Manton shrugged. ‘I haven’t seen Ben in nine years, not since the day he went down the steps for the Steel Amalgamated job in Birmingham or aren’t you familiar with that one?’

‘In detail,’ Brady said. ‘Garvald’s wheelman got clear away after that little tickle. We never did manage to run him down.’

‘Well, don’t look at me,’ Manton said. ‘I was at home that night.’

‘Who said so, your mother?’ Brady sneered.

Manton crushed his cigarette in the ashtray very deliberately and reached for the telephone. ‘I don’t know what you’re trying to pull, but I’m getting my lawyer in before I say another word.’

As he lifted the receiver, Brady pulled it from his hand and replaced it in its cradle. ‘All right, Manton, let’s stop playing games. I want Garvald. Where is he?’

‘How should I know, for Christ’s sake. This is the last place he’ll show, believe me.’

‘When we pulled him in for the Steel Amalgamated job, you and he were partners in a club on the other side of the river.’

‘That’s right. The old One-Spot. So what?’

‘Maybe Garvald thinks you still owe him something or did you pay him off while he was inside?’

‘Pay him off?’ Manton started to laugh. ‘What with – washers? After they pulled Ben in, your boys cracked down on the One-Spot so hard we went bust inside a month. I owed money from here to London. So did Ben if it comes to that, but he wasn’t around when the bailiffs arrived. I was.’

There was a bitterness in his voice that gave the whole sorry story the stamp of truth and Brady, facing the fact that his hunch had been wrong, swallowed his disappointment and made one last try.

‘You’ve got a place of your own upstairs haven’t you? I’d like to have a look round.’

‘Got a warrant?’

‘What do you think?’

Manton shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter. Look all you want. If you find Ben, let me know. I could put him to work for two years and he’d still owe me money.’

‘My heart bleeds for you,’ Brady said and he opened the door.

Manton smiled, teeth gleaming beneath the clipped moustache. ‘Come to think of it, I could do with another man on the door in the spring, Brady. How long before you retire?’

Brady’s hand tightened on the door handle, the knuckles whitening as the anger churned up into his throat in a tight ball that threatened to choke him.

He took a deep breath and when he spoke, his voice was remarkably controlled. ‘Now that was a stupid remark for a smart boy like you to make, Manton. Really stupid.’

And Manton knew it. As his smile evaporated, Brady grinned gently, closed the door and walked across the thick carpet to the entrance.