Kathy lay on her bed feeling desolate. For the first time in her life her mother had turned her back on her. And that hurt more than she would ever have believed possible.

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Five

Reggie had heard that Ray was looking all over the Smoke for Barton and that there had been some kind of altercation. Ray had been everywhere, demanding if anyone had seen that ‘cunt and ex-friend Barton’.

Reggie turned up at the house and Sharon was evidently pleased to see him. She filled him in on the latest developments and saw the genuine shock on his face when he heard that Kathy had become embroiled in something so sordid, and with Barton of all people. He understood Ray’s ire – he would feel the same; it was a double whammy. He sat at the table with Sharon and Annie and tried to calm Sharon down.

‘He was a man demented, Reggie. I have never seen him so angry before.’

Annie was quiet; she knew when silence was the best medicine. Let the girl get it out of her system.

‘When I met him he was so different to how he is now. He was the sweetest, most gentle man I had ever been with. But then, what did I know? I had only ever had Lenny and we know how that turned out, don’t we?’

She was crying again. Reggie motioned to Annie to leave them, and she gratefully went back to the gatehouse and her own front door. As for Kathy! Well, she could hang as she grew for the time being. She was disgusted with the child.

‘I fucking hate him now, do you know that, Reggie? He made my boys into what they are: murdering fuckers who have no remorse for that young lad whatsoever. That was Ray taking them into the Life at such young ages. But I am as much to blame, because I let him. I let him!’ She was sobbing once more.

Reggie took a deep breath and said, ‘There is something you need to know, Sharon.’

The timbre of his voice relayed his seriousness to her and she stopped crying and, looking into his eyes, she said quietly, ‘What? What now?’

Reggie Dornan held her hands in his and said gently, ‘Ray worked for the Wheelans. Remember Lenny and his outside deals? Well, Ray was their hired torturer. He was the one who took people out if they had crossed them.’

His words were sinking in and she was shaking her head in denial.

‘No . . . No, not that. I can’t believe that . . .’