Blowing a bubble, Laura shrugged. ‘Put it this way, all the girls here hate him. They call him Mr Weirdo. He likes it rough and when I say rough, I mean seriously rough. When I had to go with him, I couldn’t walk properly for a week. I looked like I was doing an impression of John Wayne. I don’t think my fanny could take a hammering like that anymore.’ She cackled, then added, ‘Anyway, just be careful. There’s something not quite right about him … Go on then, say hello.’

As the man made it to the top of the stairs, Laura pushed Shannon – who felt nervous and ill at ease – forward.

Shannon stared at him in disgust. He was small and squat but strongly built and muscular. His face looked like he’d been in one too many fights and she didn’t like the way he was looking at her, not once taking his eyes off her and not once showing any flicker of emotion on his face.

Grinning, Laura chewed on her now tasteless gum. ‘You’ve got Shannon today. She’s new but she’ll look after you, won’t you, Shan?’

Without answering, Shannon nodded as she walked towards room number two, biting on her lip to stop the tears rolling down her face.

Opening the door to the tiny room, which had a small massage table in it, Shannon walked in, followed by the man who still hadn’t said a word to her.

Feigning confidence, Shannon said, ‘So, what do you fancy today, mate?’

Barry Eton stared at the girl. She was slightly older than he usually liked but then she was better than nothing. He had been going to pay his son Charlie a visit, not only to have one of his girls who by all accounts were prime and up for the taking, but also to give him a surprise; after all twenty-odd years in prison was a long time. But it turned out Charlie was in hospital, so it’d have to wait. He’d waited all this time, so what difference would another few days make?

He’d been out of prison for a couple of months now, but he hadn’t been to see Charlie or even spoken to him. He’d been too busy reacquainting himself with all his old contacts. Though he’d seen and spoken to his daughter Ma a few times, and now they were going into business together, well they’d be seeing a lot more of each other. They were certainly birds of a feather.

Ma had always been different from his other kids who’d liked to complain. Even though she hadn’t necessarily enjoyed certain things when she was a child, Ma had just kept her mouth shut, something he certainly couldn’t say about his other kids.