Michael Adebayo sat in the office of his friend and solicitor, a worried look on his face.

‘So, my friend, where are we?’ asked Asif Khan.

‘Novak is nowhere to be seen, despite me offering one hundred grand to see him silenced. Those incompetent fools, the Brankos, can’t find him anywhere, and Taylor is having no luck. I’m worried he’s making plans to reveal the footage. If he does that, I’m in major trouble.’ He rubbed his hands across his tired-looking face, tension evident in his features.

Khan paused for a moment, a contemplative look on his handsome face. He straightened his already-immaculate tie knot and spoke. ‘As I understand it from my police source, the female is nowhere to be found. She fled the women’s refuge and the police think she’s back in her homeland. If that’s the case, you only have the immigration offence left and, without knowing what’s on the SD card, it’s difficult to advise you properly. If you’ve told me everything that could be on it then you’re going to get convicted and you will almost certainly be going to jail for a number of years.’

Adebayo sighed deeply. Jail would also mean that the Solicitors Regulatory Authority would strike him off, leaving him disgraced and unemployable.

Khan continued. ‘In addition, the Home Office would do a financial investigation into your businesses and may seize all your assets if they can argue they are the proceeds of crime. If I understand correctly what the Home Office are saying, they can evidence that you processed all the corrupt visa applications on the basis of sham marriages introduced by the Brankos.’

‘How can they prove I knew it?’

‘They had the Brankos under surveillance and Novak had infiltrated them for a month at least. They also have all the statistical data of the obviously corrupt applications. Added to the evidence they seized from your office, they have a strong case. You should have been more careful, my friend.’

Adebayo knew he had been careless, made worse by the fact that he’d felt invincible in his own community for so long. He had been feared and respected in equal measures, and he’d never thought that anyone would give evidence against him.

‘So, what’s my best-case scenario, then?’