"So, you're Aloysius Brown?" Detective-Sergeant Beaulieu asked. The man sitting across the table from him smiled ingratiatingly.
"I am," he said. "What's this all about officer?"
Beaulieu ignored the question. "You are currently domiciled at the manse in Ballycraggan?"
"Yes. With my brother." The smile on the man's face became a frown, and his jowls began to lose their colour. "Can you just tell me -"
"Also formerly known as 'Pogo'?" Beaulieu interrupted.
The man looked down at the battered table top, scarred by years of official abuse. "I was," he murmured, then he looked up and glared at Beaulieu. "But that was a long time ago!"
"Well," said Beaulieu folding his arms and sitting back in his seat. "It's about a long time ago that I want to talk." He put a beige folder on the table in front of him, opened it and began to read.
"Aloysius Brown. Born ... ." The sergeant read through the list of information in front of him, no paying any attention to the man opposite. "... Arrested in 2001 on charges of indecent acts with minors, sexual assault and rape. Convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison, but released after six for good behaviour." It was Beaulieu's turn to glare.
Aloysius Brown's face was red with emotion. "Th-that was a long time ago," he stuttered. "I've done my time for all that. Why are you bringing this up now? This is bloody harassment - that's what it is!"
Beaulieu waited for the torrent of outraged protests to run out. "It's about this," he said quietly, and placed a sheaf of photographs on the table. Each photograph showed a different part of a body, each one covered in bruises and cuts.
Brown relaxed. "I didn't do that. Do I look like a violent man?"
Beaulieu had to admit that the man in front of him was flabby, old and probably incapable of doing anything violent now. The worst that he could probably do would be to write an insulting letter to the papers. "Well, whoever did these mentioned your name - and you're the only Pogo on our files who has any connection with the victim. Now, what does ye have to say to that?"
