Paddy Farrell works the border, a place of sudden death, hijackings and illicit cash. Brendan’s backstreet Bureau de Change is the place to launder it, a world of rogue lawyers, nerve-shot policemen, and alcoholic judges. Nobody is saying that the law is paid off, but it is. Lorraine would say
afterwards that she was smitten straight off with Paddy. You could tell that he was occupying the room in a different way, he found the spaces that fitted him. She was the kind of girl the papers called vivacious, always a bit of dazzle to her. Could she not see there was death about him? Could he not see there was death about her?