The Searcher

Trey turns up, and Cal lets her in and allows her to do some carpentry. When Cal accuses her of letting him think she was a boy, she retorts that she never said that she was a boy. She claims that she wears her hair boyishly short because it is easier to take care of. To end their relationship and the investigation, Cal tells Trey a story about Brendan preparing the cottage for the drug-pushers from Dublin to store their stuff. As the Dublin crew considered Brendan a threat to their privacy, they told him to “get out of town and stay gone” (273). Cal reassures Trey that all the evidence points to Brendan still being alive. He advises Trey to mind her own business until Brendan deems it safe enough to return home.

When Trey offers to come back to Cal’s and finish the desk, Cal tells her she will be unwelcome. He even taunts her to stay away by offering her cash for her labor. Trey is insulted and runs away.

Alone, Cal is left to brood over what went wrong between him and Donna. He can trace the souring of their marriage to their visit to Alyssa at college in Seattle when she was mugged and had an injured shoulder from the assault. While Donna nursed Alyssa and wanted Cal to do the same, Cal felt that it was his duty to track down the mugger. Although he was successful in this endeavor, Donna was disgusted with him for leaving their daughter’s bedside. This led to a series of arguments, with Donna leaving and eventually taking up with another man named Elliot. Cal believes that he did his best to be a good father and husband, but “somewhere along the way, he fucked up” in a manner that is still incomprehensible to him (279).

Cal can see that Mart has mended his reputation in Ardnakelty for his following through with dismissing Trey, as Noreen treats him to a block of cheddar and the drinkers at Seán Óg’s are friendly to him. Trey appears to have “dematerialised” and thereby vanished to the extent that Cal wonders if he was only imagining her visits (283). Cal spends time furnishing his home and considering taking a rabbit he shot to Lena, but has been avoiding her since deciding against taking her puppy. He feels claustrophobic in Ardnakelty, where everyone knows everyone’s business and he cannot take a single step without it being discussed.

A knock at the door announces Trey’s return. She has a black eye and looks beaten from head to toe. Cal allows her in, and she insists that she will not see a doctor. Cal feels that he has no option but to call Lena, who has looked after many injured animals. While they are waiting for Lena to arrive, Trey reveals that her mother was the one who hit her with a belt and kicked her because an unnamed outside force said, “do it or we will” (290). Trey reveals that she went to see Donie, who dismissed her, threatening that if she did not watch herself, she would end up in the same predicament as Brendan.

When Lena arrives, Cal is tempted to leave her with Trey so that he can go after Donie. However, Lena insists that Trey is asking for Cal and that he will stay with her. She senses that Cal will do something impulsive and counterproductive. Cal asks Lena to stay the night on the armchair in case Trey gets worse. When Cal tells Lena that Sheila was the one who administered the beating, Lena says that Sheila is doing her best in very difficult circumstances, being at war with her estranged husband John and with Ardnakelty as a whole. They joke about the rumor of Lena staying the night at Cal’s getting circulating. He tells Lena that he will not take the puppy because he is afraid that he will not be able to take care of it. Still, when Trey stirs in the night, Lena sends up Cal to nurse her. Cal sings a lullaby he used to sing to Alyssa.

In the morning, a slightly recovered Trey tells Cal that she is aware that he made up the story of Brendan being intimidated by the drug gang and fleeing to Scotland so that “I’d fuck off and leave you alone” (307). Still, Cal insists on the danger of the situation and that Trey’s antics may mean her life is in danger. She says she will only give up when she knows what happened to Brendan. Cal says that he needs to track down the people who told Sheila to beat up Trey, so that he can keep tabs on Brendan and monitor the danger of the situation.

Cal sneaks into Donie’s house and finding Donie asleep, shoves into his pillow, suffocating him temporarily, and insists he tells him about Brendan Reddy. Donie confesses that he is working for the Dublin drug gang. He helped Brendan clear and set up the store where the supplies including Sudafed, batteries and propane were to be stashed. Brendan obtained the anhydrous himself and was caught by P.J. Fallon, who threatened to call the police, but refrained at Brendan’s insistence. P.J. and his friends, including Mart, cleared out the cottage. When the Dublin guys found out, they had Donie set up a meeting between them and Brendan. However, when Brendan found out, he ran away. The Dublin crew asked Donie to “put the frighteners on those aul’ fellas” and stay quiet and mind their own business (316). Massacring the sheep was part of Donie’s scare program, and apparently everything was normal until Cal began to stir the situation. Cal understands that Donie resents Brendan for his bravado and his demands to make inroads in the gang Donie discovered first. Cal takes the number of Austin, the leader of the Dublin drug crew, from Donie’s burner phone. Cal hopes he can persuade Austin to give Trey something of an answer.

