Through the door, Layla was already waiting for him. ‘This way,’ she said sharply.

He followed her down the brightly lit corridor. At the end of it, both Danni and the doctor, Simon, were waiting for him. Danni took hold of his arm, and he could smell the perfume of her neck, and see at least an inch of cleavage through the one opened button on her starched white tunic. Her skin felt good next to his. She was steering him towards a table.

Simon was already looking at him closely. ‘Get some rest,’ he said firmly. ‘The operation went fine, and so did the dental work. I can give you something to help you sleep if you like. A good long rest, and you should be ready for action by the morning.’

‘We’ve got you some food,’ said Layla. ‘You need building up badly.’

Danni put the food down on a tray in front of him: a pasta with some kind of meat and tomato sauce on it, some chips, a green salad, and bowl of steamed spinach. Porter couldn’t even remember the last time he had had such a good meal: probably the last Christmas before Diana had kicked him out, although he’d been so drunk already by the time she’d got the turkey cooked he wasn’t sure he’d been able to taste anything when he started eating.

‘Where’s the wine list?’ asked Porter, smiling.

‘Forget it,’ said Layla.

Porter started to tuck in. His mouth felt sore and numb from all the dental work, but so long as he didn’t chew too much, he was able to eat without too much pain. Simon put a row of sixteen different vitamin tablets down in front of him. ‘Pudding,’ he said. ‘We ran a sample of your hair, and you are deficient in just about every major vitamin group.’

‘Except vitamin B, funnily enough,’ said Layla sharply. ‘Maybe it’s because you find that one in vodka.’

Porter ignored the remark, carrying on eating. No one else was having anything but that didn’t bother him. He finished the pasta, and started swallowing the vitamins one by one, washing them down with the pint of orange juice that was on the table. ‘I need to go out,’ he said. ‘Can you get me a car?’

Layla stared at him. ‘You’re kidding, right?’

Porter shook his head. He waited until Simon and Danni had left the room, then said, ‘My daughter Sandy has been interviewed for a place at university today. I think she’ll be on the eight o’clock train from St Pancras back to Nottingham. I’d like to say goodbye to her.’

Layla shook her head. From her expression, she wasn’t even going to think about it.

‘You can see her when you get back.’

I’m not coming back, thought Porter. I’m going to try to break Katie out. But the ragheads will probably cut my limbs off one by one and feed me to the dogs.

‘You know how risky this is.’