66 THE NEWYORKER, DECEMBER 13, 2021
on the ground, looked b ack at Noonan.
“Pick. I t. Up.”
Noonan released him from her grip
and the boy reached down and picked
up the cap. As she snatched it from his
hand, he skittered out of her reach and
straightened his rumpled top.
“You can’t just be grabbing people
for no reason,” he said, brave and in-
dignant now that Noonan had let
him go.
Noonan looked at Swift, at the boy’s
fri ends. She s tepped u p t o t he b oy.
“You k now well w hat you d id,” she
said. “And you know I know. Have some
fuck ing re spect for yourself.”
She p ut h er cap b ack on, n odded a t
Swift, and turned on h er h eel.
“What the hell was that about?”
Swift asked when they were back in
the car.
“Let’s get this done,” she said, put-
ting t he car i nto gear.
T
here w as a l arge oval g re en a t t he
center o f t he G len G ardens estate.
Several teen-agers were punting a ball
around beneath the lunar glow of the
park lamps, and a couple more were
sprawled in the grass spectating, a lit-
tle n est o f b ags a nd s oft -drink bottles
next t o t hem.
“See that?” Noonan said. “Any money
there’s d ri nk i n t hem b ottles.”
“Want to ruin their night?” Swift
asked.
“Tonight, t hey’re off the hook.”
Once they’d persuaded Mullally to
let them come in, Noonan got a glimpse
inside the sitting room as they passed
down the hall. It was bathed in the light
of a TV, and the little girl, longer-limbed
now, was curled in a chair staring at an
iPad. Mullally brought them through
to the kitchen. She was still perilously
skinny, her hair up in a pineapple, the
tendons in her neck flexing like high-
tension wires when she spoke. Noonan
gave a careful, broad outline of the
events at the farm: Judge’s apparent
scheme to rob the oil tank, the resi-
dents confronting him. She said that
he had been shot and was not any more
explicit a bout h is i njuri es b eyond de-
scribing them as extremely serious. This
time, Mull ally d id n ot s hout o r rant.
She absorbed what Noonan told her
without interruption. She did not de-
bate o r re fute t he narrative Noonan laid
out. All she asked was if Dylan was
going to die. Noonan reiterated that he
had been taken to Castlebar General,
and that that was as much as they could
tell her right now.
Noon an a nd Swift stayed put while
Mullally rang her mother, who came
over to look after the daughter. Mul-
lally agreed to let Swift accompany her
to t he h ospital.
Back at the station, the inspectors’
unmarked Focus was parked out front.
Noonan p ick ed u p t he cafetière from
her desk and brought it into the sta-
tion’s poky little kitchen. Crean was in
there, mugs l aid o ut on t he c ounter,
meditative ly w atch ing t he k ettle rattle
to a b oil.
“Castlebar’s finest i n w ith t hose two?”
Noon an a sked.
Crean came out of his thoughts,
cracked a faint smile.
“They have me fetching the tea
while they work their magic,” he said,
pouring the water from the kettle
into the mugs. “Did you talk to the
family?”
“The girlfriend. Swift is gone with
her t o C astlebar General.”
“The two will want your report the
secon d i t’s d on e.”
“I’m getting on that right now,” she
said, waving the cafetière at him.
Crean stood back so that Noonan
could access the counter. He watched
her refill the kettle, rinse o ut t he cafetière,
and dump in a couple of spoonfuls of
instant coffee.
“You know, there’s bags of beans you
can get for that thing,” he said. “Ground,
whole, vanill a, real fancy stuff.”
“I k now. I see them every time I’m
in Tesco.”
“And you n ever b other w ith t hem?”
Noon an c on sidere d t he cafetière, its
chipped s ilver handle and scratched
glass body. It was Trevor who had bought
it for h er years ago, under the charac-
teristically generous misapprehension
that it might inspire in her an enthu-
siasm for something more than the
cheapest o f cheap coffee.
“I just never go t around to it. Every
time I s ee t he f ancy s tuff i n t he s uper-
mark et, I t hink, Ah, n ext t ime, and the
next t ime I t hink t he s ame.”
“Word came back from the hospi-
tal,” Crean said.
“O.K.,” Noonan said.“J udge w as j ust o ut o f s urge ry w hen
I s pok e t o t hem. Doctors s aid i t’ll be
touch and go the next couple of days,
but it’s looking like he might pull
thro ugh.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I a m n ot.”
The kettle came to a boil. Noonan
placed her tailbone against the lip of
the c ounter.
“The f ucker,” she said, relieved and
appall ed. “ Oh, t he rotten l ittle f ucker.”
“I re ck on you might j ust h ave s ave d
that rotten l ittle f ucker’s life.”
“Stop,” Noonan groaned. “When we
were over at the girlfriend’s house, giv-
ing h er t he l owdown, the whole time
in t he b ack o f my h ead I k ept t hinking
how J udge h ad j ust a bout d on e h er t he
favor of her life, getting the guts shot
out o f h imself.”
“My condolences on his survival,”
Cre an s aid.
“I w as s ure h e w as a goner.”
“So was I when I saw the state he
was i n. B ut a s o f right now Dylan Judge
remains in the land of the living, thanks
to you.”
“Thanks t o me,” Noonan said with
a s hake o f h er h ead.
She filled the cafetière with hot
water and brought it back to her desk.
She knew the report would take her
some time. She had decided that what
she was going to do was get down the
most crucial d etails quick, by hand,
then go back and flesh the events out
on the computer. She sat down and
opened her notebook, reread the lit-
ter of harried notes she’d jotted down
over t he c ourse o f B ertie Creedon’s
phone call.
SHOOT
1 MAN
BERTY CREEDN
RATHRDN
MLLS TRN
3 L EFT
YELLOW H
92 F IAT
SON
1 SHOT
DUBL BRRL
BLEED
She poured a cup of coffee, turned
her notebook to a clean page, and began
to write. NEWYORKER.COM
Colin Barrett o n c ops a s o utsiders.