Toni switched on the phone. It took a few moments to bleep into life. She waited until the signal appeared. It was very weak – just one bar.

‘That’s the problem with keeping it down here,’ she said. ‘The reception’s shit.’

After it was apparent that there were no messages or voicemails for her, she switched it off again and put it back in the bag. She took one of the thick rolls of banknotes out next. The wad was wound tight with an elastic band.

As they had been repeatedly made aware during their induction, cash was forbidden inside prison. Any money the inmates earned from jobs they did was credited to their canteen accounts – money they could use to buy cigarettes or to enhance the meals they had with extra goodies – but that wasn’t real money. Not like this. This was money that the inmates paid for drugs with, money that they themselves, or their visitors, had smuggled in.

Toni whipped off the elastic band and expertly flicked through the notes. Observing closely, Bailey estimated that the roll of cash constituted around a thousand pounds in fifties and twenties. Toni reapplied the elastic band, then handed the wad to Bailey without even looking at her. She then reached into the bag and handed Bailey two further rolls.

Bailey took the money from her. It wasn’t often that she got to handle this much cash. She quickly ran her eyes over it, calculating that she was holding around three grand in total.

Standing there in the cupboard, she held the bundles of cash while Toni re-sealed the bag and pushed it back into the hole. Toni carefully replaced the rat trap and then affixed the grille back into its former position. Finally, she pushed the rolls of cleaning tissue in front of the grille and then stood up.

She turned to Bailey, their faces only centimetres apart.

‘In case you’re wondering, that isn’t a present,’ she said.

‘I guessed as much.’

‘That’s for you to pay our contact. It’s who we get the drugs off. It’s very simple. You’ll just deposit the money and collect the drugs.’

Bailey felt a tingle of excitement. Finally she was gaining some traction. This was the next step up the chain. This had to be the source that Alice had mentioned. Just before she’d been killed.

‘Sounds straightforward enough,’ she said.

‘It is. But, of course, if anything should go wrong, then the consequences for you will be dire,’ said Toni with a death’s-head smile. ‘So you’d better not fuck up. For your own sake.’

And she switched off the light.

Chapter 49

The chapel was cool and dim. Bailey stood at the top of the aisle, rows of empty wooden pews stretching out on either side of her down to the front of the room. There, atop the altar stood a painted statue of Jesus hanging on the cross, his face frozen in an expression of pious agony.

She was keenly aware of the bundles of cash secreted just beneath her waistband, and had been so ever since Toni had given them to her.