‘Listen to me, Briony, I’ve had a feeling on me for a long time there was something not right with Kerry. Then the other week, I said something about blacks and she went mad. I should have guessed then. If she was here now I’d rip her sodding head off her shoulders, I would that! The thought of her and him ... him touching her with his black hands.’

Briony saw the disgust on her mother’s face. Going to her, she sat her on a chair.

‘Calm down, for crying out loud.’

‘You’ve got to do something, Briony. Smash him up! Smash his bloody face in! Teach him a lesson he won’t forget! You have to put a stop to it - now.’

‘Hello, Bernadette. Sit yourself down.’

Bernie sat opposite Briony in her office. The door was closed but they could hear Kerry’s voice as she sang.

‘Sounds well, don’t she, Bri?’

‘She does that. In fact, she sounds just like a girl who’s getting a regular portion off a big black man. Am I right? Is Kerry having a fling with someone in the band? Because they ain’t likely to be getting engaged, are they?’

Bernadette’s face was a bleached white.

‘Who told you?’

‘Never mind who told me, it’s enough I know. You were obviously in on the big secret. You even tried to hint to me about it, didn’t you? Is it that Evander then, the one she’s so sure is talented and clever? Is it? Well, answer me then, you two-faced cow!’

‘I ain’t two-faced! I never said a word to anyone.’

‘That’s just the point, ain’t it? Normally you’ve a mouth big enough to get your foot in it, both your feet, in fact. Why keep quiet about something like this, eh? Is it because you thought that once the shit hit the fan Kerry would be finished, is that it? You sat and watched your sister bugger up her life and didn’t even try and do anything about it? You should have come to me, told me as soon as you knew or even guessed. Now I’ve got the job of getting rid of the ponce ain’t I?’

‘He’s going back to the States anyway at the end of the month.’

‘Oh no he ain’t, love, he’s going tonight. And he’s going with a flea up his arse. Rupert Charles knows a bloke who wants to record our Kerry. He thinks she’s going to be big, very big, and so do I. Unlike you, Bernie, our Kerry has a brilliant future ahead of her - and a black piano player ain’t in the picture anywhere! Tonight, after work, you keep her in the club. Evander and his merry little band are going to leave tonight, leave this place permanently, back to the good old US of A.’