It was three months after Jamie’s murder that Ray brought Sharon with him to see Barton and his wife, Jamella. The two women had been friends at school and had wanted to meet up and reminisce. It was also the night Ray realised that he was in love with Sharon Scott. As they sat in the restaurant eating curried goat and rice, he watched her as she smiled and laughed with her old friend and he knew then that he would do everything in his power to protect her and her two little boys. He had never felt like this about a woman before and he liked it.

He liked working with her too, enjoyed running the loan operation, which was getting bigger and bigger by the day. Who knew there was so much money in poverty? But, as Sharon pointed out, they didn’t charge as much as the other lenders and they didn’t threaten violence if the money was in arrears. The secret was not to lend out money the person couldn’t afford to pay off – though that was not how many of the other lenders worked.

They had expanded to other areas and they had good collectors working for them – even some women, which was unheard of in their game. But Sharon made sure that there was always a stunning array of bedding and clothes to offer on the tally, as well as electrical goods and homeware. That was where she believed the real money would be and she seemed to be right. She was astute in her own way. She was everything Ray wanted in a woman and he wished he could tell her how he felt. But the first move had to come from her, of that much he was sure.

Sometimes he caught her watching him with what he thought was a softness in her eyes, but he honestly didn’t know if that was just wishful thinking on his part. The main thing he was pleased about was that the haunted look had left her, and for that he thanked God. After the trouble with the Brewers, she had seemed to lose a lot of her sparkle. But he had seen her gradually coming back to herself now that the immediate threat was gone.