Lenny turned to his younger son, who was huge for his age and already had the air of a hooligan.

Liam looked him square in the eyes and, after a few beats, he said loudly, ‘I’m sorry then!’

‘Get to your rooms. There will be no sweets tonight, and no TV either.’

The lads stomped off together.

Sharon placed a cup of tea on the kitchen table and Lenny sat down, grasping the mug gratefully. It was freezing out.

‘Honestly, Len. That Liam! It’s like he has the devil in him.’

Lenny laughed. ‘He is a fucker, all right. My dad was telling me he told my mum he saw a dinosaur looking in his bedroom window.’

Sharon grinned. She sat opposite her husband and grabbed his hand tightly. ‘He has a good imagination, I’ll give him that. But it’s like he has no fear of anything.’

Lenny shrugged. ‘He is only three years old. He will be all right.’

Sharon nodded and smiled. ‘How was your day?’

‘Nothing spectacular. I went into the cab firm and put the hard word on that Hassid bloke. He can’t fucking pick and choose his jobs, and I explained that in words even he couldn’t fail to understand.’

Sharon laughed. ‘He was born and bred in Ilford. Why he talks like that I don’t know. But thanks, anyway.’

He waved away her gratitude, but she saw he looked tired.

‘Why don’t I run you a nice bath after dinner, eh? We could have an early night!’

She was leering at him playfully and inside he groaned. The last thing he wanted was sex; even Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn’t raise it for him at the moment. Not that he would tell her that, of course. She was still as eager as she had been when they first married, while he was getting to the stage where he was happy to keep it to once or twice a week. It was hard, sometimes, to pretend. But so much of his life was pretend these days.

He sighed once more.

‘I said I would meet Reggie for a few beers. We need to strategise about something Jack wants us to do.’