Adele sat silently for some moments, taking in his words. She couldn’t believe he was being so casual about killing people. Then a recollection flashed through her mind: the news report about Sam. She felt a jolt as anxiety flooded her body.

‘Did Sam betray you?’ she asked, fearing that she already knew the answer.

‘He betrayed Pete, and I work for Pete.’

‘So, Sam’s death. Was that you?’

‘I was involved, yeah. He betrayed us. Sometimes people do things and we have to punish them. It was the same for you, wasn’t it? You’re just like me, aren’t you?’

Adele thought over what she’d heard in the news about Sam; the fact that he was cruelly tortured and died an agonising death. Could her brother really have condoned the violent murder of an ex-employee? A feeling of panic zipped through her and she had an overwhelming urge to vomit.

To think that Glynn claimed to have been involved in Sam’s brutal killing because he betrayed Peter was more than she could handle. This was the man she was going out with. The man she’d just had sex with! She put her hand over her mouth and tried to stifle her gagging reflex. The thought sickened her and she quickly drew herself away from him.

‘No, I’m not like you. I’m not like you at all!’ she yelled. ‘It was one moment of madness and I’ve regretted it ever since. And I’ll go on regretting it for every day of my stinking, miserable life! I was pushed. I didn’t mean to do it but I was pushed. But you! You’re callous and you’re calculating… and, and… you’re just fuckin’ cruel!’

‘Eh, come on,’ he said, touching her arm.

‘Don’t you dare touch me!’ she raged. ‘You disgust me.’

Adele jumped down from the desk, knocking over the wastepaper bin in her haste to get away. Then she ran through the building and out of the door into the street. It was raining heavily but she didn’t stop running till she was well away from the club.

She leant against a wall, her shoulders sagging and her head bowed. The rain drenched her clothing and dripped from the sodden locks of her hair. She was panting heavily and it took her some time before her breathing steadied.

As she stood there in the rain she thought about the sort of person Glynn was, of the shocking things he had done. She retched and she continued retching until her stomach was empty.

When she had finished vomiting she straightened herself up. But it was some moments before she had recovered enough to move from that spot. Tears ran down her face. Sticky mucus and vomit were pasted around her lips, and her rain-soaked clothing clung to her body.