‘I was lied to,’ he said, veering from denial to explanation. ‘I was offered the lease on this property by a friend. Or someone I believed to be a friend. Soon after arriving here we learned that everything had been purchased on credit, and the rent was in arrears. Unbeknown to us, in taking over the lease we had also assumed the debt, and all of it was gathering interest. We had creditors at the door almost immediately.’

‘Why didn’t you explain your situation to Dr Simpson? He could have helped.’

Even as he asked this, Raven cringed a little. He had been in the self-same position once, and had proceeded just as unwisely, but this was why he wanted to help.

‘His new book-keeper, telling his new employer that he is in debt and has been duped after failing to do his due diligence?’ Quinton asked. ‘How would that have looked?’

‘Better than the view from here now, I would wager. How on earth did a man like you end up crossing paths with Flint?’

‘Am I to assume you are familiar with the fellow?’

‘More than I would care to be.’

‘I did not seek him. It happened the other way about.’

Raven’s expression betrayed his confusion.

‘Flint purchased my debt. It is one of the ways he operates. He approaches creditors and offers them a figure that is less than the sum owed, but more than they think they may ever get.’

‘And he has a greater success than such creditors when it comes to motivating his debtors to pay,’ Raven said. ‘I know this from experience.’

‘His men took our furniture. I feared what they might take next, but happily an opportunity arose.’

‘For you to render services in lieu of payment.’

‘My debt to him will be redeemed once I have helped him sell on some stock certificates. In fact, I am due to receive a share of the takings. I will make good on everything after that, I give my word.’

‘That is not how it works with a man like Flint. That is why I came here. Once he has his hooks in you, there can be no escape. He tells me you are keeping his books too.’

‘Only while I remain in his debt. Once the stocks are sold, I will have no need to deal with him.’

‘You will always be in his debt: that is my point. He now has leverage over you. You are involved in fraud, forgery and theft.’

‘I haven’t stolen anything.’

Raven raised an eyebrow.

‘To Flint’s knowledge,’ he clarified.

‘You are complicit, though: forging the signature of the registrar of the exchange, on documents stolen in a robbery which saw guards assaulted and a man shot dead.’

This last detail seemed to drive home the depths he was sinking into. Quinton was a man used to dealing with gentlemen in fine tailoring trading numbers on paper.