Mickey raised his left hand. Tapped his ear.

‘Hear that?’

‘What?’

‘Absolutely nothing. No sirens. There might have been a few calls about noise to 999, but those arches are built like brick shithouses, aren’t they? Totally noise-proof. And the nearest house is two hundred yards away. Which means there was no-one around to hear much in the first place. And trust me, the Met’s got bigger fish to fry right now. I made sure of that. Which means we’re not going to be disturbed for the rest of the night.’

And shut his mouth. Giving Joe time to think.

‘And…?’

‘And so if you say no to my reasonable offer, I’ll put a bullet in one of your feet. Good thing about the foot, from a damage perspective, there’s lots of bones but not much blood supply. Then we’ll drag you back in there and chain you up where you had Martin hanging from the ceiling.’

‘What, and then torture me? I don’t think so. You don’t look like you’ve got the stones for it, for one thing. And you’re a copper for another. Not the sort of thing you lot do, is it?’

Mickey laughed softly. ‘Not these days we don’t. And no, I’m not half the evil bastard you are. But then I don’t need to be. All I need to do is put the word out that you’re no longer the king of this little dung heap. And where you can be found. I’d imagine your competitors will do the rest. And what was it you said? If you kill the king, you have to kill his heirs?’

He waited a moment and allowed the threat to sink in.

‘So, when whichever of your fellow gangsters gets here first, what do you reckon they’ll do? Cut you down? Or cut you up?’

Joe stared at him in silence. Hating.

‘And it’s not just your life that’s on the line. Is it? Because your rivals won’t want to leave your family alive, will they. Why take the risk? Seems to me we both have something to lose. So here’s the deal. My deal. The only deal. First you strip.’

‘You fucking what?’

Mickey shrugged. ‘You could hide a lot of bitcoin in a stick small enough to hide in your pants. So the only way you’re getting away from here is buffo. You get in the car. You call your thugs. Tell them to free Roz. Then you give me the phone. I talk to her, and when I’m happy she’s safe, you get the keys, the passport and the cards. And drive away. After that, I see you again and I’ll kill you.’