Old God’s Time: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Tom dashes up to the flat of the boy’s mother—the same woman Mr. Tomelty believes to be a sex worker. She opens the door quickly, and Tom explains the situation to her. The woman tells him that she’s just put her son, Jesse, to bed. She goes to check on him and affirms that he’s safe, confusing Tom. He asks about her daughter, and she tells him that the girl is dead. She then invites him inside and introduces herself as Ms. McNulty; she doesn’t know if she’s a “Miss” or “Mrs.” anymore. When Tom asks about the gentleman that’s been visiting her, she explains that the man is her father, but she must’ve forgotten to tell Mr. Tomelty he’s visiting. Ms. McNulty then tells Tom that she needs to talk to him and goes off to make him coffee.

Tom asks Ms. McNulty about being an actress, and she kindly corrects him that she’s an actor. Tom is reminded of Winnie’s tendency to bring him up to date with the times, which endears him to Ms. McNulty. The neighbor next door is playing his cello; this neighbor’s gun habit prompts Tom to think of his time in Malay, which got him diagnosed with acute stress syndrome until he got back home and found his symptoms gradually subsiding. It was after this that he decided to become a police officer. He looks at some ivory carvings of elephants on the table and wonders if Ms. McNulty’s father has spent time in Africa.

Ms. McNulty sits down to tell her story to Tom, but she immediately begins to cry. Tom sits patiently with her until she composes herself. She asks him if he’s ever been “custodian of a story that no one else believed,” and Tom says yes. She says that, in that case, she can tell it to him, even though she has not even told her father. She confesses that she’s terrified that her husband will show up in Dalkey and kill her, and that even though her father is ex-army and claims he’ll kill her husband, she’s not confident. Tom asks her if her husband knows where she is, and she says she doesn’t think he does.

Ms. McNulty then tells Tom what happened to her daughter. One day, she noticed the girl was bleeding rectally and brought her to the doctor, who brushed it off as colitis. The bleeding subsided for a while, but after Ms. McNulty returned from a work trip, she found that it had returned in her absence. This time, the doctor wanted to refer the girl to child protective services, but her husband claimed innocence. The girl grew sicker and sicker, ultimately dying of her injuries. The husband denied all wrongdoing to authorities and, to Ms. McNulty’s astonishment, was taken at his word. As a result, Ms. McNulty took Jesse and fled in the middle of the night to protect her son. Tom thinks of a memory, which he can’t tell if it’s his or June’s, of little babies with their rectums hanging out, but forces himself to retain his composure.

Ms. McNulty goes on to explain that she’s been irrevocably traumatized by the ordeal, but she refuses to let Jesse be harmed and doesn’t understand why the police didn’t even question her husband. She tells Tom that her husband threatened to kill her as they were burying her daughter. Tom explains that the police have an issue with moving slowly, and that if her husband comes here and breaks the law, nothing can be done. Ms. McNulty worries that this means nothing can be done unless—or until—he kills her. Tom tells her that she can try to seek out a restraining order, and in the meantime, he’ll make sure to keep an eye out for any new people in the castle. Tom spots Jesse in the doorway to the rest of the flat. The boy raises his arm and waves.