The Broken Shore by Catriona King Page B

life. He says he didn’t kill Veronica Jarvis and I believe him. He told us about Wasson informing on the IRA and it made sense that someone was protecting him. He implied it was MI5 or us, but I need to find out more from MI5 on that. What doesn’t make sense is why Mulvenna was chosen for the frame-up when he hadn’t been active here for nearly two years. He’d been in America, so what brought his name to the fore just at that time, for a type of crime he’d never committed?”
    Craig stared at the ground and John recognised the signs. He was about to say something completely left of field. He didn’t disappoint him.
    “What if Mulvenna’s frame-up had a personal motive?”
    Liam and Andy frowned and John smiled. It was just what he’d been thinking.
    “You mean someone who hated him, hey?”
    “Well, there were plenty back then who fitted that description. He’d killed sixteen of us.”
    “Had he killed anyone else, Liam?”
    “Who do you mean? Civilians?”
    “Yes.”
    Liam thought for a minute and then slowly shook his head. “Nope. All his kills wore a uniform. He probably regarded them as fair game.” He drew his hand despairingly down his face. “Oh hell. That opens the door to all the peelers’ kids taking revenge. It’ll be like looking for a needle in a haystack!”
    “I agree. If Mulvenna was framed because of hatred we could have a list of suspects a mile long, but…”
    “But now you don’t think he was framed, Marc? Make your mind up. I’m getting wild confused here, hey.”
    “He was framed all right, but maybe not because someone hated him.”
    “Expedience, Marc?” Then John saw where he was heading. “Love? You think he was framed because someone loved him?”
    “Andy, you’ve seen him. Even as a man I could tell that he was handsome, couldn’t you?”
    Andy shot Liam a wary glance and then nodded. “At the risk of Cullen here starting on about cross-dressing and scented candles again, yes, I could. He looked like that actor, Richard Gere, when he was young.” He took Mulvenna’s photograph out of the file so they could all see what he meant. “He looks the same now, only a bit greyer around the gills.”
    Liam grinned and Andy put the photo away hastily as Craig restarted.
    “And if charm could be bottled he’d make a fortune. I think he was framed in 1983 by someone who loved him.”
    “Because he’d rejected them?”
    “Possibly, or because they wanted rid of him and he wouldn’t let go.”
    “Male or female?”
    Craig was momentarily surprised by John’s question. He hadn’t thought any further than women but John was right. In the Northern Ireland of 1983 being gay would have been seen as something to hide. A weakness in a chauvinistic country full of hard men. Maybe Mulvenna was gay. He hadn’t specified if the person he’d been in love with had been a man or woman, just referred to ‘them’. What if he’d been having a gay relationship with someone who didn’t want to be found out? Homosexual acts had been illegal in the province until 1982 so it made sense. But so did his other theory.
    “Maybe gay, or maybe a woman who had too much to lose.”
    “Married? An angry husband who caught her out?”
    “Anything’s possible. But what if whoever it was saw an opportunity to get Mulvenna out of their life and frame a terrorist at the same time. It’s a win, win all round and no-one was going to cry for Mulvenna. Let’s take the simple route and say he was framed by a man or woman who was his lover in ’83. That should narrow the field for us as bit. Add in that it’s someone with a vested interest in protecting an MI5 informant and what does that leave us?”
    He looked at them all expectantly, knowing that John had leapfrogged his train of thought and hit the answer in one. Craig shook his head imperceptibly at him; he wanted to see what conclusion Liam and Andy reached on their own. Liam gawped openly as realisation dawned and he blurted it