Bitter Burn novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Tyson's Price

Tyson did not stop the truck.

He rolled past the end of Bridie's lane at walking pace, looked at me through the windshield, and drove on.

I stood there in the cold with my husband's collar in my pocket and understood that I had just been shown a card.

Finbar was gone by then, around the bend and out of sight.

I did not know whether he had gone to Sabine Orr's car or to the water or to my father's door.

I did not know anything.

On Thursday morning Tyson found me at the yard.

I had gone there on purpose, to be seen at work, to let the crews watch the widow sort the payroll.

I sat in my father's old office at the top of the dock, with the window open to the cranes.

The door opened without a knock.

He came in and closed it behind him.

Two of his men stayed outside, and I saw their shapes through the frosted glass.

"Morning, Siobhan," Tyson said.

He sat on the corner of the desk, uninvited, and picked up my pen.

"I saw him," he said.

"I don't know who you mean."

"Your husband.

"Tuesday, no, Wednesday, down that gravel lane, in a yellow coat that wasn't his.

"Walking pretty well, for a dead man."

I kept my face still.

"You're seeing ghosts."

"I took a picture."

He turned his phone around.

On the screen, small and grainy, Finbar walked away from the boathouse with his hands in his pockets.

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