Page 84 of Dublin's Danger Dancer

“And she devoted her whole life to taking care of me. So, again, it’s the 7 July 2002, you were at a bar with my sister.”

“She’s been dead for twenty years and you haven’t found the truth in all this time. What makes you think I’m going to give it to you?”

“Because I know you’re hiding something, and I’m going to make you suffer until you do give me the truth.”

Liam swallows hard. “We were out drinking me, your sister, Aaron, and a few of the other lads. We were just joking around, taking pictures. Aaron just got a new handheld video recorder and he was making a video of us doing stupid things.”

“Was this before or after you were arrested?”

“I can explain that. My da had a bent guard he has insert and then scrub the arrest. He was trying to protect us.”

“From going to prison for my sister’s murder? I know. So here you are doing stupid things with my sister. What happens next?”

“She’d had a lot of shots. She was trying to compete with one of the older lads in the group. Aaron wanted to get some shots of the water, so we went outside.” He stops.

“Go on.” I say dragging my finger over the ridge of the chisel.

“If I tell you the truth, what’s going to happen?” he asks.

“It depends on what the truth is,” I say.

He sucks in a shallow breath. “Your sister, she went down to the banks of the river with me and Aaron. Aaron was getting on his knees, trying to capture the best shot over the water.” He pauses.

“We should have told her not to come down to the water with us, but we were just kids. We didn’t really know what being drunk meant. And we liked Harriet. We looked up to her.”

“What happened at the water?” I ask.

“You have to remember we were eleven and fourteen at the time. We didn’t know.”

“Tell me what happened!” I scream.

“She slipped, Ciara. She slipped her head fell back. Suddenly there was blood all over the stone. And she wasn’t moving.” he says, his voice cracking.

He pulls at his cable ties, exhaling deeply “and?”

“And?” I ask

“And Aaron, and I. We ran away.” He closes his eyes.

“Open your fucking eyes and look at me, you piece of shit.”

He opens his eyes. I’m standing over him with the chisel nearing his eyeball.

“It’s the truth, Ciara. I can prove it to you.”

“I don’t believe a word you’re saying. She was murdered. This wasn’t an accident.”

“She slipped. It’s the truth. My da spread a rumour that she was murdered by the Albanians, but it was just to cover-up that Aaron and I ran away from the scene. You remember the night I was arrested? You remember how upset I was afterwards. I’ve always blamed myself. Wondered if I could have saved her.”

“Maybe you could have done, you fucking coward.” I spit, pushing the chisel towards his eye.

“Just do it. If you are going to do it. If someone left my brother like that. I would. Aaron has a video because he was videoing the whole thing. He still has it.”

“Why did he keep it?"

“I guess he kept it as insurance against my da. I know he still has it, he told me after I was arrested.”

“Where can I find it?”

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