The Curse of Medusa

Danny looked at Lea and then to Mikey. “She has a point…”

Mikey smiled broadly. “Just sayin’…”

Kyle looked at Mikey and shook his head. “All right, so where are we at?”

“Where we’re at,” Lea said, “is that we need some help.”

Kyle nodded. “Some muscle, you mean?”

“Call it what you like, but we need it.”

“And you do owe me, Mikey,” Devlin said. “You’ll recall that little problem you had with those Roach muppets in Tyrone…”

Mikey looked embarrassed. “Sure, and I’m a man of my word, Danny. You shall have your help.”

“We don’t even know what they want yet!” Kyle said.

Mikey got serious. “It doesn’t matter what they want, Kyle. I gave the man here my word. So Danny, what is it you want?”

“Lea can answer that better than I can.”

Mikey poured more whiskey. “The floor is yours, Miss Donovan.”

Lea took a breath. “It’s like this… when I was a child my father was murdered right in front of my eyes. We were walking together out on the coast. He was going to teach me how to take a photograph. I had to go back to the car to get something for the camera, and when I got back he was gone. My father was there one minute, looking after me, and the next I was alone. They found his body at the bottom of the cliffs and ruled suicide.”

“So how can we help?” Kyle said quietly.

“It was no suicide, Mr Byrne,” she said. “I saw a man running from the cliffs. He was dressed in black from head to foot — he looked weird. I can’t tell you how, but there was something about that man. He pushed my father off the cliff, I just know it in my heart.”

“But you didn’t see it happen?” Mikey said.

Lea shook her head. “My father never threw himself off a four hundred-foot cliff while he was looking after me, Mr O’Sullivan. He was a loving, kind man — a doctor who dedicated his life to healing people. If he was going to do anything like that — which he never would have even considered — he would hardly have taken me along with him to watch, now, would he?”

“So why did they rule it a suicide?”

“Simple. I was a young girl and they decided I was an unreliable witness. They said I had imagined the man in black in my grief, but I saw him running before I even knew my father was dead. The man in black murdered my father, Mr O’Sullivan, I know it.”

“All right, I believe you. But I still don’t know why you’re talking to me.”

“Very recently I received information from a reliable source that an old friend of my father’s, a Sean McNamara, was brutally murdered in his home in Cork. Sean McNamara and my father had worked together on some kind of research relating to the medical industry a very long time ago.”

“What research is that?” Kyle said.

Lea shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. But I do know they were both killed for it, because before he died, McNamara sent a message saying he was killed by the same men who had killed Dad.”

“And now you want revenge?” Mikey said.

“I want to know who killed my father and Sean McNamara, yes…and revenge wouldn’t go amiss either, but what I want more than anything is my father’s life’s work — research files I never even knew existed until now, but now I know were the reason he was murdered by that bastard in black.”

Mikey gave an understanding nod and took more of the whiskey. “So where do we start?”

“My parent’s old holiday home on the west coast in Galway. It’s still ours, but no one’s been there for years. I think Dad’s research is hidden there somewhere.”

Mikey slammed his mug on the table and wiped his mouth. “Kyle, go and get some guns and any other treats you can think of. We’re going on a picnic to Galway.”

Kyle rose from the desk. “Sure thing, Mikey.”

He returned a few moments later with a look of concern on his face. “One thing’s already bothering me.”

“Speak up, Kyle!” Mikey said.

“Well…” As he spoke, he casually pulled a sawn-off shotgun from a sports bag and began to load it. “Thing is, we know these pricks have already killed twice, sure. But what bothers me is the quarter of a century gap between the two murders.”

Devlin nodded. “That’s what I’ve thinking about. It’s not your usual gangland hit or revenge murder. These guys are playing a long game, and are as cool as sea ice.”

“Whoever they are, they’ve had it now Mikey O’Sullivan is on the case!”

“If you say so, Mikey,” Kyle said sarcastically.

“I do, Kyle, I do.” Mikey rubbed his stomach and yawned.

“So let’s get going,” Devlin said, pushing back from the desk and finishing his whiskey.

Lea paused for a moment. This wasn’t just any old mission as far as she was concerned. This was something altogether different. This was about her father and she was already allowing her emotions to cloud her judgement. “Thanks, everyone, I really appreciate this.”

“Not at all,” Mikey said, patting her on the back and nearly knocking her over. “Come on Kyle! Get a move on!” He turned to Lea and lowered his voice. “Kyle’s a lazy shite. If there was work in the bed, he’d sleep on the floor — you know what I mean?”

Lea smiled. “So you’re both going to help then?”

“Sure,” Mikey said. “But there’s one condition.”