‘All right, Mum?’

‘What you doing, home so early?’ Queenie asked. Her youngest son Michael would be sixteen later this year and was working in a local garage. Tinkering with cars and motorbikes was his passion in life. That and girls. Queenie dreaded to think how many girls he’d lured with his cheeky grin and charm. But she never worried about Michael dating, nor Roy. With Vinny things were different.

‘My boss gave me the rest of the afternoon off ’cause he’s going to a funeral. Starvin’, I am. What we got for dinner?’

‘Shit with sugar on it, and don’t you dare sit on my furniture with those dirty overalls on, ya little grease monkey.’ Michael wasn’t little by any means. He’d shot up this past year or two, was nearly as tall as Roy who was six foot. Vinny was the tallest at six foot two.

‘Me and Kev got a hot date tonight with two Mod birds we met. My one’s a right little cracker,’ Michael grinned.

‘Be gone with you, you evil boy,’ Queenie chuckled. Mary O’Leary used to say that when addressing Daniel back in the day.

‘How much we got?’ Roy asked Vinny. They’d robbed a container-load of TVs last week, hijacked the geezer driving the lorry at gunpoint, then tied him up and left him somewhere rural.

‘There’s a grand in that pile and eight fifty in this one,’ Vinny pointed.

‘I still think we should have asked more for ’em, Vin.’

‘Nah. Best to get rid of ’em sharpish, especially seeing as they were hot, what with the robbery having been mentioned on the radio. The fact they’re now up north suits us down to the ground.’

‘Shall we go and put our new offer in then?’ grinned Roy. They’d been trying to buy the snooker club for a while now, but Dick who owned it was asking a bloody fortune.

‘Nah. The Kelly brothers are gonna visit Dick today, put the squeeze on him. Anyway, I gotta be somewhere,’ Vinny replied, glancing at his watch.

‘Where you off to?’

Vinny tapped his nose. ‘To do a favour for Auntie Viv.’

Jeremy Johnson was already waiting in the car park when Vinny arrived. He was petrified. He was well aware that Vinny was a true force to be reckoned with these days. He’d even heard people at work talking about his exploits.

Vinny got out of his shiny black Jaguar Sedan and grinned as he got in the passenger seat of Jeremy’s cheap car. Jeremy looked as scared as he had sounded on the phone when he’d finally managed to get hold of him yesterday. ‘Good afternoon, Geoff. Oh, sorry, I meant Jeremy. How you doing, me old mucker?’

Desperately trying to stop his hands from shaking, Jeremy clenched them together. ‘What do you want, Vinny? We had a deal when I gave you the keys to your mother’s house. You said you were a man of your word and you wouldn’t pester me again.’