She nodded at the two Arabs and they let Sandy go. Briony handed his knife back to him and smiled.

‘No hard feelings, Sandy, this was just business, boy.’ She looked at Tommy. ‘Give him a monkey, he’s working for us now. Exclusively.’ She faced Sandy and smiled. ‘That OK with you?’

He nodded furiously. ‘Yeah, I don’t mind. I’m ready when you are, girl.’

‘Then you can go.’ As Pete and Sandy were leaving the room, Briony shouted after them.

‘One last thing, Sandy. I don’t want any mention of what took place in this room, from either of you. If it did I would be very annoyed, you see, and let’s face it, Sandy, there’s more than a few cutters around, aren’t there?’

He nodded again, his face serious.

Outside on the pavement he walked along with his son, quiet and subdued. ‘Little Pete’, as his mother called him, searched his father’s face and swallowed down his disappointment. His dad was a grass. The knowledge broke his heart.

Even worse, though, was the fact that his father was frightened of a tiny little lady with red hair and green eyes and the smallest feet he had ever seen. Even surrounded as she was with big men, little Pete had felt the fire from her, had felt the menace, and as upset as he was, felt a tremor of pity for whoever had angered her so much. If she could frighten his father, she could frighten old Nick himself.

‘Well, you was right, Bri. But it wasn’t Sandy. I heard a whisper a while back that Willy was branching out, but I didn’t dream it was in our game. He’s more a heavies’ heavy, if you know what I mean. He pimps, but not for our kind of girls. He’s always dealt exclusively with the rough trade.’

Briony nodded, her face set in a frown that etched deep lines on her forehead.

‘I have to scoot in a minute, I have to see Nellie Deakins and then Mariah Jurgens. I wonder what Jurgens could possibly want? I have a feeling in me boots she’s involved in this somehow. It seems more than coincidence that she wants to see me after one of my girls gets topped.’

‘There’s no harm in Mariah, I knew her years back. She was always straight, Bri, always fair.’

Briony laughed bitterly.

‘Tell that to Victoria Staines’ mother. Her daughter still carries the scars of her run-in with Mariah to this day!’

Tommy sighed. ‘You’d have done the same, Briony. If a girl is thieving you got to put the hard word on them, otherwise before you know it all the brasses are having a field day.’