Remorse washed over me. That was well out of order. And coming out with it so brazenly too, but I pushed any and all regrets to one side. They were a luxury I just didn’t have time for. I was being a bitch, but so be it. My son needed me.

‘You don’t know that. Dave might still be alive for all you know,’ Devon proclaimed, his eyes spitting lava. ‘That’s a hell of a thing to say.’

‘You’re right and I’m sorry. Of course he might still be alive,’ I say, acknowledging the extremely remote possibility. Giving Devon a few seconds to calm down, I carried on. ‘Dev, I really do need your help. So let me ask you again: who has taken over from Jeavons?’

‘I don’t hang around with people like that – not any more.’

I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to get to my point.

‘But the word on the street is that Dan Jeavons only trusted two people with all the details of his many operations,’ Devon said reluctantly. ‘Eva and Shane.’

‘Eva Foxton and Shane who? Not Jarvis Burton?’

A speculative gleam lit Devon’s eyes. ‘How come you know about them? How d’you even know their names?’

That was my business.

‘Well, what I heard is that Eva has taken over and demoted Jarvis. She got a new lieutenant, some guy called Shane Stoats. He’s a psycho by all accounts. Takes no prisoners,’ Devon continued. ‘But Owen Dowd has practically declared all-out war on her and anyone who throws their lot in with her. There’ll be a turf war soon, and it’s going to get bloody.’

I digested Devon’s news in silence.

‘So Jarvis no longer works for Eva?’

‘He does, but in name only. Everyone’s taking bets on for how much longer. In fact, we’re all surprised he hasn’t already picked up his toys and walked. For someone like Jarvis, being demoted from vice-president to foot soldier must be hellish humiliating. His pride has taken a severe kicking, if nothing else.’

Now why would a guy like Jarvis still be hanging around Eva if he were no longer in a position of authority? Maybe he just had bills to pay like everyone else. But I’d met Jarvis. He wasn’t the kind to take an insult like that lying down. In Eva’s shoes, I’d watch my back.

‘Where do I find Eva?’

Devon’s eyebrows shot up until they practically disappeared beneath his hairline. ‘How the hell would I know? I told you, I don’t hang around with that sort. My wife would kill me, not to mention Saul.’

‘I’m not saying that you’re inside her pocket,’ I replied. ‘But she must conduct her business from somewhere that isn’t her home, so where might that be?’