Katie and David returned in Finger’s car to Garda headquarters, where they gave lengthy statements about what had occurred.  By then the police at the scene of the crime had sent specialists down to the shoreline and found the bodies of two men in the Land Rover. A coroner would later report that both men had broken necks and backs from the fall but that the cause of death was drowning.
         Driver’s license I.D.s gave their names as Frank Doyle and Billy Gallagher, but a check of the Land Rover’s registration showed the SUV had been stolen the day before. 
         “Our files show both men had criminal records,” said Finger, “mostly robbery, stealin’ cars, but nothin’ like attempted murder. Now I guess we’ll never find out who put them up to it, unless your driver Darby knows.”
         “Did you find him yet?” asked Katie.
         “Within minutes. He was running into the village, but we got him before he made it. His real name is Kevin Kearney and he lives here in Dublin, works as a cabbie and other odd jobs. Says he knew nothin’ whatsoever about the attempt on your life. Says he was just hired to drive you out there, and when he got the phone call on the road, the person told him to drop you off and leave you the car.”
         “So his story about his sick kid was just made up,” said David. “You believe he doesn’t know who hired him?
         “We’ll go over his story a dozen more times, but I suspect whoever planned this job wanted as few people as possible to know about the whole scenario. The two lads dragged out of the Bay were probably just hirees, too. It’s hard for me to believe that if this job was ordered by someone in the clergy that they have their own professional hit men on the payroll.”
Well, you know we’re supposed to leave tomorrow for the States, but if you need us, I guess we can stay on for another couple of days.”
         Katie felt a chill run through her. The two muggings and this attempted murder had increased her anxiety to the point where she wanted to be out of Ireland as soon as possible, lest another attempt be made on her life.
       "If you absolutely need us to stay for just a day or two,” she said, “I’ll do so only under police protection, Max. Your surveillance didn’t work well enough to prevent us from almost being killed today.”
         "Granted. We’ll arrange for you two to stay someplace completely safe as soon as you leave this office, and you’ll have twenty-four hour security.”
         Katie and David agreed to stay for another day or two—“I promise it won’t be more than that,” said Finger—and David added, “And what if someone in this department is part of the plan to eliminate us? He or they could still get to us.”
        "I'll make sure the men we choose as security have had nothin’ to do with this case so far. You’re good with that, Michael?”
         Horan nodded and said, “I’ll pick them myself, Inspector, with your help, of course.” He then opened a drawer in his desk and took out the handcuffs David had used on the second mugger, handing them over and saying, “Just in case.” 

         “Okay,” said Finger, “so let’s get you into your new home for the next couple o’ days.”
         Katie and David left by a rear door and were put into an unmarked car. David knew that there would already be Garda cars stationed along the route to wherever they were going. That turned out to be a two-bedroom apartment in a safe house on the south side of the Liffey, not far from Merrion Park (right). When Finger pulled in front of the building, David noticed two other unmarked cars that were clearly security men parked at either end of the street. Upon entering the building the Americans were greeted by a plainclothesman who would be on an eight-hour shift, one of three throughout the next two days. He said the Americans could order pretty much anything they wanted to eat and drink and it would be brought to the apartment.
         The rooms, which overlooked the street, were sparse but not uncomfortable—a kitchenette with eating space, a living room with a couch, coffee table and TV and two bedrooms with queen-size beds. David noticed immediately that the windows, which had heavy curtains, had double panes of bullet-proof glass.
         “This works for us,” he said. “Katie and I will have plenty of time to go over every detail of the case. So, Max, you’ll come to us if you need information?”
         Finger nodded and said, “I don’t think we’ll be botherin’ you too much. And with those two blokes dead in the water, I doubt very much you’ll be needin’ to come back to Dublin to testify against Darby or whatever his name is.”
          Everyone shook hands, Finger left and David said, “I’m suddenly starving.”
er out for a proper curry and a pint?” asked Katie with a put-on brogue.
         “Bonny idea!” said David. “Do they say that in Ireland?”
         “I haven’t heard anyone say it here. I think you’d better save it for Scotland.”

         While eating the curry and drinking Irish beers, Katie and David went over the day’s events.
         “I’m still trying to figure out if whoever it was who sent those goons after us knew we were leaving Dublin tomorrow or not,” said David. “because that’s what they wanted us to do all along. But the drastic measures they took today seem all out of proportion to an attempt to get us on a plane.”
         “Hey, I didn’t think trying to slice my face up was just a friendly urging,” said Katie. “The thing is, if they didn’t know we had the files, then it seemed they just wanted to make sure we left the country so we wouldn’t get any closer to the Network. And if they had found out we had the files they had to assume we were smart enough to have made copies.”
         “Yeah, but if they had found out,  it was because someone in the Garda offices told them. And if they did, killing us off might serve to keep those files hidden away at police headquarters as well as prevent you from going back home and blowing the lid off the whole operation.”
         “Jesus, then does that mean they might try to kill us when we get back to the States?”
         David did not want to say he thought the killers would probably only be interested in Katie, not him, once back in the States.
         “Anything’s possible, but if you can start writing a first draft, even if it’s incomplete, about what you’ve found out and been through, you can get it to Alan Dobell as soon as we land. You’ve got the next two days and, what?, eight hours on the plane back? Once you write the story, there’s nothing more anyone can do. Plus, hey, gangsters don’t usually kill reporters in the States.”
        "I hope you're right  but I’m not so sure about these renegade priests and their network. They’ve got a whole lot to lose.”
        "You have their names in the files, Alan has them, the police have them, and so does Owen Dugan, maybe Liddy. The Network has its back to the wall and are probably scared shitless at this point.”
            "So you think I need to dig deeper into this whole cesspool?”
         “I do, Katie. I think Max is going to the mat for us and that Horan’s turned a corner.  The intimidation went too far for him to stand aside. Still, he’s got his superiors and the Church hovering above him. Hard to say how far he and Max will get. Want another beer?”
         “No, I better get to work on that first draft.”