Jake poured two mugs of coffee, and placed one in front of Tony. The more he asked him about what had happened the previous evening, the shadier Tony was about it. He knew he shouldn’t have let Tony go. He reckoned he must have threatened the publican and it had all gone wrong.

‘Okay, Tony, what did you do and what hospital is he in? For God’s sake, he was only a bit short on his money. So, tell me, what happened?’ Jake sat opposite him, waiting for the worst. He noticed Tony’s serious yet sheepish face; he wasn’t laughing or joking about how he had scared the publican.

Tony stood up and reached for his overcoat and took the money the publican had given him out of his pocket. ‘Here.’ He threw it on the coffee table between them. ‘I told him to leave the rest and just make sure he paid up properly next month.’

Jake was now concerned; the solemn tone in Tony’s voice was unusual, not what he had expected at all. ‘Are you okay, Tony? Come on, mate, what’s happened?’

Jake sat back in his chair and listened intently as Tony first told him about his meeting with the publican, and then he paused and seemed to blush a little. With a shy smile on his face, he told Jake about his encounter with the woman in the beer garden.

Jake laughed. ‘Oh, well, not a totally wasted evening, then. Sounds better than mine at Sharon’s sister’s place. Maybe I should have gone, after all, maybe I would have had some passion in that shithole of a so-called beer garden.’ He shook his head. ‘So, what’s the problem? You look weird.’

Tony took a gulp of his coffee. ‘I want you to do me a favour, Jake. I want you to find out who she is, and if she’s okay. I didn’t get a chance to, I fell over my trousers and banged my knees on one of the wooden benches.’ With that, Tony smiled; it was the first proper smile Jake had seen all morning.

Jake nodded. ‘Yes, okay, shouldn’t be too hard. A pub full of strippers, they are bound to all know each other. What was her name?’ Jake waited and then saw Tony shrug his shoulders.

‘I don’t know, we never introduced ourselves. In fact, we never spoke, not while we were… you know.’ Tony looked down at the floor; he felt embarrassed admitting this to Jake. He saw Jake raise his eyebrows and smile; he obviously thought this was amusing.

‘Okay, next question, what was she wearing? Who was she with?’

Again, Tony shrugged his shoulders. ‘I can’t remember what she was wearing. No, I do, it was a dress, and she was sitting with a black woman and her husband.’ Tony seemed pleased that he’d recollected this information.

Jake held his hands open wide. ‘Is that it? She had long dark hair, wore a dress and was sat with a black woman. That is, until she decided to have sex with you in that old back yard. That’s not a lot to go on. I’ll ask around, although it seems pointless.’ Jake suddenly turned serious. ‘You did use protection, didn’t you? After all, she sounds a bit easy to me. How many other people hasn’t she spoken to in the beer garden with her knickers down?’