Once inside, he went straight through to the kitchen, threw down the keys and reached for an open bottle of whiskey that stood on the table. He sloshed a generous measure into a dirty mug and took a gulp, swallowed and belched loudly. He couldn’t decide whether he wanted a bacon butty or a fag. Or maybe both. But first he needed to take a piss. In the bathroom, he stared at his ravaged reflection in the mirror. The younger version of Jimmy Cox had been rakishly handsome with thick, dark hair and swarthy skin. Women had fallen readily for his good looks and smooth banter. But even his most ardent lady friends had dropped him once they’d got to know the brutal man behind the oleaginous smile and smarmy small talk. And now his grey hair was lank and greasy, and his skin pocked and purple veined. He zipped up his flies and returned to the kitchen where he retrieved a cigarette packet from his trouser pocket, flipped open the lid and cursed when he saw that there were only three left. He tipped one out, placed it between his lips and lit it from a gas ring on the filthy cooker. When his mother was alive, the kitchen had been kept spotless and she would have cooked whatever he wanted as soon as he got home. But it had been three years now since she’d died, and the house had descended inexorably into squalor. Jimmy Cox was an only child and he had been as much a bitter disappointment to his father as he had been treasured son to his mother. He had done everything to deserve his father’s opinion and nothing to warrant his mother’s. The pawnbroker’s had been started by his parents when they married, and they had worked hard to make it profitable. Jimmy Cox had eventually inherited their business but never their work ethic nor their principles.

It was stifling indoors. He unbolted the back door and opened it. The garden was little more than a patch of scorched earth and weeds littered with rubbish. Jimmy Cox stepped outside and his foot slid on something slippery. He bent down to investigate but recoiled immediately.

‘Fucking dog shit!’ he roared. ‘Where’s that fucking dog?’