One Hundred Names (Special Edition)

which, but did our night out get you into trouble, Kitty?’ he said smugly. ‘The last time I annoyed Steve Jackson was when I accidentally knocked his pint over you in the college bar so you can be sure I know exactly who it is that came after me and why.’
    ‘Steve? Steve did this to you?’
    ‘Are you going to pretend you didn’t know about that like you pretended you didn’t know a whole pile of other things on
Thirty Minutes
? I don’t have much more time to waste on this so, my jacket?’
    Kitty wanted to punch his other eye but she was so shocked by his behaviour and the revelation that Steve had hit him that she simply unlocked the door, retrieved his jacket from the couch where she’d thrown it and brought it back to him.
    ‘Never come here again,’ she said firmly as she handed it back.
    He gave her an amused look as he slithered down the stairs. ‘Hold on,’ he paused and came back up the stairs. ‘My USB, where is it?’
    ‘What USB?’
    ‘It must have been in my pocket. It’s what I’m here for. My novel is on it.’ He suddenly came over all worried little schoolboy as he stood before her, checking the pockets in a panic.
    ‘Well, I don’t have your USB so perhaps you should ask the dry-cleaners about it. Maybe they put it through the steamer for you.’
    He genuinely looked panicked about that. ‘Seriously, have you got it? It’s the only version I have.’
    ‘Well, you should have backed it up.’ She folded her arms, enjoying watching him suffer.
    ‘That was my back-up, my computer crashed … shit! Kitty, have you got it?’ he asked desperately. ‘Seriously, have you got it?’
    ‘No,’ she said firmly, the anger returning. ‘I do not have your stupid novel, nor do I want it. Please do not come one step near me ever again or I’ll call the police,’ and she slammed the door in his face.
    She sat at the kitchen table, head in her hands, taking in deep breaths, slowly in and out, going over their conversation so many times that she wanted to open the door and challenge him once again, properly this time.
    Finally she had a moment of clarity. She walked to the couch where she had thrown Richie’s jacket before leaving to stay in Sally’s house, and she searched around the floor, then the couch, then, when she didn’t find anything, she felt around the cushions. Her hand hit something. She pulled out the cushion and laughed as she was faced with Richie’s USB.
    ‘Payback time,’ she said.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
    Kitty and Archie sat in the Brick Alley Café in Temple Bar in silence. He held a cup of tea in his hand, she a mug of coffee, and they sat half-turned in their stools, facing one another so that they could see the rest of the café behind them. The mousy woman arrived a little after 8 a.m., on cue as usual, stayed for twenty minutes, drank a pot of tea and ate a fruit scone with butter and jam, as she always did, and then she paid and left. Kitty was the first to hop off her stool. Archie was a little more hesitant.
    ‘Come on,’ she said, and he grudgingly stood as if a child scorned by his mother. ‘Hurry.’ She rushed him along out of the café and on to the street while he shuffled his feet behind her. ‘We’ll lose her.’
    By the time they got outside with all of Archie’s faffing around there was no sign of the woman either end of the street. ‘Ah, Archie, we’ve lost her. You did this on purpose. I should have made you approach her inside.’
    ‘You can’t make me do anything,’ he said firmly. ‘And we haven’t lost her.’ He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned left, walking without purpose up the road, as if he had all the time in the world.
    ‘But she’s not here. What do you mean, we haven’t lost her? Why are you walking like that? Archie, believe me, I have enough going on in my life right now without having been dragged here to be fooled.’ She continued her rant while he walked and eventually she fell into a silence and just walked with him, thinking of all the things she could have done that morning that would have been far more beneficial. When they took a sharp right and another right on to the quays they saw her crossing the Halfpenny Bridge.
    ‘There she is!’ Kitty exclaimed, grabbing his arm excitedly.
    Archie didn’t seem at all surprised.
    ‘You’ve followed her before,’ she accused him, eyes narrowing.
    He didn’t respond.
    ‘How many times?’
    ‘Once or twice.’
    ‘Where does she go?’
    ‘See