‘You’ve taken me prisoner, right? You’re looking to have my boss over. Except Joe don’t take being done over all that well. So he’s going to pull out all the stops. He’ll find you. And then I’ll kill you. Unless you let me go right now. In which case—’

‘Nah.’ Mickey enjoyed the slight shudder that his interruption generated in Lewis’s body. Almost imperceptible. But there. ‘You were almost convincing until that last bit about letting you go. When you were about to say you wouldn’t kill me if I did.’

Lewis doubled down with impressive chutzpah. ‘Fuck you then, buddy. That’s your last chance done.’

Mickey found himself having to admire the bravado. But not particularly influenced by it either.

‘Yeah. Right. Thing is, Lewis, no-one knows where you are.’ He watched in silence for a moment as the gangster struggled to control a smirk. ‘Of course you think he’ll track your phone. ’Fraid not. You’ve been inside a jamming field since you turned off the main road. And before I switched the jammer off I took the SIMs out of your phones. Joe’s phone and your own handset. Then powered the phones down and smashed them both with a hammer. Very thoroughly indeed.’

He paused for a moment. Allowing the other man to think that was all.

‘Oh, and the tracker in that Merc you were driving?’ I jammed the shit out of it along with your phone. After all, that’s all it really was. Just a phone chip with a GPRS connection. So there’s a micro-jammer in the car now. Just enough to make the Merc invisible to the tracking system. Not enough to make a huge signal black spot. Won’t stop them finding you eventually. But you and me have all the time we’re ever going to need. All the time I need to see this through to the bitter end. Bitter for you, that is. Tell you what, you just lie there and see if you can work out what I’m doing. Bet you get it in no time.’

He turned away. Switched on the cement mixer standing beside the tub. Then busied himself shovelling cement and sand into the rotating drum. Topped it up with water. With a load mixed, he switched it off. Squatted down by Lewis’s head.

‘Thing is, Lewis, you’ve been called to judgement. They say there’s no God. And I was forced to agree for a while. After my little sister died. But now I’ve got a different handle on it. I’m not much of a believer in God. But I do believe in fate.’

‘Just let me go, if you want money—’