At home, Trey rebukes him for being late. She asks him if he has seen Mart, before confessing that Mart circled the house, looking in the windows for Cal, although he did not see Trey. He insists to Trey that they need to speak to Sheila and figure out who made her beat up Trey.

Lena agrees to come over and watch over Trey for the night, and to tell Sheila that Trey is okay, without revealing Trey’s location. He goes into town and buys two inflatable air mattresses for himself and Lena, and some new pajamas and jeans for Trey.

When Cal returns home, he is thinking about how to approach Austin when he is throttled to the ground and feels his collarbone break, as a voice orders him to mind his own business. Trey comes out the front door, holding the rifle, threatening Cal’s assailant not to move. She threatens that if the group do not tell her where Brendan is, she will shoot them all. When they do not immediately budge, Trey shoots one of the men in the arm. Trey sends the group away and she and Cal bond over how beaten up they are. Cal is comforted by her presence and thanks her for saving him. Trey thinks that the assailants used hurleys to hit Cal.

Lena turns up with Nellie, saying that she can use a rifle if necessary. As they keep watch at night, Cal imagines holding Lena and being in a long-term relationship with her.

Cal hopes that a phone call to Austin will make things safe for everyone and for Trey to go home again. Before he means to call Austin, Cal heads out to find Mart. At first, Mart teases him mercilessly because he knows that Lena has been staying at his place. Cal spots a towel stiffened with dried blood under Mart’s dining table and asks what happened. Mart insists that Cal should tell Trey to leave off the Brendan business.

Mart explains that when Donie found out that Brendan was planned to steal P.J. Fallon’s anhydrous, he went to P.J. and P.J. went to the police. Mart intervened, sent off the police and summoned a few locals to obtain P.J,’s anhydrous. They went to Brendan’s storage cottage and rescued the fertilizer compound. When Brendan heard that the police were coming, he tried to disappear. Although Brendan was due to have a meeting with the Dublin drug crew, Mart and his group of local men “wanted to get our word in first, so young Brendan’d know where he stood” (353). While they were just intending to explain their position to Brendan, Brendan’s disrespectful attitude sparked a fight between him and the group. Following a blow to the jaw, Brendan fell over and hit his head on the edge of a propane tank, which swiftly resulted in his death. Cal, who is conscious that Trey will want proof, asks Mart what he did with the body and Mart says that they buried it in the mountains.

Mart explains that he acted to protect a way of life that “Brendan Reddy and his notions” of great schemes that take him away from the land threatened (358). Mart again insists that Cal should warn Trey that the matter is finished, and she should not go looking for Brendan. Cal explains that to believe that Brendan is dead, Trey will need to see his watch. Cal plans to go and uncover it as soon as he is back to fitness.

At home, Trey is painting Cal’s house with Lena. Cal tells Trey the news of Brendan’s death and that he will get proof for her as soon as he is healthy. Trey is devastated, but Cal tries to reassure her that the men will no longer bother them. He says that after their fishing trip, Trey should go home to her mother and try to remake her life at school. Lena meets them and takes Trey home. She asks that Cal should call her when he is through with his wild schemes.

Before going up to the mountains with Mart to find Brendan, Cal calls Alyssa. He asks her for her expertise in handling a 13-year-old girl who is dealing with bereavement whilst having an unreliable support system. Alyssa is pleased that her father is taking interest in her work and says that what Trey needs most of all is consistency. Therefore, Cal should not disappear on her.

Cal and Mart go up the mountains. Mart wants to be reassured that Trey will not try to interfere and Cal complies. They climb higher and higher until they reach the bog where Brendan is buried. Cal is astonished to see how well-preserved Brendan’s body is; however, he can see where his jaw is broken from the fight Mart described. Cal extracts the watch for Trey, from where it has fused to the skin. He sings the song he sang at his grandfather’s funeral as he reburies him after Mart tells Cal that he needs to say a prayer over the body. Mart says that Trey can show her mother where Brendan is buried, but that it should go no further than that. He then laments Sheila’s choice of a husband. He even suggests that he and Brendan’s killers could help Sheila out financially and thus reintegrate her into the community. In return, Cal says that Trey will keep coming to see him and that he wants Mart to ensure that there is no gossip about this.

Trey comes to visit the following day and she looks more healed. Cal presents her with Brendan’s watch and tells her she can share the location of Brendan’s burial with her mother. While Trey is in the woods processing the news, he texts Lena to say that he will take the former runt puppy and they agree to see each other. Trey returns from the woods, and they work together peacefully.