Robin wondered about that. When they were thirteen or fourteen, Morris Young had done time for fencing. The yard was the perfect front for it, of course: plenty of margin for error in the books, lots of cash-in-hand business, at least back then – she’d seen the signs up front about the change in the law. In 2012, it had been made illegal for dealers to buy scrap cash-in-hand, a reaction to the boom in metal theft after the crash of 2008, when people had been dragging in whatever they could get their hands on – copper wiring, drain covers, lead roofs. His dad being away had been the one thing Kev wouldn’t talk about, but they’d all seen how it affected him. It had been like a part of him was missing. That had been the only time Morris had been inside, as far as she knew, but the rumours about his connections had died hard back then.

‘Who told you I was coming?’ she said.

‘Rin. I saw her, what, three or four weeks ago? Walked into a place up town, restaurant, and there she was, her and Josh.’

‘How were they? How did they look?’

‘Like they always did. Good. They definitely weren’t fighting.’

‘Had you heard anything about them?’

‘Like what?’

‘Like, Josh was going under. The business.’

‘Yeah, I knew about that.’ Matter of fact, no surprise.

‘I didn’t know. Corinna didn’t tell me.’

‘You serious?’

‘So obviously I wondered why not – if there was some reason.’

‘Not that I know of.’ He put his hands in his pockets and did a sort of turn on his heels, looking round. To anyone watching them, Robin thought, he’d look like a man surveying his domain. ‘Between you and me, I knew about it ’cause I helped Josh out a bit.’

‘How?’

‘Bought his scrap – stainless, largely. He did a big clean-up at the factory, brought down what he had, I gave him a bit of money. Cash. But I don’t want you thinking it’s something I do, all right? You remember when my dad was inside? Not fuckin’ happening to my kids. So it was a one-off, only for him. Well, for her, really, if I’m honest. Never went out a hundred per cent, that candle. They were in a tight spot, I did what I could.’

‘Did you lend them any money?’

He shook his head. ‘It was just that one deal, a couple of grand. Paid slightly over the odds but, you know, special circumstances, like I said. It’s what I could do for them – my thing. What have you heard about a loan, then?’

‘It was something Kath said – Josh’s sister. She said seven or eight months ago, he mentioned a cash injection. That couldn’t have been your cash, could it?’