Shauna was surprised when Josh said he had to go away for a couple of days, but he gave her fuck-all in the way of detail.

‘Where to?’ she asked.

‘Not far. Got a fight lined up. That’s all I’m saying, Shaun.’ That’s all she got off him these days, the silent treatment. Maybe he was cut up over the news of his mother dying, but she didn’t think so. She knew they had been far from close.

‘What about the funeral?’ she asked.

‘I ain’t going.’

Josh had given Linus Pole money, more than Shauna thought they could afford, to sort out his mother’s burial and headstone. Josh went about the place scowling, and he was making some mysterious purchases. Shauna kept quiet, but she was curious by nature and when he was in the bath she went to the wardrobe where he’d put the latest stash of secrets, and had a look.

The thing – whatever it was – was in a cream gabardine-type bag and when Shauna tried to lift it, it was heavy. There was a drawstring at one end. She pulled it loose, and put her hand in. Felt cold metal. Frowning, she rummaged inside and drew out a big Magnum pistol. She looked at it in astonishment. Then she drew out the other item inside the bag. It was a shotgun, both barrels sawn off. Carefully, she tucked both guns back into the bag, retied the string and closed the wardrobe door.

Later, when Josh came out of the bathroom, she said: ‘Josh, it was sad about your mum. Really sad.’

‘Yeah.’

‘But what we got to do now is, we’ve got to go on, put our old life behind us. Forget about all that.’

‘I know.’ Josh thought of Claire and felt his heart wrench in his chest. Yeah, his old life was gone. She was gone. So what did anything matter any more, really? He had a job to do, and he was going to do it. Look after his family, even if he did still sometimes yearn for what he’d lost.

Next day, Josh kissed his wife and son goodbye, loaded his holdall into the car and then drove away.

His mood was grim. All right, he didn’t care about his mother. He never had. But her passing had been a milestone for him. She was his last link with the camp and the life he had lived there. It was all a memory now, gone and forgotten. No . . . not forgotten.