Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles (Ronan Boyle #1)
Chapter One THE NARROWEST FELLOW 6 December It It almost never snows in Ireland Ireland is a temperate zone Snow-wise the best you can hope for is a dusting If most Irish snows were Parmesan cheese on your spaghetti you would gesture to the waiter and say More per favore that isn’t nearly enough But Tuesday the sixth of December was a bona fide blizzard When my phone buzzed at four thirty in the morning
I was in a profound coma The night before had been the retirement party of Captain John Fearnley Fearnley is a lovely man who had been like a father figure to me since the scandal Two years ago I was sitting on a metal file cabinet in his office as there are no extra chairs Fearnley prefers prefers that no one talk to him for a length of time that would necessitate them sitting down but he made an exception for me on my first day Gonna make a basket Awesome he said handing me half of his tuna sandwich his eyes filled with kindness He may in fact have said Gonna make the best of it aren’t you son but I couldn’t be sure Fearnley has the kind of country accent that is almost impossible to understand understand even for Irish people I took the sandwich and had a bite I’d never eaten a tuna sandwich before and the smell was intriguing Thank you sir I said as my face went flush and tears welled up in my eyes Sauron Lettuce Tall stout he mumbled tousling my hair and very likely saying It’s all right son Let it all out 2 THOMAS LENNON
But I wasn’t crying despite my sorry state Tuna had just been added to the list of things to which I am very allergic If you have food allergies like me you’ll know the best thing to do in this circumstance is to make yourself throw up which I did There was a brief pause Fearnley didn’t make a fuss and he didn’t judge The kindness never left his eyes Idris Elba Idris Elba said Fearnley handing me his handkerchief I am fairly certain that this was actually Clean yerself up clean yerself up Then he gave me two euros for the Fanta machine because he’s the type of everyday hero who does things like this Now two years later it was four thirty in the morning and my mobile phone was vrrrrrrrrrrrrring The view out the window of my shared flat looks directly onto Galway Bay The sun wouldn’t be up for almost four more hours 3 RONAN BOYLE AND THE BRIDGE OF RIDDLES
