‘We’ll update you when you are safely home,’ Orisa said.

‘No,’ Julius said, desperate to know, but also worried how Gabe might react.

He heard his mother’s voice away from the phone, weaker than he’d ever heard it. ‘They might as well know …’

Orisa took a breath to compose herself. ‘The driver was dead in his seat. Taiwo is shot twice and in emergency surgery now. Kehinde was dragged away from the vehicle and treated very badly …’

Orisa paused.

‘Is he alive?’ Julius asked, frustrated at having to wring out every sentence.

‘They slashed his throat after they’d beaten him,’ Orisa said. ‘Your mother is in shock. Those bastards sent a gruesome photograph to her phone. You know how she loves those twins …’

More than me, Julius found himself thinking as he saw a tear streak down Gabe’s cheek. He put an arm round his shoulder.

Bunmi took the phone again and sounded more like her fearsome self. ‘I have the police chief here at the house. She has a tactical team close to your building. Be ready to leave the instant they arrive.’

Bunmi hung up without any goodbye and Gabe glanced around tearfully. At Duke’s battered body, up at Julius, then at the Scrabble game that would never be finished.

‘I’ll pee before the cops get here,’ he decided.

‘Sorry about your brothers,’ Duke said, unconvincingly.

The sentiment was so ludicrous that Julius broke into laughter.

‘It’s the randomness that disturbs me,’ Julius said. ‘Kehinde went one way into a mob. Me and Gabe ran the other …’

Duke finished Julius’s thought. ‘They’d have slashed your throats too.’

‘Everything is shit now,’ Julius growled, wanting to kick something hard. ‘So messed up …’

Gabe flushed the toilet as a thud of compressed air from a door jack was followed by Remi’s steel-plated door flying dangerously into the room.

‘Everyone down,’ a cop shouted as three charged in, dressed in full riot gear. ‘Hands on heads … Check the other rooms.’

Remi tried to move papers off his lap before getting off his chair, but a cop grabbed the back of his shirt and sprawled him face first across the floor.

‘You listen when I speak!’ the cop ordered, planting his foot on Remi’s back and pointing a tear gas launcher at his face.

‘They’re looking after us!’ Julius shouted. ‘Why didn’t you knock?’

A cop almost splattered Gabe with the bathroom door as he stepped out.

‘This is T411. Apartment secured. I’ve got both boys,’ the cop closest to Julius told his radio. ‘Has the transport arrived …? OK, we’ll be down directly.’

‘What about my door?’ Remi asked furiously as the officer let him sit up.

‘File a complaint, Balogun,’ the cop said, his snort indicating how likely this was to succeed.

‘They helped us,’ Julius repeated furiously.

‘Mr Adebisi, I need you to walk this way,’ the cop said politely.