– We are sorry about your wife. She was quite a woman, but we were sent here to kill Peter and Raymond, cleanly – heads off, symbolic and all that – and you turned up and quite rudely got in our way. We are sorry but…

Rab’s hands are so shaky, he can’t even light a cigarette.

– Could we feed the bodies to the fish, Audrey?

– I don’t think so.

– Would a catfish eat them?

– It eats snails and crawfish, not human corpses.

– It’s going to get dark, Rab says.

– I think we already got to the dark bit of the evening, Mr Ram, do you not?

– Take your mask off.

– No.

– I don’t think you are in a position to negotiate.

Bai has put a large psychedelic mushroom throw over Davey and Ali. Bee’s body is sat respectfully up against the wall – they’ve draped a leather jacket around her shoulders.

Audrey looks sad.

– I didn’t want to kill Boadicea, but she had seen our face and worse than that we had seen hers, she wasn’t going to let us out of here alive, was she?

– No.

– It is just business, Audrey states firmly.

– I am begging you both to give me tomorrow with my kids.

– Dead men don’t go home to their children, Mr Ram, and we have no choice, you know that. Raymond and Peter here were due to die on our contract, and that has been fulfilled. We could have argued with you about who was going to kill them but – that would not have gone any better…

– No.

– You were sent here by the faction in Macau, were you not?

Rab nods.

– Yes, I thought so. We were sent from a bigger network in Hong Kong. Many factions wanted these men dead – we could all imagine this job was just double-booked… but I don’t believe it was, Audrey says.

Bai hops up onto the windowsill and looks down onto the snowy street.

There is a sense of realisation in the way Rab drops his shoulders.

He pulls the mask off.

Both women look at him.

His face is freckled, young, clean-shaven. He has warm eyes.

– Maybe our men in Hong Kong knew you’d come looking for Dora Noyce’s cousin – once you realised Raymond and Peter didn’t have her. They don’t like additional problems, do they, Bai?

– Nope!

Audrey fiddles around at the bar.

She has a quick gin.

Begins to fix up drinks for Rab and Bai.

– None of us like loose ends in this industry, they always come back to get us later. You are very handsome without your mask, Mr Ram. What age are you?

– I’m twenty-six, Rab says.

His eyes are so bright and blue, they glow.

– This is a bad industry for all of us really… it never ends well for anyone in it, no? Audrey says.

She hands him the brandy cocktail she has poured for him.