He was immediately concerned. ‘You all right, babe? I can stay here, darling.’

She rolled her eyes in irritation. ‘I’m pregnant, not suffering from fucking terminal cancer. I’m just tired, mate. Plus I want to watch Dempsey and Makepeace without you making remarks all the time.’

He laughed at her, she was such a strong character. ‘OK. If you’re sure, mate.’

She cut him another huge piece of steak and kidney pie as she said, ‘I will be fine. Just you be careful, OK?’

He nodded. She knew he wasn’t going out to wish anyone well. She was aware he was up to some kind of skulduggery, and she was a woman who understood that the less she knew about his nefarious businesses the better. She was a real fucking diamond was his Sharon, and he couldn’t believe his luck.

Chapter Fourteen

Billy Mason was a man who always had to have just that little bit more. No matter how good the earn, he always felt it should be greater. Greed was a prerequisite for a criminal lifestyle, but that depended who you were nicking from. Banks, building societies, big houses or Post Offices were seen as fair game. Council flats were seen as off limits, unless you were a junkie piece of shit. No one with half a brain nicked off their own. Billy Mason should have known that better than anyone – he had been in the Life long enough.

But Billy lived by his own rules; he prided himself on that fact. He also had a belief in his own God-given right to take any earn that he saw fit. He was confident that the men he worked alongside were too frightened of him and his reputation to even consider giving him the hard word. He was happy with his life, and he was coining it in.

Billy Mason’s big mistake was that he was a creature of habit. A large man with a beer gut and Denis Healey eyebrows, he wasn’t exactly the answer to a maiden’s prayer, but what Billy had going for him was money and a sense of humour. He could laugh a woman into bed. He genuinely loved them – all shapes and sizes. He could find something complimentary to say to any woman he came across, even if it was only that she had nice eyes or a good set of teeth. He frequented Tiffany’s in Ilford every Thursday for Grab-A-Granny night, or if you were a female, Grab-A-Granddad.

As he tripped out of his house in Manor Park, bathed, shaved and smelling of Old Spice, he was nonplussed to see young Lenny Scott on his doorstep.

Lenny smiled graciously and said respectfully, ‘Sorry, Billy. Can I come in a sec, mate? I need to discuss a rob I heard about. Thought you might be interested, like.’