‘I don’t like untouchable no more. I need you to come in the crew. You could play both sides and I’d never know. I see you, Guns, dreaming of leaving and starting a new life. I’m not fucking stupid.’

‘I never said you were stupid, man. But I’d be shit at it. I don’t like drugs, I ain’t raping no girls, Adam hates my guts. If something ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We’ve got history. You know me better than anyone.’ He wasn’t too proud to try flattery. It worked.

A smile spread slowly across Jason’s face.

‘There’s too much heat at the moment and we need a courier tonight. You know me and Adam can’t do it, and Tyrone has got to keep out of the way. I don’t trust no one else. That little shit over there’ – he pointed to a young lad who was wasted and mid-blackout – ‘he was the one who stabbed that woman with my brother. He said she bled like a fucking pig. Between you and me, fam, he fucked up. I got shit breathing on me from all sides. He got me in the shit, Guns. She was the wrong one.’

‘The wrong one?’

‘Long story. It was supposed to be Keira and one other, but not a proper spoilt bitch like that.’

‘What can I do? The coppers found two knives in the pond.’ Jackson had heard it on the radio. That was part of the problem with the Cotton brothers: they lived in a bubble.

‘What?’ Jason’s face changed.

‘Divers were in there yesterday, you didn’t hear? The police released the photographs on TV today. They’ve sent them for forensic testing.’

‘But the water would have washed them clean.’ Jason tried to convince himself.

‘Not so apparently, bruv. They can still lift oils and shit left by fingers. Tell me they were wearing gloves?’ He nodded towards Adam and the young lad who was his partner in the crime. Jason looked at his brother.

‘Fucking liability,’ he said. ‘Guns, I’ve got a proposition for you.’

Not another one, Jackson thought.

Chapter 29

Sharon Bradley checked on the women who’d gathered at the barricades. The female copper who’d told her about Keira had called her to negotiate a police presence at the makeshift blockade. At first she’d almost told her to fuck off, but then she realised that the woman was serious, and she felt important. There had been an increased police presence on the estate as a result of the stabbings, but they’d kept themselves to themselves, no doubt embarrassed about yesterday. There was a clear difference between the police involved with the murder case, run by the Porter woman, and those involved in the raids yesterday.