‘It’s okay, I already know that. It just seems he thought he knew this woman, but couldn’t remember where from. He thought maybe you would know who she was, considering she was at your party.’

The publican was still slightly hungover, having got into the party mood, himself. ‘I’m sure there are lots of lovely ladies Mr Lambrianu can’t remember, but none of these old slags, Jake. They are not in his league.’ He winked at Jake and laughed.

Considering the mood Tony was in this morning, and the fact that he had already snapped at Jake for calling the woman ‘easy’, he was glad he wasn’t there when the publican called her an old slag. He seemed to vaguely know the black woman he mentioned.

‘That would possibly be Candy. Nice woman, the guys all like her, but she was with a lot of people and has a lot of friends.’

Jake decided to call it a day; all this probing was causing suspicion. He decided another way to tackle the problem would be to check the daily newspapers to see if Tony was on the front page. There was nothing. Again, it was a dead end. He would wait a few more days; maybe they hadn’t had time to do anything about it yet.

Three days later, Jake went into Tony’s office, threw a bunch of magazines on his desk and sat down. ‘There is no “kiss and tell” story about you, Tony. Your Cinderella didn’t even leave a shoe for us to track her down with. No one seems to know who she is or where she’s from. Forget it, mate. I haven’t heard of a woman being hurt or anything in the area, so I presume she got home okay and that’s that.’

Tony glanced up at him, as though trying to remember what he had asked him to do. ‘Oh, yes,’ he said, ‘I’d forgotten about her. You’re sure there’s nothing in the news about it?’

Jake shook his head.

‘Well, that’s good, anyway. As you say, it’s over now.’

Jake thought it was strange that Tony didn’t seem disappointed there was no lead on ‘Cinderella’. Maybe he was just relieved that it hadn’t become common knowledge. Who knew? Who would ever know?

Christmas, as hoped for, brought the cash rolling in, as the club hosted its many Christmas parties. Companies hired the place to put on Christmas parties for the men, who enjoyed all the fun the club had to offer, especially the strippers. At the weekends, there were the usual nightclub events, where everyone came out to dance the night away, all in the name of Christmas.

The casino, with all of its glamour, beckoned in people from all walks of life, hoping to have a good time and win some money. Graham had given Tony a good saying to remember: ‘It doesn’t matter who wins what, always remember, the casino always wins.’ That was true enough, because even when they did win, they would bet it all again, trying to win more.