Tom found his rucksack discarded under a table and searched it for fresh clothes. No luck; he’d ripped his way through his last pair of jeans.

Jasmine was boiling up some water, and fussing about with the first aid box. ‘What are you even doing here, Ramone?’ she grumbled. ‘You’re hurt bad. You need Doc Woollard.’

‘Don’t need no one,’ Ramone snapped back. ‘Don’t got no one.’ He looked up at Tom and Kate over Rico’s shoulder. ‘My people all cleared out. Puff got himself a hospital bed at Mount Sinai. They’ll know he’s jumped parole, man! Cops gonna be all over his fat ass.’

‘Guess he was real scared, huh, Ro?’ said Rico.

‘And Ciss skipped to New Jersey, bailin’ out with Fleet and China and the rest. Only Polar stayed behind.’ He lowered his voice, shook his head. ‘Just me and the fool. Cosy, ain’t it?’

‘What’s up, Ramone?’ Jasmine dabbed several swabs of cotton wool in the hot water. ‘We’re here. Girls and little kids don’t count?’

Ramone glanced over at her. ‘Yeah, you do,’ he said quietly, ‘you really do.’ He turned back solemnly to Tom and Kate. ‘Ric tells me you looked after him good, wolf-boy. And Kate, you saved my ass from Swagger out there on the street. I owe you both, and I ain’t never gonna let you down.’

‘So how about you get yourself checked out by this Dr Woollard?’ Kate said. ‘I’d hate to think we saved your ass just so it could go septic.’

‘OK,’ Ramone sighed heavily. Rico moved aside as Jasmine came back in and started swabbing at his injuries.

Tom raised his arms in his baggy fluorescent jacket. ‘And since I’m fresh out of clean shirts, if you have any spare clothes a little less conspicuous than these …’

‘Got some gear in the sleep room,’ offered Ramone through gritted teeth. ‘Help yourself to whatever ain’t been burnt.’

Tom screwed up his nose as he entered the gloomy room, it reeked of smoke and charred plastic. The fire had done some damage but it hadn’t consumed everything in the closet. He pulled out some combats and a black tracksuit top – nice and inconspicuous.

He got back to find Jasmine was cleaning up Ramone’s head.

Ramone winced as she daubed antiseptic on to his sticky scalp. ‘Jas, you take Ric over to Park East to see Stacy,’ he ordered. ‘Me and Polar, we’ll hit Woollard’s.’ He looked up at Tom. ‘Guess you two’ll be shooting off now, huh?’

‘Tom says he wants to meet Stacy,’ Jasmine broke in.

‘We both would,’ added Kate quickly.

Jasmine shrugged. ‘Guess there’s room in the wagon.’