it, make a killing?

There was what you might call an echoing silence from their property department

when we approached them.

And then a flat no.

They weren't interested in selling at any price.

Me and Nuala were thinking maybe it was a negotiating tactic.

We'd need a bit of inside information, maybe a word on the QT with somebody who

could get the goods.

The obvious person to go to was Ciarán, right? He was head of Pure then. The

obvious person to go to would have been me.

You were the legal officer of the firm. You wouldn't have touched it with a

barge pole.

It would have been all sorts of conflict of interest issues.

The concept, by the way, that has always driven me up the wall. I mean, isn't

life and death a conflict of interest?

Ciarán worked for you on this deal.

There wasn't a deal.

Not until we could find out why the company were sitting on the land.

I mean, you had to be kept out of it.

At least until it was a done deal.

But why?

We didn't need the money.

We had good jobs.

This was wealth, not a salary.

And you were earning three, four times what he was, and that bothered him.

I mean, if he could make that killing, bad choice of words, but... Well, he'd

get some of his self -respect back. He never loved it.

The drinking.

You never asked what was really behind that.

What did he agree to do for you?

Ask around inside the firm, keep his eyes and ears open, take some of the

from the property department out for a drink, pump them for information.

Maybe he was good at that. That's what he specialised in.

Why for you?

Research it.

Look, the deal never came off.

The fraud squad were starting to take a closer look at how I'd been keeping my

head above water.

I legged it.

Nuala started her lettings firm, and neither of us gave that piece of

or the company who owned it another thought.

Not until you found those things in Lee's file.

Hmm.

At one point, I'd buy that by the crate.

That's the sound that greets you in heaven.

Using Ciarán seemed like a good idea at the time.

I'll admit I was doing a fair old bit of coke then.

But if what Nunez says is right, if you really believe you have proof that the

security chief had him bumped off, well, then it points straight back at the

pill pushers.

Somebody didn't want him poking his nose any further into their business.

If Ciarán died because of me, then maybe somehow lead it too, then.

But that's just another on the long list of things I'm guilty of.

And as the judge pointed out yesterday, as many of them, in fact, have pointed

out over the weary years, I have brought nothing but trouble down on everybody

and everything that I've involved myself with.

And I can't make amends for that, but I can show that I'm sorry.

Go have to do that to find the peace they're looking for

It's

been a great story yet, I mean I lived it and I can barely believe in myself

that's missing is the big finish