Eddie shepherded the boy into Joe’s office. Noted, and was unsurprised by, the child’s awed reaction. If the kitchen was a masterpiece of shining metal and marble, Joe’s inner sanctum was something else. As far from the stereotypical man cave as you could get without reaching orbit. A screen the size of a five-a-side goal dominated one wall. Flanked by a pair of B&O speakers the height of a tall man. On the other side of the room, a single-paned panoramic window looked out onto the terrace where Nigel had met his grisly end. On the other sat a desk the size of a decent dining table, pristinely empty. Joe was sitting on one of three large leather chesterfield sofas arranged around the TV, beckoning the boy to join him. Eddie tapped the kid on the shoulder.

‘Go on, he don’t bite.’

He does have legs broken though. And he’s definitely been known to make people disappear, he thought. But decided not to add. The boy walked across the room slowly, as if balancing on a high wire. His gaze locked disbelievingly on Joe. He perched on the other end of the sofa. His expression stuck somewhere between simple awe and just completely losing his shit.

‘You’re Samuel, right?’ Got a nod in reply. ‘All right, Samuel, we’re gonna call you Sammy. Because we like you. We like you a lot. Some of my own men wouldn’t have shown the guts you did.’

Samuel’s mother, grieving the loss of her older son, had reluctantly returned to her cleaning job that morning. Leaving her son to be unexpectedly picked up from their door an hour later. Samuel not really having been given much choice in the matter, but in a kindly enough way. A pair of hard-looking men in suits had walked him to a large black Mercedes SUV. Watched by his disbelieving peers, who knew the car was Joe’s just as well as he did. And, when they got there, Cockfosters was a revelation. Green. Well kept. And with big houses that had proper gardens. Joe’s house another step up again. Like a royal palace, to a boy used to a two-bed flat.

‘Your mum should be proud of you. I know I am. Four of my men killed right in front of you. And your big brother. And still you had the balls to pick up a gun and come out shooting.’

‘How did you know that?’

Joe grinned at the forthright nature of the question. Looked round at his assembled lieutenants.