‘Well, no, not actually easy, as such. But it hasn’t been that hard either. I was lucky. I didn’t have withdrawal. Or not the sort where you end up in A&E; not the sort where you hallucinate spiders wandering across your ceiling. I had headaches and sleeplessness and I still have cravings, and I have that weird sneaky voice that goes, “Hey, you haven’t drunk for a while, why not reward yourself with a drink?” Or “Hey, you’ve hit reset. You’re a normal drinker now, why not just try one or two drinks? Because now you can moderate!” But if you can recognise the cravings and ignore the voice, if you can play the tape forward then you can get through it. What’s the alternative? You either keep killing yourself or you don’t. And I don’t think it’s what Nathan would have wanted, do you? Do you think he would have wanted his dad to drink himself to death in a B&B in Finchley? I don’t.’

‘Well, I’m pleased for you, mate.’

‘Cheers.’

A little throat-clearing followed. A pause before continuing. ‘So, I have news for you,’ said Cuckoo.

‘Ditto.’

‘Well, OK, you go first.’

So Abbott told Cuckoo everything he’d learned so far. All about the set-up in Derby. About Doyle’s links with Sir Charles Norton. He told him what Sweaty had said – how Chris might have ended up ‘in London’. He told him that Doyle apparently had some dirt on the Nortons hidden in his safe. What he didn’t say, what he held back, was that he had been hired by Lady Norton. Not yet.

Cuckoo was nodding. ‘None of that came as much of a surprise to you,’ said Abbott.

‘No. Partly my news was that I’d put the names you gave me – Juliet and Kilgore – with the Nortons and put them together with Doyle. Doyle, he barely blips on the radar. But the Nortons – the Nortons are different. Since his death the grapevine’s been buzzing and there are fairly credible rumours of connections within the government and security forces.’

‘Like what?’

‘Contracts. Favours for favours. You scratch my back and I’ll let you build your super-casino. That kind of thing. But it is just rumour, Abbott. Nothing on any file. Little more than water cooler gossip. What was most interesting from my point of view was that there were flags attached to any file involving the Nortons.’

‘Flags? What does that mean?’

‘It means that if anybody is nosing around then it triggers an alert. These flags tend to occur only on cases that apply to ultra-sensitive material. So that departments within departments will be informed if somebody is making enquiries.’

‘Does that mean they know you’ve been poking around?’

‘No, it doesn’t. Because I know how to circumvent the flags.