Declan pulled himself away from Michael’s grip. ‘I’m sorry, Michael, I know that my brother was a fucking looney. Why do you think I stepped back after we took Patrick out? I loved him as my brother, but I knew that he needed to be culled, like a fucking wild animal. Now you’ve told me, I can see it perfectly. You were a young lad, taking his word at face value, and that would have appealed to him. The knowledge that you were unaware of the truth would have appealed to him.’

Michael laughed nastily. ‘I swallowed it, I really believed that it was an accident at first, and I put it out of my mind. I convinced myself that it wasn’t my fault. And do you know what, Declan? It wasn’t my fault. I did what Patrick told me to do. When it went fucking pear-shaped, he stood by me and I appreciated that. But, years later, when I really knew him, I realised he was too shrewd not to have known that the house wouldn’t be empty.’

Declan Costello poured them both more whisky. Michael took his drink gratefully.

‘That was my brother Patrick all over, Michael. I know what he was capable of. That night, when we took him out, deep down I didn’t feel guilty about it. I was relieved – so relieved to know that he was gone at last, and that I didn’t have to police him any more. But, that aside, why would this Mrs Singh warn you about Steven Golding?’

Michael Flynn looked at Declan warily. He had just told this man the biggest secret of his life. The biggest shame of his life. But he trusted him.

‘Mrs Singh saw me that night. I bumped into her husband outside their shop, and she came out to talk to me. She knew by then that I was working for your brother – she even tried to warn me off! She told me that night to get home and have a bath because I stank of petrol. Of course she didn’t know why then but, as the Golding family only lived a few streets away, it wasn’t long before she did the sums. I knew I could trust her. I never told Patrick about her – I knew that he would have seen her as a threat to him, to his world. It never occurred to him that some people might just be naturally loyal.’

Declan laughed then. ‘My brother never trusted the concept of loyalty, Michael, that was his problem.’

Michael sighed heavily. ‘I told you all this because you needed to know. But I can only tell myself that I did what I was told to do.’

Declan felt so sorry for Michael; he knew first-hand just how manipulative his brother had been.