Michael Flynn looked around the dingy offices with interest. This was where Patrick Costello, the legendary East-End Face, orchestrated the serious earns for the Costello family. Up to now, Michael had been working for one of Patrick’s collectors – a ponce named Jimmy Moore – but what he really wanted was to be in the thick of the Costello business. He knew he could learn a lot from Patrick Costello.

Patrick Costello was now nearly fifty, although he looked younger than his contemporaries. He had done a nine-year stretch in his twenties, and he had used his time inside wisely. He had been in for murder and, as a lifer, he had been afforded the opportunity to better himself, and he had taken advantage of everything that was open to him. He had taken up body-building, and he had also gained himself a degree in English Literature, understanding, for the first time in his life, the power that education could bring.

Since his early release, Patrick had a different approach to the Life. He had done his time, and he was not about to make that mistake again. Now he made sure that everything he was involved in could never be traced back to him. He paid his people to ensure that they would take the fall if everything was to go pear-shaped, and he paid well.

His brother Declan was just five years younger than Patrick, but he was like a big, overgrown schoolboy, all jokes and friendly camaraderie. He had a wide, open face that screamed honesty and shielded from most of the world the fact that he was capable of great violence. Coupled with the fact that he never forgot or forgave anything he might see as an insult, he was a very dangerous individual.

Declan was the one that most of the Costello workforce dealt with on a daily basis, and that was how both brothers liked it. Declan enjoyed issuing orders more than planning operations, and Patrick was more than happy for him to do that, while Declan, in turn, was happy to let his older brother make the big decisions and decide where and how they would invest their money. He couldn’t organise a Papal Mass in the Vatican on his own.