Abbott saw him on the monitor. He watched the guy’s hand reach out and saw the door handle on their side begin to turn. With a warning look at Sweaty and one finger to his lips, he shifted his position slightly, ready to take down the barman when he came through the door, eyes flicking to the monitors where he saw that the barman had stopped and his head had turned as he responded to something said to him from across the room. Abruptly, he let go of the door handle, turned and strode off to deal with whatever it was.

Moment over, threat gone, Abbott breathed a sigh of relief and was about to turn his attention back to Sweaty when, seeing his chance, Sweaty launched himself off the chair and at Abbott, one outstretched, clawed hand reaching for Abbott’s Glock.

Although his reactions had been dulled by the booze, and although he was, technically, out of shape, Abbott was still a lot, lot faster than an obese child trafficker in the dirty cellar of a near-derelict pub, and he stepped smartly to one side, expecting to reassert his authority as he levelled the Glock. But Sweaty wasn’t finished, and even though his hapless attempt to overcome Abbott had been an abject failure, he had one more trick up his sleeve, and the trick was to open his mouth and scream for help.

He never got the chance. Abbott put a round into his open mouth.

Sweaty’s head popped back as the rear of his skull blew out; his body tautened and then he fell in an almost crucifixionlike pose, blood beginning to pool like a scarlet halo around his head.

Abbott shifted his aim to cover the cellar door in case the sound of the struggle had alerted anybody upstairs. Nobody came. Nor was there any sign of alarm on the monitors.

His eyes went back to Sweaty. ‘I’m not a hitman,’ he heard himself say, but for guys like this he’d make an exception. You’ve done the world a favour, he thought. You don’t need to give this a second’s more consideration. In some tiny, tiny way you have reduced the sum total of human unhappiness.

So why did he not feel better?

He racked the slide back and with the breech exposed, ejected the mag, then plugged two new rounds into it before replacing the mag. He disengaged the slide release catch, pushing a round into the breech of the weapon.