“I was charged with assault. It’s hardly out of character.”
“Connor…” Sam sighed. “Go on. You’ll be in trouble if someone recognises you.”
Laurence gripped his arm, looking around them.
Connor paused just before he walked away. He glanced at Sam and hesitated. “Can I have your phone for a second?”
Sam dug it out of his pocket. Connor put in his new number and saved his contact information. “In case you want to talk,” Connor said, giving it back. Mary, of course, was far from happy, but that didn’t concern him.
He and Laurence headed back to the car park. Laurence rang Nick, who showed up after a few minutes with two brown paper bags tucked under his arm. He glanced between them with a puzzled look. “Finished already?”
“Finished,” Connor said before Laurence could tell him.
They hadn’t even shut the doors before Laurence swung around to Connor with his eyes shining. “I didn’t know you were that strong.”
Connor got the feeling that Laurence wouldn’t keep his mouth shut about this either way. His knuckles stung a little, and he stretched out his hand as he settled in place in the back. “Did you know them?”
Laurence shook his head. “They were talking about you, and I corrected them, and then we started arguing, and he just pushed me.”
Nick’s head jerked to Laurence. “Who pushed you?”
“An idiot,” Laurence said scornfully. “But Connor caught me! And he laid him out with one punch. It made this crack sound, and it wasawesome.”
Nick looked at Connor like he was an idiot. From a certain perspective, he was. But he didn’t regret it. “Your charge isn’t overturned yet, Connor. And it might not be. Adding another assault charge on top of that—”
“Is that Dad, I hear? I thought we left him at the house?” Laurence wondered.
“You—” Nick shot Laurence a vexed look. “Stop copying him.”
Laurence just grinned.
Nick turned to continue the lecture, and Laurence took out his phone to type into it. “He called me a stupid fag,” Laurence said. “You would have punched him, too.”
“What?” Nick’s voice rose in anger. “Who were they?” His head turned forward, and he looked out the windscreen at the people lingering around the fair.
“My blogger uploaded!” Laurence said, distracted. His expression changed from happy to confused. “Oh.”
“What is it?” Connor asked.
“Um… you should see this.” Laurence offered his phone to Connor.
Connor scanned the page, reading the title and then focusing on the image that Laurence had zoomed in on. A shiver slithered down his spine. The title. The image. The two men. Confusion rose in him.
“What?” Nick asked. He must have seen the change in him.
“It’s a picture of the police officers that arrested Connor that night,” Laurence said. His voice was nervous and unsure.
“Okay… and?”
Laurence looked worriedly at Connor.
“It’s the guards,” Connor said. His voice was thick, coming out strange.
“The Gardaí?”
“The guards from my dad’s work,” Connor said. “The Americans posted at the entrance. It’s them.”
“Wait… what?” Nick reached for the phone to look at the picture. He read the post, which seemed to be about locating the two officers that had arrested Connor and then vanished off the face of the earth. “It can’t be,” Nick said at last. “You’d have recognised them before now.”
