Full of excitement, Tony and Jake had given her daily news bulletins about the mystery they had created. Apart from the initial clean-up she had done when they had first looked it over, she had steered clear and left them to their own devices. Now, standing in the club with her boys while they showed her all of the fancy gadgets they had installed, she felt satisfied and proud. She couldn’t stop grinning as Jake gave her a twirl around the dance floor. Laughing out loud and catching her breath, she told them she was ready to go home and leave them to enjoy it all.

‘You haven’t heard the best bit yet Elle.’ Tony’s blue eyes sparkled like sapphires and his face was flushed with excitement. ‘People have actually been placing bets on what was being built behind the long dust sheets and scaffolding. Everyone’s been talking about it. It’s amazing.’

Tony was right though, the building works had been watched eagerly by the public as they passed by on their way to work each day. Buses full of passengers and black cabs driving through the West End all seemed to be waiting for the finished result. The large building – now no longer surrounded by scaffolding and covered by long dust sheets – had attracted a lot of public interest.

Tony’s request that the sign outside should be pink neon had initially seemed shocking, but there was no denying it worked. The designers had continued the pink theme inside, to create an intimate atmosphere.

The bar was circular, the black top resting on a chrome base, and chrome stools with pink leather seats surrounded it. The dance floor looked as though it was made of large glass tiles. Multi-coloured lights flashed and flared beneath it, lighting up the whole area, making it the centrepiece of the club. The theme continued with round black tables, surrounded by horseshoe-shaped pink leather sofas and private booths for those who wanted to sit away from the crowds. High up, near the ceiling, was a large glass DJ’s booth, and a stage, should they ever want to put on live entertainment. It all looked amazing.

Tony and Jake had their own office, and CCTV monitors lined the walls both inside and outside of the club, so they could watch everything that was going on. No one was going to creep up on him and walk in without warning, the way he had once done to the South London mob boss, Marlon, and the hapless – now deceased – Eddie Rawlings.

All they needed, now, after all this hard work and waiting, were customers.

Sharon had suggested flyers advertising opening night and a notification in the local newspaper. Local tearaway, Dan, and his gang of youths who now all worked for Tony, had been given the job of posting the flyers everywhere and anywhere they could. Sharon had interviewed and hired bar staff, while Tony and Jake had sorted out security.

And now was the moment of truth. But would anyone actually turn up?