Old God's Time

Tom catches the train to Dublin. He remembers fruitlessly investigating a young man’s body that was found without a mark in an unused tunnel. The train passes through places where he courted June; he feels overwhelmingly connected to the landscape and its history.

He gets off in Dublin and is assaulted by memories of a bomb attack in 1974. He and Fleming heard explosions and ran straight there. The gore and carnage contrasted with his imaginings of the people’s ordinary lives the second before. There were simultaneous attacks across the city, maiming and killing civilians. Later, at home, he and June felt thankful they and their children lived outside the city. He began shaking, though he never had in the army in Malaya. The doctor said it was different being so close to home.

At the police station, he chats with Dymphna, the competent, glamourous telephonist. Alone in the incident room, he feels panicked by the photos of him, Billy, and a number of priests he recognizes. The officers come back from break. He meets his replacement, DS Scally, who is the first female officer they’ve had. He privately thinks June would’ve been a good detective. They all chat cordially;