Page 74 of Calling Frank O'Hare

Finn broke the silence. ‘Poor Eve. No wonder she needed someone to talk to.’

Martin wiped his eyes. ‘Aye. She has no friends in London anymore. She must have been desperate to choose me, what?’

‘Don’t do yourself down like that, Marty. You’ve always been great to talk to. You’ve a lot of empathy skills,’ said Finn.

Empathy skills? The only time Frank had ever seen Martin use any empathy skills was when he was trying to get something out of someone. Or to get into their bed. He was great with the old empathy skills then. He stopped himself. This was getting out of hand and just a little bit petty. Wasn’t he a new man now, after all that shedding his old skin in the freezing cold water? New man Frank wouldn’t sully himself with such behaviour. New man Frank would strike while the iron was hot and ask the difficult questions. ‘Why has she no friends in London?’

‘Billy drove them away. He’s been bad since … but he’s been getting worse over the last five or so years.’ Martin was still speaking about Billy in the present tense, as if he still existed.

‘Do you know how he…’ Frank couldn’t say it. He couldn’t even think it.

‘Usual way. Pills and a bottle of this.’ Martin held up his glass. ‘He never did have a big imagination.’

Finn smiled. ‘Oh I don’t know, he was always coming up with big ideas about how he was going to make it.’

‘Yeah, but they were never the best ideas,’ said Frank. ‘Lacked imagination.’

‘That does sum Billy up, right enough,’ said Martin.

‘Did he leave a note?’ said Frank.

Martin shook his head. ‘No. Probably couldn’t think of anything to say. You need imagination for that.’

They laughed so much it could have been the funniest thing they’d heard in ages.

‘Does anyone else back home know about Billy?’ said Frank.

Martin shrugged. ‘I don’t know about the rest of the family, but Da knows.’

‘Sure, your da knows everything. He probably knows who really killed Kennedy,’ said Finn.

They laughed again at the ridiculousness and faint possibility of Da being in on that particular conspiracy theory.

‘Did Eve tell you about me and her?’ It was new man Frank that had pushed him to ask that question. Old man Frank almost didn’t want to know the answer.

‘No.’

‘How’d you find out then?’

For the first time since their fight, Martin looked Frank in the eye. ‘How d’yer think?’

Billy then. It must have been. ‘When did he tell you?’

‘Years ago. Before Ellen died,’ said Finn. ‘We were staying with them. We went to a bar with Eve. Billy was working and met us after. He was already tanked up when he got there. He was sniping at her straight away, and she was having a go back. It ended in a big row and we got thrown out. Eve was really mad at him and walked off. Billy took us to some back street drinking club. One of those really seedy ones, you know the sort. We had a few more drinks and that’s when he told us. We never let on to Eve that we knew though, did we Marty?’

‘No, we’ve kept your secret, Frankie Boy.’

The way Martin said it made Frank feel dirty. ‘So no one else knows?’

‘I didn’t say that. I just said we didn’t tell them.’

‘Who else knows then?’

‘Well Da, obviously.’

Of course he did. Da knew everything. Finn was probably right about that Kennedy thing too.

Finn topped up their glasses. ‘Come on now. Let’s take a dram for Billy before we run out. To our ould friend Billy Mac. Wherever you are now Billy, may your drinks be plentiful and your imagination never be lacking.’

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