Unpardonable Sin--11

1

Ending of chapter six2

Belfast, Northern Ireland 19693

Tom Devlin groaned as he looked up from where he lay on the narrow cot.4

A full-face grin was Emanon O'Neill’s trademark and he rarely lost it. But now his blue eyes were shadowed with concern and a frown stiffened his young features. "That ice doing some good?"5

"It is,” Tom agreed and then added, “The booze is doing some better." His voice echoed a rasping pain the whiskey had numbed but not destroyed.6

"Ya keep nipping at this, lad, you'll be pissin' and bellerin' the whole bloody night," Emanon warned.7

"O'Donnell have the ass over me?" Tom worried as he reached for the bottle to take a healthy swig. 8

"Him so stony drunk. Sure he can't find his own cobs let alone be missing yours. Long as the bar's covered he ain't asking by who." Emanon paused to remove the soggy towels from Tom’s body. He wrung them out, refilled them with fresh ice, and gently replaced them on his friend's bruised flesh. "You'd best see a GP."9

"Forget that." Tom cut him short. Shaking as the chill from the ice crept over him he forced himself to ask, "Hear any word on Rory?"10

"Sure, but don't they have him cold. That lad won't be seeing the sun in this lifetime. My pa claims he should be in hospital but a doc passed him fit for detention."11

"And you'd have me see one?"12

"Tell him you were in a brawl . . ."13

A high pitch scream brought instant silence.14

Recovering first, Emanon tore from the room as Tom staggered after him.15

Colin O'Donnell lurched by the youths. The owner of the pub reeked of liquor and sweat. “Where the fuck you been.” His meaty hand rose towards Tom as if to strike him. He was too drunk to follow through and Tom ducked by. Ignoring his brother-in-law’s curses, he followed Emanon to where the scream originated. 16

The cellar door stood ajar and he could see Seamus O’Donnell kneeling with Beth’s head in his lap. Dark blood discolored Tom’s sister’s fair hair as it bubbled out from her scalp.17

"Mummie?" was a whimper at Tom’s back. The three-year-old boy stood naked dripping water from his bath.18

Glancing up from his kneeling position on the cellar floor Seamus O'Donnell yelled, "Tom, get the nipper away!"19

Tom could only stand half bent from his own pain and stare down at his injured sister and plead, “What happened! Sweet Jesus what happened!”20

Emanon O’Neill scooped up Tom’s tiny nephew. Hugging him tightly he lied without knowing. "Sean's mommy took a spill--she'll be fine."21

"Sean's mummie faugh 'own?" Little Sean O’Donnell giggled as Emanon tickled his plump belly. 22

***23

Less then a week later, Tom Devlin was still numb from the three-day ritual required to put his sister in her grave. He slumped in his chair and toyed with a half empty pint of Guinness—his third in less than an hour. He tried to focus on what the tall copper haired youth was saying. It seemed to Tom that Seamus O’Donnell had been talking and thinking for them all for days. 24

Seamus had ordered, “Beth fell. That’s all we tell the RUC. Them bully boys got so many problems right now we’ll sucker ‘em easy.”25

At first it had seemed wrong to Tom. They were not going to tell the police the truth. Not going to tell them Beth’s husband had shoved her. 26

“You didn’t see nothing. Emanon saw nothing. I was right there. It was an accident. But the peelers won’t see it that way,” Seamus said. “I ain’t hanging my own brother. It won’t bring Beth back and it ain’t right her weans knowing the truth. Colin ran like the ass he is.”27

Emanon seemed to agree, at any rate he didn’t argue, so Tom didn’t either. Now Seamus was constructing a plan for the two little boys Beth’s death and Colin’s desertion left orphans.28

Just on nineteen Seamus O'Donnell tilted his chair surveying his friends’ faces as he said, "This pub's a money maker. With the following of that new bartender Beth hired, filling the place, and Colin not around to drink up the profits, we’ll do fine." 29

Emanon O'Neill leaned across the old bar tracing the pattern of its countless scratches as he grumbled, "You, lad, are begging for some damn rough going." He stroked a beardless chin as if in troubled thought. "With studies, tending ta business, sure, what's to be done with the little blokes times we're at classes?"30

"I've a thought on that. Seems between the three of us we can generate enough female companionship to see us through. Lasses, our age, why they've a natural instinct for mothering."31

“Seamus, you’re bloody daft!" Emanon yelped. “You'd have us courting just to attract baby tenders. Sure, and where's all this energy ta come from?" 32

Unlike Tom Devlin, Emanon O’Neill had taken the pledge never to drink before dark; on this rainy afternoon, Tom watched him break it. The Stout went down easy. Emanon drew another before he came round the turn of the bar.33

Seamus whistled. "I'm not for bedding everyone. Most won't be willing no how." Then he chuckled. "All we got to do is get them interested. Fine looking little chaps and motherless. Before long we'll have to assign visiting rights." The tall good-looking youth imparted confidence. He had a style that allowed few arguments. Tom met him through Emanon several years before but they’d never been true friends. When fate decreed they become related through marriage, they both tried but the same closeness each shared with Emanon O’Neill never developed between them. 34

“Jack Walsh will handle the bar—I have his word on that. Two small boys won’t present that much of a problem. All we have to do is see they're clean and fed and they don't get damaged. We'll make a list of the most likely girls." Seamus apparently conceded that his friends should have some say in the selection.35

"Nina Farrell?" Tom felt obliged to propose something.36

With the mention of Nina, Emanon’s grin resurfaced. Then Seamus shook his head no and Emanon frowned like he'd been slugged. "But I've a liking for that luv."37

“Too pretty," Seamus said.38

"Well, if it's the ugly wenches we're to be looking to." Emanon’s eyes frosted. "That being your plan? I'm about to say no deal."39

"We can't be bothering with those that are too much the lady.” Seamus lightly rapped Emanon on the forehead with heel of his palm. “Can you picture Nina if the babe was to spit porridge on her fancy blouse? She'd never come back. It would be time wasted on her."40

Emanon was forced to grant this was a definite consideration. Tom snickered and sucked at his stout as Emanon decided, "We'll draw up a list of requirements for our targets," and Seamus nodded in agreement.41

Looks they all contended were essential.42

"Intelligence?" Tom's proposal was quickly voted down.43

"If they're smart, they won't come." Emanon's grin bedeviled his features. "Best they show a bit of the bitch. I'm not about ta go through all this hassle and end up sweating it out with 'Dame five fingers' every night. Now the Davitt sisters--they're prime. Nearly got it on with Emily last time. Save on petrol if we have to drive them home."44

Tom Devlin chuckled with his friends but it was only on the surface. Fear was a constant companion now that even the death of his sister couldn’t drive from his mind. Quietly he thanked God, out of habit not belief, that his friends had chosen this course. He still had a job and a place to live. Emanon's father, solicitor Mr. Liam O'Neill, had done his best to convince the youth he was not a wanted criminal. Still, remembrances of the cell and the sounds coming from the interrogation room, remained wide-awake nightmares. Tom knew once a Catholic lad was pegged by the RUC they wouldn't forget him.45