‘Some institute.’

The room into which they entered was white tiled with a shower stall in one corner and a padded table in the centre. Sammy Rosco was sitting on a chair in the corner reading a magazine. He wore a white singlet and slacks.

‘Very ornamental,’ Nick said. ‘What’s he supposed to be?’

Rosco looked up with a frown, then threw down the magazine and got to his feet. ‘Who’s the funny man, Molly?’

Nick turned to her quickly. ‘You can leave us now.’

‘Heh, wait a minute,’ she said in surprise.

‘I said leave us.’ His voice was hard and with the cutting edge of a razor. She turned and went out almost immediately, her face red, and Nick produced his warrant card. ‘I haven’t got much time, so let’s have some straight answers, Rosco. You hired two men to attack Ben Garvald outside Wandsworth yesterday morning. Why?’

Rosco looked over his shoulder like a hunted animal. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Don’t waste my time,’ Nick said wearily. ‘I’ve seen your wife. She told me what happened at your place earlier and what Ben Garvald did to you.’ He poked a finger at the livid bruise on the other man’s left cheek. ‘He must be quite a puncher.’

‘That lousy rotten bitch. Just wait till I get my hands on her. I’ll make her wish she’d never been born.’

‘You’ll have to wait a long time,’ Nick said. ‘She caught a London train about ten minutes ago. I put her on it myself.’ He smiled softly. ‘She’s gone home, Sammy.’

Rosco shook his head in bewilderment. ‘She couldn’t. She didn’t have the cash.’

‘Garvald saw to that. Good of him, wasn’t it?’

With a cry of anger and frustration, Rosco swung a tremendous punch, that Nick found no difficulty whatever in avoiding. Remembering Wilma, he moved in fast, his left sank in well below the belt, and his right swung to meet the descending face, splintering teeth. Rosco staggered back, cannoned into the padded table and slid to the tiled floor.

He lay there moaning, blood trickling into his white singlet and Nick crouched beside him. ‘That was from Wilma, Sammy. And don’t let’s have any of that assault by a police officer crap. It wouldn’t get you anywhere, believe me. Not with the kind of form you’ve got behind you.’

As he got to his feet, the door opened and Molly came in. ‘He slipped and fell,’ Nick said. ‘Better see if there’s a doctor in the house.’

She looked straight at him, her eyes hard. ‘Don’t come back, Nick. Never again as a friend. I like to know where I stand.’

‘What’s this?’ he said. ‘The Berlin Wall? Me on one side, you on the other?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Suit yourself. See you sometime.’