‘Listen, I did what I thought was best, understand? I know that he caused that fire; I just know it. You should’ve seen what he was like. Cocky fucker, it was almost like he knew something that I didn’t. He even said …’ Alfie stopped, deciding once again he wanted to keep the information about what Charlie had said to him just before he blacked out, to himself.

Irritated and uneasy, Franny, sipping from a takeaway coffee, asked, ‘He even said what?’

‘Nothing, nothing … He just made out he didn’t know anything about the fire.’

‘Well maybe he didn’t.’

As he spoke, Alfie pulled out his phone in his pocket, feeling it vibrate. ‘You’ve changed your tune.’

‘Yeah well, I already told you that maybe I was too hasty … Who’s that?’

Alfie read the text on the screen; again the message was the same as the first, from the same number that no one answered when he’d called it back.

Ask Franny what she did.

He looked at Franny, the nagging unease that something clearly wasn’t right, that something was going on right under his nose, but he couldn’t quite figure out what, came back into his mind, and although he tried not to, Vaughn’s warning that Franny wasn’t to be trusted raced around his thoughts.

It was ironic because for all the agg, he missed Vaughn. He missed being able to run things by him and although there were times when they were at loggerheads, ultimately, when the shit really hit the fan, Vaughn was always there for him, which made the fact that he’d just got up and gone even more difficult to accept.

And he hated to admit it, but although he felt betrayed by him, right now he needed him. Needed Vaughn to help figure out what was going on, though he’d be damned if he was going to tell Vaughn that. He’d left enough messages for Vaughn, letting him know he wanted to talk, but if Vaughn wasn’t going to call back right now because of his bruised ego or some fucked-up rationale that everyone owed him money, well there was no way he was going to start to beg him. No way at all.

‘Alfie, are you listening to me? I just asked who that was from.’

Tucking his phone back into his jeans, Alfie, as casually as he could muster, said, ‘Just one of me mates wanting to know if I fancied going out for a drink.’ He smiled, watching Franny watching him. Not giving anything away, mirroring Franny’s neutral expression.

The silence lasted until Franny said, ‘Okay, well you stay here then, and I’ll go and speak to Charlie.’

‘Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?’