‘We can’t rob this guy,’ Daniel whispered, as he stepped in last.

‘I know a guy who’ll buy this stuff,’ Oli said, grinning ear to ear. ‘We’ll make four, even five hundred quid, easy.’

‘We need a bag,’ Leon whispered.

‘There was a wheeled suitcase under the stairs,’ Oli noted. ‘Go get it, Daniel.’

But Daniel looked furious, holding up his hands. ‘I’m embarrassed,’ he said. ‘You two should be ashamed of yourselves.’

‘This is serious money,’ Oli said. ‘What’s your problem?’

‘I don’t want this on my conscience,’ Daniel said. ‘I’m outta here.’

Leon followed his brother out on to the landing, then watched as he stormed downstairs and out of the front door.

As Daniel headed down the front path towards the street, Leon retrieved the wheelie case from under the stairs, and came back to find Oli crawling under the disabled man’s bed, unplugging the tablet and laptop chargers.

‘He’s been pissy all day,’ Leon explained to Oli. ‘He won’t admit it, but he’s crazy jealous about me getting it on with Rhea.’

‘More money for us,’ Oli said, as he slid out from under the bed and swiped dust off the knees of his trousers.

While Leon unzipped the case and started loading up with the Xbox and its accessories, Oli walked around to the far side of the bed, which was barely thirty centimetres from the wall. The disabled guy’s laptop was a swanky Lenovo that was probably worth more than everything else they’d stolen. Trouble was, the owner had fallen asleep while using it and the laptop lay open on his thighs, with one arm draped across the keyboard.

Leon felt jittery as he watched Oli slide the laptop towards the edge of the bed. Then he grabbed the man’s outstretched wrist and began lifting it away. Oli thought he’d done the job, but as he snapped the laptop shut the man reared up in his bed.

He was a big fellow, more than six feet tall and overweight. ‘Who the hell are you?’ he shouted, as he shot upwards. ‘What are you doing?’

Oli tried scrambling back around the outside of the bed, but the man was only paralysed down his right side and managed to flick his leg, pinning Oli to the wall as the laptop clattered to the floor.

As Oli tried to wriggle free, the man rolled over and swung his fist, hitting Oli hard on the chin. Fortunately for the twelve-year-old, the man was too broad to fit in the narrow gap between bed and wall.

Oli moaned in pain as the punch knocked him back, but he was able to squat down, grab the laptop with its trailing power cord, then scramble under the bed and out the other side.

‘You OK?’ Leon asked, as he gave Oli a hand up.