‘Bloody hell! Who’d do a horrible thing like that?’ her mother remarked. ‘And so close to home, too.’ She looked across at Adele, then seemed to check herself, and Adele knew that the memory of what she had done to her father had flashed through her mother’s mind.

Even though they were now getting along together, their relationship would never be quite the same as before. Adele’s brutal killing of her father would always stand between them and the recollection would crop up at unexpected moments.

Adele tried to shake all thoughts of her father from her mind as she watched the TV. When the reporter mentioned the name of the victim, she felt a jolt. It seemed familiar although she wasn’t sure why. Sam Sutton? She replayed it over in her head. Where had she heard that name?

Then it came to her. She thought that Peter may have mentioned him when he had shown her around the club that first time. He’d quickly run through a list of the main members of staff. Then he’d mentioned someone who was on holiday but would regularly call in at the office to deposit takings in the safe. That was a Sam; she was sure of it. And she thought the name he’d mentioned was Sam Sutton.

Her skin prickled at this sudden realisation. Coming on top of the killing in the club, it put her senses on alert. Something wasn’t quite right. But, knowing how highly strung her mother was, it wouldn’t pay to mention it to her.

Neither would she mention what had taken place in the club. There was no way she could let her mother know that she and Peter had helped to cover up Glynn’s shooting of the man who attacked her. She’d never cope with that news, not on top of all the other bad things that had happened in the past. Although her mother wasn’t taking as much medication since she no longer had an abusive husband to put up with, nevertheless, she still wasn’t the strongest person in the world.

But Adele’s curiosity had been piqued. She wanted to know whether Sam Sutton was the same person who had worked for Peter. So she decided to wait until her mother had gone to bed; then she would phone Peter and find out.

Chapter 38

Peter was in the club, keeping an eye on things, when the phone rang. It was late. But that didn’t necessarily mean it was bad news. His men regularly called him with reports when they were out on a job or collecting protection money from the businesses they looked after.

He was surprised to hear his sister’s voice, though. His first thought was that he hoped to Christ she hadn’t got cold feet about the club killing. But as soon as she spoke that fear was allayed.