‘His body was found five days ago,’ Garcia informed the bartender. ‘He’s been murdered.’
‘Go way outta that.’ Conor took a step back, his eyes wide open.
Hunter and Garcia gave him a moment.
‘Were you friends?’ Hunter finally asked.
Conor shrugged. ‘Not exactly. We weren’t mates or anything like that, but like you’ve said, he did use to come in here quite often. I work most nights, so every now and then we’d chat, ya know? Mostly about sports, like.’
‘Were you working on the night of May 18th?’ Garcia asked.
‘I couldn’t say off the top of my head, but I have a feeling that I might’ve been. Like I said, I work most nights.’ Conor lifted afinger at both detectives, while retrieving his cellphone from his back pocket. ‘But if ya give us a second, like, I’ll find out.’
Hunter and Garcia waited while the bartender tapped through a couple of screens before scrolling through his calendar app.
‘Aye,’ Conor said with a firm nod. ‘May 18th – it was a Saturday, like. I was working the bar.’
‘I know that this is a big ask,’ Hunter said, knowing how unreliable human memory really was, especially when trying to remember a not-very-memorable event. ‘But can you remember seeing Shaun Daniels here that night? Did he seem different at all to you? Nervous? Agitated? Concerned? Anything out of the ordinary? Anything you can remember?’
Conor once again pinched his bottom lip. His eyes narrowed for a long moment, as he looked down at the floor.
‘I can’t be certain if it was the 18th or not,’ he began. ‘But it could’ve well been because it’s the last time I remember seeing Shaun in here. It was a busy night. The Lakers were playing, if my memory serves me right. They were sitting at that table right over there.’ Conor pointed to one of the empty tables on the floor.
‘They?’ Garcia asked.
Conor nodded. ‘Aye. He was here with a mate that night. I remember it because he usually comes in by himself. He’s the quiet type, ya know? Usually prefers to sit here at the end of the bar.’ He indicated the stool between Hunter and Garcia.
Hunter had already clocked the three CCTV cameras inside O’Hearn’s – one at the entry door and two on the bar wall, just between the flatscreen TVs. He indicated the ones between the TVs. ‘Do those work?’
Conor chuckled. ‘Aye, but you’ve got no chance if you think we’ll have a recording from a month ago. We only keep them for a few days. There’s no point in saving them if the tills cash out properly and there was no trouble in here.’
That reply didn’t surprise either detective.
‘This mate of his,’ Garcia asked. ‘Is he a regular? Have you seen him here before?’
‘Nah, I don’t remember ever seeing the likes of him before, or since.’
‘Did they come in together that night?’ Hunter asked. ‘Do you remember?’
The bartender thought about it for a few seconds, his tongue poking on the inside of his left cheek. ‘Nah, I can’t remember if they did, but in all fairness, probably.’
‘And why do you think that?’ Garcia pushed.
‘Like I said, I never seen the likes of his mate here before and Shaun was the pretty quiet type. He wouldn’t be the one to start a conversation with many folks, let alone a stranger, so aye, they probably knew each other from before and chances are that they did come in together that night.’
The customer sitting at the opposite end of the bar from where they were signaled the bartender for a new pint of Guinness.
‘I won’t be but a minute,’ Conor said, as he poured the customer a brand-new pint of the black stuff.
‘Can you remember any other time that you saw Mr. Daniels here with a friend?’ Hunter asked, as Conor returned to their end of the bar.
The bartender paused again and the lip pinching came back. ‘Nah,’ he finally said after a few long seconds. ‘I actually can’t remember ever seeing him in here with a mate. He really was the quiet and lonely type.’
‘Lonely?’ Hunter prodded.
‘Aye.’ Conor’s nod was firm. ‘He usually came in, sat at the bar, had a few beers… a couple of shots of whiskey sometimes, then he’d be on his merry way. Always by himself. No mates. No ladies. Nothing. Sure,’ the bartender gave the detectives a careless shrug, ‘sometimes he would get fluthered, we all do, but even then,he wasn’t one to make a fuss, like. He would just stagger out and that was that.’
‘This friend of Mr. Daniels,’ Hunter asked. ‘How was he dressed?’
