‘I’ll give you something to carry. I’ve got a cosh, a baseball bat – you can take whatever you want. Anyway, you ain’t gotta worry. Me and the boys will sit just outside the gate. Any agg, we’ll be there like a shot, mate.’

Raymond smiled. He’d never suffered from having a nervous disposition and he wasn’t about to get one now. He needed this job and he would do whatever he had to, to prove his worth. ‘I’ve got me own tool, I’ll use that, and thanks anyway, but I’m sure I won’t need any help.’

Eddie was stunned by the boy’s coolness. ‘Be warned, Ray, Mad Dave’s a big old lump. A wanker he is, but a pushover he ain’t.’

Smiling, Raymond topped up both of their glasses. ‘To me and Mad Dave. May the best man win, eh?’

Two days later, all Savile Rowed up, Raymond sat in the back of a white transit van alongside Eddie, Ronny and Paulie. Uncle Reg had donned his check cap and pipe, and had offered his services to drive.

‘I wore this just in case we were seen. I look like some OAP on a jolly boys’ outing, no one’s gonna clock us with me driving,’ he laughed.

‘So you’re ready to play with the big boys are you, Ray?’ Ronny asked sarcastically.

Raymond could tell immediately that Ronny didn’t want him in the firm and was determined to prove him wrong. ‘More than ready,’ he answered politely.

‘Next on your right, Reg. You know where it is, don’t you? Straight down the bottom of that road.’

‘Don’t worry, I know I’ve semi-retired meself, but I ain’t fucking senile yet,’ Reg said jokingly.

Ronny nudged Paulie as they pulled up outside Mad Dave’s appalling-looking car site. ‘I’d love to be a fly on the wall, wouldn’t you?’ he whispered.

Paulie ignored him. Whatever the end result, this kid had bigger bollocks than most.

‘What tool did you bring?’ Eddie asked, as he opened the back door.

From nowhere, Raymond pulled out the biggest butcher’s knife Eddie had ever seen. ‘Fucking hell. Where did you get that from?’

‘I used to be a butcher, didn’t I? And I know exactly how to use it. Now, are you sure his bird’s gone home?’

Eddie urged Reg to poke his head around the gate.

‘She drives a light-blue Ford Fiesta and parks it just on the right as you go in.’

Within seconds, Reg hobbled back, giving the thumbs up.

Ronny sat quietly as Raymond stepped out of the van and strolled into the car lot like he owned the place. Flash little cunt, I hope he comes unstuck, he thought to himself.

With the knife tucked firmly down the inside of his jacket, Raymond spotted the Portakabin and marched straight in.