Something in the Way You Move [O'J]

Speaking with the Commissioner

Danny's POV

I follow the Garda officer, an Inspector, according to her badge, out to a car. She has me sit in the back and says, "We'll be going to the Gardaí headquarters in Phoenix Park so you can speak with the Commissioner. Your brother is already there." I nod once and we set out. About half an hour later, we stop in front of the headquarters. The Inspector gets out and leads me inside.

"Thank you, Inspector Sullivan," the Commissioner says as we enter a large room that is undoubtedly used as an interrogation room. "You may go now." Inspector Sullivan turns on her heels and walks smartly out of the room. The Commissioner turns to me and holds out his hand. "Martin Callinan, current Commissioner of the Gardaí," he introduces himself.

I shake his hand. "Daniel O'Donoghue, sir."

"No need for formalities, Daniel, not at this hour." He gestures to a seat and I drop down into it. "Now, I understand you are the one whom originally found Branna O'Doherty, according to your brother. Is that correct?"

"Is Dara in trouble?" I ask, suddenly aware that he could be in a very similar situation. "It's not his fault he didn't call you earlier, I wouldn't let him."

"Sergeant O'Donoghue is not currently in trouble, no." I sigh with relief. "Now, back to the question, you found her first?"

"Yes. Found her in a London alleyway walking back from the pub one night and called a friend to give her a place to stay."

"And what time was this?"

"I'd wager about one in the morning or so."

"Were you sober?"

"Maybe a bit tipsy, but not plastered."

"So why not bring her back to your house?"

"She was scared of me. Terrified."

"So who was your friend, then?"

"Jessie J. She lived a few streets over from where I found her and we brought her back there. I crashed there and in the morning we called my sister to come and check her out. My sister found out then that she's been abused---her stomach was black with bruises, she said."

"So what did you do then?"

"Well, we decided to take care of her, since we didn't want her out on the streets. I took her back to mine so..."

"So...what?"

"Erm, so Jessie could get ready."

"For?"

"A date." Here we go, basically telling the Commissioner that she and I are together. I'm never going to hear the end of this if Jessie finds out.

"I see. Did she ever try to run off?"

"No, but she did try to get us to let her go, to let her live on the streets so we wouldn't be in danger or in trouble. She knew she was a missing person and didn't want us to get blamed if we were caught hiding her."

"So what did you do then?"

"Well, eventually we talked her into staying and told her we didn't care if we got in trouble. It was obvious she didn't want to go back there."

"And how did you come about to bringing her back here? What was the reason for that?"

"Well, she told me that there were others in her predicament that she had promised to free---like other children, I mean. She also said that there were flashdrives with photographs of the beatings so one man could send the others the pictures if they were travelling, or whatever. So we came here---we were already coming so I could see my family for my birthday, actually---and we schemed with the rest of my siblings to get the flashdrives and the kids out safely."