Page 24 of Calling Frank O'Hare

They’d been going together for a year before Eve told him her dad was a cop. He didn’t blame her. The RUC weren’t exactly flavour of the month and loose talk cost lives, on both sides. But one day she just came out with it. Maybe it had taken that long to build herself up to it. More likely, it had taken that long for her to trust him. They were officially on opposite sides, after all. She made him promise not to say anything. Not that he was going to. His family weren’t like that. They kept themselves very much under the radar and tried not to get involved. She’d only told him, she said, because she wanted him to understand why they needed to keep everything low key. They couldn’t draw attention to themselves. Her daddy wouldn’t like it. She never said what it was exactly that her daddy wouldn’t like – them going together, or his profile being raised – and Frank didn’t ask. In hindsight, he wished he had.

They reached a pretty village called Ullapool. Frank followed the van into a campsite on the shores of the loch. This was the place they were staying for the night, if they had room. He waited in the car while Finn went in to enquire. When he came out and did the thumbs up, Frank nearly wept with joy. It didn’t matter that he’d be sleeping in the campervan again tonight, he’d be clean and he’d be able to wash his clothes. He might even get a signal on his shite phone. Right now, this was a good as civilisation got.

The campsite delivered as promised. They’d showered and shaved and done a laundry wash and dry. Finn had also emptied out and topped up all that was needed to keep them going for several days. So in the space of a few hours they were clean and presentable, and ready to venture out. Except that first they had to make some calls.

Frank had already tried Netta’s phone but it had gone to voicemail. After another unsuccessful attempt, he left a message to tell her the plan and said he’d try her again in the evening. He took a picture of the loch and sent it to her: ‘We’re in Ullapool and we have Martin.’He added a smiley face to make it look more cheery.

When he got back to the van, Finn and Martin were debating who they should call with their news, Siobhan or Ma. In the end, they decided Ma was the lesser of two evils. They also decided it should be Frank who called. Frank tried to back out of it but they were adamant, it would be better coming from him.

‘Use my phone, not that ould brick of yours.’ Finn pressed dial and handed it over.

To Frank’s relief, it was Da that answered the phone.

‘Hello, Da. It’s Frank. I’m calling with some good news. We’ve got Martin.’ It was only after he’d said it that Frank realised he sounded like an SAS man reporting back on a special mission.

‘Hello, son. That’s grand. Your ma will be happy. She’s away to the shops right now. Will I tell her you’ll call back?’

The other two shook their heads. They could hear every word on account of Da being a bit deaf these days and thinking it necessary to shout down the phone.

‘Ach, the signal’s bad here, we might not be able to. I just thought you’d want to know we’ve got him and he’s safe. And we’re going on a trip, the three of us.’

‘A trip? What kind of a trip?’

‘Just along the coast for a wee while, Da. No more than a week. We’ll put him on the plane home after that.’

‘Good man. Your ma said we could rely on you, Francis.’

That was a statement Frank never expected to hear. ‘Well it was Finn really, Da.’

‘Finn? Aye. Quite the transformation there, what? I hope he’s holding up okay. Poor wee fella. Would you put Martin on, son?’

Martin took the phone and walked away to the loch. By the look on his face, Da wasn’t giving him too hard a time.

‘Da said he hoped you were holding up,’ said Frank.

‘Ach, Uncle Gerry’s always looked out for me,’ said Finn.

‘What did he mean?’

Finn glanced up at him. ‘You’re not the only one who’s lost someone, Frank.’

Martin’s return put paid to finding out who Finn had lost. Frank would have to wait for another opportunity to ask his cousin who was now staring at the loch with an expression Frank couldn’t make out.

In contrast, his brother was looking mighty pleased with himself. ‘All sorted. Da’s going to square it with Ma.’

‘And Siobhan?’ said Frank.

‘Ah to hell with Siobhan. Bossy ould cow. There’s a woman who’s had too much time on her hands since her divorce. She’s probably the one who put Bronagh up to it. They’ve been thick as thieves since she became newly single.’ Martin did the air quotes thing when he said newly single.

Finn smiled. ‘You could do with being more in touch with your feminine side, Marty.’

‘Or even just being more in touch with the real world,’ added Frank.

He and Finn laughed at their little joke. It wasn’t that funny but it cut the tension. All the same, Frank had this inexplicable feeling that he was somehow to blame for Finn’s loss, which was ridiculous. How could he be when he hadn’t seen Finn for years? That didn’t shake the feeling though. Because if it wasn’t Finn’s loss he was responsible for, it had to be something else.

17

Siobhan gets a bad ache

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