‘You know… I keep seeing this tattoo around,’ she said. ‘It’s like these three playing cards with the letters ABC on them.’

Their smiles disappeared abruptly and the atmosphere in the cell instantly became cold and serious. Kay and Seema swapped glances. They looked frightened. Bailey had obviously touched on something.

‘I just wondered what it meant,’ she said.

‘It stands for Ace Blade Crew,’ said Kay quietly, looking around warily as if the walls had ears.

‘Ace Blade Crew?’

‘They’re a gang. You sure don’t want to mess with them. As the name suggests, they all carry shanks. They’re psychos, especially that Toni, the one with the gold tooth. She’s banged up for murder. Apparently it involved a machete.’

It sounded like they were more dangerous than she’d realised. A prison gang. Interesting.

‘What do they do exactly?’ Bailey asked.

‘They run all the drugs in here,’ said Kay. ‘They have a monopoly on it. Anyone else would have to be stupid to start selling drugs, unless they had some kind of death wish.’

‘The less questions you ask about them, the better,’ said Seema.

‘I just want to know who to watch out for, y’know, for my own personal safety,’ said Bailey. She paused for a moment. ‘I don’t want to end up like Poodle.’

At the mention of Poodle, Kay’s lip curled in contempt.

‘Poodle had drug debts. She was always in debt. These junkie scum always are. I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if they did it to teach her a lesson.’

Bailey nodded with interest. She remembered Keisha’s warning about the consequences of not paying back debts. The Ace Blade Crew sounded like the kind of people who didn’t shy away from violence. Had she already found Alice’s killers?

‘Fuck, man, but I heard she was like… all mutilated,’ said Seema.

‘Just like Mel’s cellmate,’ said Kay. ‘What was her name again? Ally or something? She didn’t last very long, did she?’

Bailey’s ears perked up at the mention of Alice. She glanced at Mel. Mel had started to fidget uncomfortably.

‘Yeah I heard about her,’ said Bailey carefully. ‘Did she die in the same way then?’

Kay nodded. ‘Yeah. Scalped. Like what the Native Americans used to do. Puts the fear of God into your enemies. You do that to enough people, no one will fuck with you.’

Bailey scanned the three of them. ‘Do you think this ABC gang killed her as well then?’

Kay and Seema once again exchanged nervous looks.

‘Maybe,’ said Kay. ‘Maybe she crossed them. They don’t mess around. You even just look at them the wrong way and you’re in trouble.’

‘What do you think, Mel?’ asked Seema. ‘Do you think they did it?’

Mel’s fidgeting got more agitated and a muscle in her left eye began to twitch.

‘Stop talking about killing!’ she said, her voice coming out in fits and spurts. ‘Mel doesn’t like it.’

‘Mel’s been getting a bit jittery about this murder business ever since her cellmate got killed,’ explained Seema. ‘A bit too close to home, eh Mel?’