Ray stretched and yawned noisily. He was at the smallholding, and he wanted this latest job over with as quickly as possible; he didn’t like to keep away from his family longer than he had to. It was amazing, really, when he thought about it, just how much his life had changed for the better. It was as if he had finally come alive when he had fallen in love with Sharon Scott. Now it was time for them to get married. The boys wouldn’t mind – they would want it as much as he did. Sharon would relish the chance to arrange it. It wasn’t like they had never discussed it, they had just never got round to it.

It would be a church wedding, of course, and it could be as large or as small as Sharon wanted. He relished the thought of taking the name Scott away from her, and making her a Donovan. He wondered if he should ask the boys if they wanted to change their names; after all, he was, to all intents and purposes, their father now and they called him ‘Dad’.

He heard a deep groaning coming from the basement and sighed. He finished his tea and, after washing up the mug, he made his way down into the cellar. The smell of blood was overwhelming but he didn’t really notice it. The man he was dealing with was watching him with frightened eyes. Ray ignored him. His victim had raped a serious Face’s young daughter, and that needed to be paid for by the man responsible. The police were never called in, and this was to be kept hush-hush. That was fine with Ray. All he needed to be told was the name of his victim and that Jack Johnson wanted to see the ponce suffer and suffer. And so he would.

As Ray picked up a small pair of pliers, he saw the man attempting to break free of his bonds. It was a futile gesture, of course, but Ray reasoned it was the human need for survival that kept the hope in his victim’s eyes alive. He was whistling between his teeth and decided to wrap this up quickly. He would take a photo of the man’s body, to be passed on to the relevant parties, and get himself home to that lovely woman of his. He set about his task; he was getting bored now.

Twenty minutes later the man was breathing his last, and Ray watched the light leaving his one good eye, the other eye having been removed earlier by Ray himself. Then he set about the clean-up operation and the disposal of the body. This had been a lucrative and enjoyable few hours. Now he hoped to get back in time to give his little Kathy her night feed.

Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Nine