They seemed nervous and uneasy as they arrived at the Silverbirch hotel in Omagh for their meeting with Sir Ronnie Flanagan.
It was an important occasion. The Chief Constable's reputation might have been at stake, but for the families of the victims of the bomb it was about much more than that.
They wanted to know everything possible had been done to prevent the explosion. They wanted reassurances that the bomb investigation had been professional and comprehensive.
The public fighting between Sir Ronnie and the Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, had left them confused, they said. Mrs O'Loan had made her claims. Now it was time for Sir Ronnie to give answers, they said. "Flanagan's Fightback" the meeting was dubbed by the press.
About 100 journalists, photographers and cameramen waited in the hotel corridors. Representatives of about 70 families listened to addresses by Sir Ronnie and other senior Police Service of Northern Ireland officers. They were also briefed by two senior gardaí, the Assistant Commissioner, Kevin Carty, and Det Supt Tadgh Foley, whose presence surprised many.
The former Victims Commissioner, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, and several trauma counsellors were there, too. After the briefings the families were invited to ask questions. There were dozens, most directed at Sir Ronnie. The exchanges from relatives were "tough but dignified", a police source said. Nobody walked out.
The meeting lasted five hours. Slowly the families approached the cameras. The first to address the media was Lawrence Rush, whose wife, Libby, was killed in the bomb.
He was very dissatisfied. The relatives had been drowned in "a sea of technical and scientific detail", he said. He believed many of the experts delivering the information hadn't even understood it either.
While he would be "eternally grateful" to the ordinary police officers on duty in Omagh on August 15th, 1998, he had not been impressed by Sir Ronnie.
"He is a good talker. He is a great PR man and a very affable sort of person," he said. "But he is defending a force and there are inadequacies, ineptitude and deceit. Sir Flanagan, great PR man as he is, has lost the battle."
William Gibson, whose daughter, Esther, was killed, was equally despondent. "I'm not happy with what I heard," he said.
Michael Gallagher, whose son, Aidan, died, was dismayed that Sir Ronnie had admitted to nothing more than "administrative errors" and didn't even seem prepared to meet Mrs O'Loan half way. "We heard very little new. I'm by no means happy," he said.
Mr Rush, Mr Gallagher, and Stanley McCombe, whose wife, Ann, was killed, demanded a public inquiry. Only Donna-Marie and Gary McGillion, who suffered extensive burns in the bombing, were not critical of Sir Ronnie.
They said they had always believed in the investigation. "I think the police will do their best to secure convictions against the bombers," Ms McGillion said.
The two gardaí declined to give media interviews as they left the hotel. "We were here for the relatives," said Det Supt Foley. Some relatives thought they shouldn't have been there at all.
Kevin Skelton, whose wife Philomena died, said while he didn't want to be disrespectful to the gardaí, they had no business at the meeting. He believed their presence was simply a publicity stunt to help Sir Ronnie.