Michael had heard it all before. Patrick had always been very vocal about his wife’s ability to fight him on a whim, and at any hour of the day or night, by all accounts. It sounded so tiring to Michael – he could never have lived a life like Patrick and Carmel Costello. She was a raving nutbag, and that was being nice about her. But she was not a woman who endeared herself to the people around her. She was arrogant for starters. She looked down her nose at basically everyone around her, and she treated the people who worked for Patrick and Declan with such obvious disdain that it was impossible for them not to see it. He would never have tied himself to a woman like Carmel, he knew that much. She had delivered Patrick’s children with the minimum of fuss, but that was as far as her usefulness had gone. That Patrick was not as enamoured of his wife – or her tantrums – as he had once been, was more than evident lately. But Michael knew better than to give an opinion either way. That was the easiest way to destroy a good friendship, and the easiest way to get himself killed. Women like Carmel were inclined to cause as much trouble as possible if they felt they were being ousted from their position.

‘Well, that’s your business, mate.’

Patrick laughed once more. He was well aware that Michael loathed his Carmel, and always had. She had that effect on most people. The only person his Carmel had ever liked was Josephine Flynn, and that was only because poor Josephine actually liked his wife.

‘You’re a diplomat, Michael. So, tell me, how is everything going?’

Michael was all business suddenly, glad to be away from the personal – and the dangerous. ‘Well, it’s good news about the mortgage businesses. I told you they would be a lucrative earn, and they are. Serious money is coming in now, Patrick, and best of all, it’s being encouraged by the government. Buying your own house is available to everyone these days, and our brokers are doing well. It’s such an easy fucking earn. It’s also a good way of laundering money, Pat. Buying a house for cash and then remortgaging it, means the money from the mortgage company can then be put into legitimate bank accounts. It can be moved about, buying and selling other properties, for example, investing it into businesses, clubs, whatever. I’ve been moving a lot of the money into Spain, investing in the property market in Marbella and Benidorm. The good thing about Spain is there’s no extradition so, for a lot of our investors, that’s a fucking added bonus. They can get out there easily – it’s a lot closer than South America, put it that way.’