‘He’s spotted you, mate,’ Stan hissed.

Albie waited until Micky tapped him on the shoulder before turning around. Micky looked a shadow of his former self. He’d lost a load of weight, was unshaven, his clothes were crumpled and far too big for him and he had bags under his eyes as though he hadn’t slept for a week. ‘Whaddya want, Micky?’

‘To talk. Please, Albie. Alone.’

Having never been to Soho, Queenie and Viv were both in shock. Vinny had described the area as posh, but it was as seedy as hell. There were lots of strip clubs, many advertising ‘French Lessons’. Queenie dreaded to think what that might mean, but doubted it involved learning the French language.

‘Look over there, Queen. It’s a coffee bar,’ Viv pointed out.

Outside the coffee bar there were lots of trendy young men and women and the inside was packed solid. ‘That would shut down in a week round Whitechapel. I don’t know anyone who drinks coffee, do you?’

‘Nope,’ Vivian replied, clutching Lenny’s hand tightly.

Queenie marched over the road. ‘Excuse me; I’m looking for a posh hotel. My son works there. I’m sure he told me the name of it was Valentino’s. Do you know whereabouts it is?’

‘No,’ replied a couple of the girls.

A flash-looking lad dressed in bikers’ leathers piped up: ‘I told my mum I was working in a posh hotel here too. She’d have killed me had she known I was working in a strip club. My guess is your son is having the time of his life, lady,’ he laughed.

As a few of the other lads and girls started to laugh too, an embarrassed Queenie marched back over to Viv. ‘Ignorant little bastards. I feel like giving ’em a piece of my bleedin’ mind. I swear to you, Viv, if Vinny is lying to me, I’ll kill him stone dead.’

Unaware that his mother and aunt were on the prowl nearby, Vinny was entertaining Geoff, one of the regulars, who always made a beeline for him.

Seeing Geoff’s glass virtually empty, Vinny topped it up with champagne. That was one of Marnie’s rules: top the client up so they ended up spending more. Another rule was never ask any awkward questions. It was against protocol to enquire about work, family, where the client lived, etc. But it was fine to chat about current affairs, TV, radio, sport or any other subject the client wished to speak about.

The thing that had shocked Vinny the most was how open some of the men were. Macca reckoned lots used false names, but a few had spoken openly to Vinny about having a wife and kids.

Geoff was in his late forties, medium height, thin, with straight grey hair. He wore glasses and spoke in a posh accent. He liked to ramble on about politics and was often moaning about how stressful his job was and how coming to the club, chatting with Vinny and sharing a bottle of bubbly, helped him unwind after another stressful day at the office. Geoff had never mentioned what job he did, but by the way he spoke Vinny knew it was something dead important.