Annie shook her head. ‘No thanks, Alan, me and Donna are fine.’ She smiled at him reassuringly and he had no choice but to leave the room.

Annie went to Donna’s side and touched her arm gently.

‘I’m a bitch, take no notice of me. It was your lovely clothes and your slim figure that annoyed me. I’m sorry for what I said, heart sorry.’

Donna finished cutting the sandwiches.

‘I don’t want your sympathy, Annie. I just wish everyone would stop treating me like I was something they dragged in off the street on their shoes. I know the impression I create and I’m sorry, but that’s me. I never had to fight for anything in my life until now. But believe me when I say, for Georgio I’d fight anyone.’

Annie smiled again, wider this time, a genuine smile.

‘Och, you’ll do, lassie. And let’s face it, Georgio is worth fighting for, eh? You’re a lucky girl, keeping him all these years. That’s no mean feat. Georgio is too good-looking for his own good. Or anyone else’s for that matter!’

Donna laughed at the underlying message in what Annie said and the two of them bonded then as only women can.

In the lounge Alan sat with the baby and thought of what he had heard Donna snap at Annie.

A dead boy. His heart went out to her. Especially after all he had said to her in the car earlier. How could he have been so dumb, so stupid? Donna Brunos was no ordinary housewife, he had deliberately set out to upset her. Now he realised just how he had achieved that end.

A dead boy. The words ran around his head and every nuance of her heartbreak was in those three little words.

A dead boy.

No wonder Georgio was her all. At her age she didn’t have anything else to look out for, to look forward to.

He decided then and there that if it was the last thing he did, he would see that she got what she wanted: Georgio.

He would move heaven and earth to achieve that for her.

Jonnie H. came back with the scotch and the girls brought in the sandwiches, smiling at one another like conspirators now. Alan shook his head at the ways of women.

‘I was going through names while I walked down the offie and I think I might have just the people you’re looking for. Three brothers. They stick to each other like shit on a blanket and they’re all kosher. One went down for five years for a mate, because he wouldn’t grass him. They’re called the McAnultys and they’re bastards, but trustworthy bastards. Know what I mean.’

Alan nodded.