‘Then you need to tell me when you plan to do it.’

‘I’ll tell you when the time comes.’

‘Are you going to hit his house?’

‘Ray Doyle’s got a wife and a kid. I’m not taking the fight to his house. There’ll be no families involved.’

From the corner of his eye, he saw McGregor pull a face but couldn’t be bothered to take issue with it. Besides which, he thought, the main thing was to make sure that all the trafficked children were safe. He thought back to his time in Thailand, realising that he knew exactly who he needed on this job. ‘I’m going to be hitting them where they really live. We’ll be taking the fight to the Kemptown factory.’

Chapter 33

CHAPTER 33

At Chicksands, Abbott and Cuckoo relaxed on the same bench. A little colder than they had been on the last occasion they met but otherwise unchanged. Almost unchanged.

‘Looks as though you’re still losing weight,’ said Abbott, jerking a thumb towards where Cuckoo’s belly was – or had been.

‘You know Fi. When she gets the bit between her teeth.’

‘Or the salad in this case.’

‘Yeah. There’s a lot of salad.’

‘Diets tend to involve salad.’

‘Apart from yours, that tend to involve a lot of beer, wine and spirits, although, I’ve got to say, that was a cheap crack because correct me if I’m wrong, you’ve either drastically cut down or cut it out altogether.’

‘Oh yeah,’ preened Abbott, ‘and what makes you say that, then?’

‘Three things. One, you don’t clink when you walk. Two, you don’t smell like a brewery. Three, and most important, you actually look well for a change. Almost healthy.’

‘Well, you’re right, I haven’t touched a drop since . . .’ He cringed internally to think of the night at Tess’s house. ‘Well, for a while.’

‘How does it feel?’

‘It feels OK, no, better than OK. It feels like being out from under its grip, and every day I tell myself that I should reward myself with a drink; every day I tell myself that I don’t really have a problem, because if I did then I wouldn’t be able to give it up so easily.’

‘Has it been easy?’