‘Well someone has to, and anyway, you should be thanking me that I’m going to so much trouble. And when Alfie does go away, which I’m working on, then it’ll all be over. You won’t have to live like this anymore, and maybe we’ll even look back on this and laugh.’

But as Bree Dwyer sank to the bedroom floor, putting her head in her hands, one thing she knew for certain was that she’d never look back and laugh.

9

‘Where is she? Where the fuck is she?’ Vaughn Sadler said the words that Alfie was thinking, not that he was going to admit that to him, but he’d been looking at his watch for the past few hours wondering the exact same thing.

He’d left Franny sleeping and by the time he’d come back to the house, she’d gone. He hadn’t been that long either. Okay, he’d stopped to chat to the girl in the park but after that he’d just made his way along Rathbone Place to get a bit of breakfast before sauntering back. At the most he’d been out for an hour and a half, which meant Franny had been AWOL again for several hours. Her phone was off. Again. She’d left no note. Again. And even if he tried, he wouldn’t be able to begin to guess where she’d gone. Again.

‘You need to fix up your bird, Alfie. Are you finally going to believe me that she’s up to something?’

Knowing full well it was too early to start on the whiskey, but not giving a damn, Alfie poured himself a large double shot and knocked it back. ‘What exactly are you accusing her of? All this agg between you is doing my head in.’

Vaughn gazed at Alfie. He didn’t look in a good way; come to think of it, he hadn’t looked in a good way for a long time. He’d looked positively ill since Bree had left. And although, personally, he hadn’t been particularly keen on Bree, he had to admit she’d made Alfie happy, and she was certainly a lot more trustworthy than Franny, not that that was very difficult to do. Jesus, next to Franny, the Kray twins would’ve looked trustworthy. Somehow, she needed to be put in her place.