Old God's Time

At the police station, Fleming asks Tom about Father Byrne and Father Matthews. Tom explains that Byrne had been developing photographs of young boys naked. He and Billy planned to go and question him, but the chief commissioner instead gave the photos to the archbishop, McQuaid, to handle the issue internally. Nothing happened to Father Byrne, and Tom and Billy were furious.

Byrne now has a swimming pool that attracts local children. Fleming asks Tom’s advice for Wilson and O’Casey; Tom says they must gather evidence and ensure it is properly recorded before approaching anyone higher up. He wants them to succeed and hopes their investigation will set a precedent to make it easier for the police to get the next priest who abuses children. Tom says he investigated Byrne further by himself; he thinks Byrne was also abusing children in the confessional. Tom wonders how many lives Byrne ruined over the 30 years since his and Billy’s investigation was shut down.

Fleming then asks Tom about Father Matthews. Tom says he was like Byrne; they were a team. However, he didn’t hear anything more after the initial case was closed. Fleming says Tom must’ve forgotten: He and Billy were investigating officers on Matthews’s unsolved, violent death. Tom feels physically unwell as he suddenly remembers; he asks June’s forgiveness. Fleming reveals Wilson and O’Casey took Tom’s toothbrush to get a DNA sample. Tom asks about DS Scally; Fleming says she was killed on duty.

Back in his flat, Tom looks out the window and sees the neighbor’s two children dancing on the jetty. The girl pushes the boy into the sea. Tom rushes down, but when he arrives, there is no trace of either of them.

Tom runs to tell his neighbor about what he saw; she reassures him that her son Jesse is safe in bed, and she says her daughter is dead. She introduces herself as McNulty, which is her maiden name; she says she’s not sure if she’s a Miss or Mrs. now. She tells Tom that she would like his help since he is a retired detective. She explains the older man who visits is her father. Tom can hear the cellist next door playing and wonders what type of gun he has. Tom was a sniper in his army days in Malaya. He experienced nightmares afterward, but they subsided when he was back in Ireland.

McNulty tells Tom that she found out her husband had sexually abused their daughter after she died of internal injuries when she was six years old. However, the authorities took her husband’s word that he didn’t do it. She fled with Jesse in the middle of the night but is afraid that he might find them. Her father used to be in the army; he doesn’t know the full story but says he’ll kill McNulty’s husband if he shows up. Tom has flashbacks of seeing abused, incapacitated children; he’s not sure if they’re his memories or June’s. Tom advises McNulty to get a barring order and says he will keep an eye out for her; he still has two guns. Jesse appears in his pajamas and waves to him.

Tom goes to bed. He feels his nine months’ retirement is like a pregnancy—something is emerging. He thinks about how the police write up evidence to make it watertight; taking the toothbrush isn’t admissible in proper law.

He remembers that when Joe was seven, he pushed a girl into a pool, nearly drowning her. That was the only time Tom ever hit Joe; he and June had sworn not to hit their children like they’d been hit. He remembers the brother telling him that as a sex worker’s child, he was worthless.

Tom wakes in the night. He feels physically unwell and wonders if he’ll die. He imagines St. Peter and remembers closing his eyes and thinking of heaven as a child. He remembers reading to Joe at night, when he was afraid of witches. He struggled to fully understand Joe’s homosexuality. It reminded him of the brother’s abuse at the orphanage, though he knew it was different. However, with June’s support, he tried. He remembers visiting Joe in the United States and seeing that he was loved in his community; Tom felt enormous pride at Joe’s achievements and sense of self. He remembers when Joe left Ireland for the last time for his doctor’s practice in the desert in New Mexico. At the airport, Tom told him he loved him and would always be his father.

For the next few weeks, Tom watches Tomelty gardening from the window; he reminds Tom of June, who’d created their beautiful garden. It was a bad sign when she stopped tending it. This thought prompts him to think that he needs to keep his mind in check, like men in the army used to. Many of them were abused as children, so the army was a relief in comparison. He thinks of the helplessness of the children in church-run institutions and of the brothers doing what they pleased. He remembers his anger at the Byrne and Matthews case being closed; he came home and vented to June. However, June realized at that time that Father Matthews was the priest who abused her, and she broke down.

In the present, Tom stops smoking his cigarillos. He wants to live long enough to see what happens, like a child emerging from a forest in a myth.