‘They didn’t even bother blurring out the house number. Look.’ Wolfie poked the picture again. ‘I told Dom you should think about suing.’ One step ahead of you, kid. ‘I mean, it’d be a bit rough if you’ve done something to upset some psycho and they show up on your doorstep with a vendetta and a loaded gun.’

Wolfie raised an eyebrow and I briefly wondered about the contents of the backpack that was hanging off her chair. At the mention of a gun, George’s eyes turned into planets and he fixed them on Wolfie like she was about to offer him communion.

‘I’ve been here for ages, by the way. But I thought I might as well wait.’ She shrugged and looked down at the photo. ‘Dom said you always come back from the pub, eventually.’ Always. ‘Although sometimes pretty smashed.’ True story.

‘Unless he meets a girl, and then he doesn’t come home till the next day, even after I’ve gone to school.’ Bloody hell, George. I took a swig from the mug of scalding tea that Dom had put in front of me at some point and enjoyed the comforting pain as it seared past my sternum.

‘Zip it, you little squealer. But as it goes, Wolfie, you might as well know, the rumours are true. I am quite often drunk.’ The tea landed in my belly and it felt like bliss. ‘Matter of fact, I’m drunk now.’

Nobody said a word. Not even George, who was usually the first to call out a statement of the bleeding obvious. Through the kitchen window I could see out into the semi-dark garden, where my cosy shed bed was waiting. But it seemed so far away it was like staring into one of those black holes George and I had talked about at such length for his homework the week before. It felt like a long time before the not inconsiderable power vested in me by Tetley’s tea enabled me to speak again.

‘I’m not, however, too drunk to have one very important question for you.’

My voice sounded croaky and distant, and I wondered if it was already halfway into that black hole without me. Wolfie raised one eyebrow again and inclined her head slightly. The familiarity of the movement sent my stomach to my toes.

‘Does your mother . . . does Lou know you’re here?’

When Wolfie spoke, a thousand tonnes of space dust ricocheted through my ears. I wrapped my fingers around the edge of my chair and held on.

‘As a matter of fact, she doesn’t, no. And pardon my French, but I’m not sure she’d be very fucking happy about it if she did.’

6

Danny

‘Wolfie said the F-word, Wolfie said the F-word! Dad, did you hear her?’ George spun around on the spot several times, slapping his thighs in unrestrained joy. ‘That’s not French, Wolfie, it’s a big fat English swear word!’

George is always magnificently beside himself when somebody drops a bomb, and nine times out of ten that somebody is me. I probably should have enjoyed the pleasure of not being the one in the frame for once, but frankly I was too busy yearning for the good old days, when all I had to worry about was getting the key in the front door.