We both looked down at Stan. The dog stared back at us, confusion in those perfectly round eyes, unable to read the mood. I wasn’t sure I could read it myself.

‘What are your plans?’ I said, and the sudden formality between us broke my heart.

He shrugged.

‘I don’t know. I’ll do what the army trained me to do,’ he said.

‘And what was that, Jackson?’ I said.

He just gave me his gap-toothed smile.

Stan padded behind him to his room.

Jackson turned in the doorway.

‘Max?’

I looked at him.

‘You think that little gangster will bother your friend any more?’

‘No.’

He nodded, satisfied.

‘Me neither,’ he said.

And then my oldest friend went into the guest room to pack his things.

24

It felt wrong from the start.

I turned into Abu Din’s street and the only police presence I could see was one unmarked 3-series BMW parked outside the large council house and the same young black policeman standing guard at the end of the road.

DCI Whitestone came out of the house with Edie and Billy Greene. Whitestone and Edie were in dark headscarves. I nodded to the two officers in the unmarked BMW as I went up to the front door.

‘This is it?’ I said. ‘Feels a bit light. We just gave the guy an Osman Warning. We just told him his life was in mortal danger and offered him police protection.’

‘The Chief Super considers it a proportionate response in this community,’ Whitestone said. She indicated the street. Several groups of bearded young men hung around, quietly conferring as they watched the detectives. A solitary woman struggled home from the shops with stuffed Tesco bags, her face and body covered by a full black burka. ‘That’s an Armed Response Vehicle outside the house,’ Whitestone continued. ‘CO19 are going to stick around until we’ve nicked these people. And there’ll be two of our team in the house for the next forty-eight hours. It’s not a bad idea to keep it semi-low-key around here, Max. We don’t need lots of uniforms on the street.’

I nodded and watched her face beneath the headscarf, waiting for some sign that she knew what I had done last night with Jackson. Anger. Relief. Gratitude. Disbelief. I didn’t know what to expect.

But DCI Whitestone just looked at her watch.

‘So you’re OK to take the first shift with Billy? Mr Din prefers having male officers in his house during the night.’

‘Fine.’

‘Then Edie and I will see you in the morning,’ Whitestone said.

Edie took off her headscarf. ‘Or by the end of the Dark Ages,’ she said. ‘Whatever comes first.’