Barry, grappling for air, managed to give a crooked smile. ‘Ma said you were an arsehole … You know my daughter don’t you? I understand you’ve had … had a few dealings with her.’

Alfie was puzzled, but he sneered in contempt. ‘Even at the end Barry, you’re talking shit. I’ve no idea what you’re on about.’

‘Ma … Ma Dwyer, she’s my daughter, Charlie’s brother. I thought … I thought he would’ve told you that.’

Alfie reeled, trying to get his head round it. If Ma was his daughter that meant Bree, who’d been married to Ma’s son, Johnny, was in some strange way related. ‘Ma? Ma’s your daughter? Then did you know Bree?’

As he tried to laugh, he began to cough, rasping and wheezing, his nose beginning to bleed from his fractured skull. ‘Not personally, but Ma …’ He stopped, the effort of speaking overwhelming him as his body began to shut down, succumbing to hypoxia as his life dwindled on a thread, but he tried again, sounding confused and disorientated. ‘Mia …’

Barry closed his eyes but hearing the name, Mia, Alfie lifted Barry up by his shoulders and shook him. ‘Don’t fucking die on me now, you bastard. What about Mia? What about her?’

Muttering inaudibly, Barry’s eyelids twitched, and Alfie was forced to put his ear over Barry’s lips in an attempt to hear what he was trying to say. ‘Ma … Mia … Ma …’

‘Ma had Mia, is that what you’re trying to say? For fuck’s sake, Barry, is it? Is it? Barry! Barry!’ But as Alfie sat up to shake Barry again, he realised he was already dead.

Getting up, Alfie grabbed the bag of money and ran outside to see Taylor crouched down trying to shield himself from the rain.

Alfie smiled at him, picking him up to carry him to the warmth and safety of the car. ‘It’s going to be all right, Taylor, you hear me? Everything’s going to be all right. You’re such a good boy, you know that? And I promise you from now on, you’ll never have to be frightened again.’

And as Alfie hurried to the car with Taylor safe in his arms, everything else faded into insignificance, everything apart from Ma, the person he was about to go and see.

47

‘You can’t, that’s crazy!’ Franny stared at Alfie in horror as Alfie drove at speed, racing along the roads towards the home of Ma Dwyer.

‘Shh, keep your voice down, Taylor’s asleep. You wanted to find Mia, then we need to get there now!’

‘But what exactly did Barry say?’

‘Well he was trying to tell me something about Mia, something about Ma having Mia. I dunno, he wasn’t making sense at the end.’

Panicked, Franny shook her head. ‘Why would he tell you about that?’