‘Well, Paddy me old mate, she knows too much now, and believe me when I say she’s quick on the uptake. She has been an asset on this trip, a bona fide asset. Tell Georgio we left school over thirty years ago. If he wants to go into his dotage, that’s his lookout - but he can get off my fucking back. You can also tell him that if he has any sense he’ll get off hers as well. I’m doing him the favour, remember?’

Paddy sighed gently. ‘What’s the score with Jockland?’

Alan grinned. ‘How much do you know, Paddy, and how much are you guessing, eh? I know for a fact you ain’t had a visit in a month. Only Donna’s been up and she nearly frightened the life out of Georgio by turning up on the same day as one of his other friends. So where’s your information coming from, eh? Is it from Dolly, or is it that you’re putting two and two together from his messages?

‘Whatever it is, you can get this straight: Donna’s attractive enough, I will concede that but me and her have nothing in common but Georgio Brunos - who, as I said earlier, I am doing a right favour for. Now if you don’t mind, Paddy, until Georgio instructs me otherwise, I can’t tell you fuck all else. And one last thing, if you ever insinuate anything about me and Donna again, you’ll regret it. Believe me you’ll regret it.’

Paddy dropped his eyes and then sipped at the hot coffee. ‘Did you know Lewis was cut up, lost a kidney?’ He had the satisfaction of seeing Alan’s eyes widen.

‘Not by Georgio, surely?’

Paddy shook his head. ‘Nah, he was cut up by a small-time blagger. No one we would be interested in. Lewis is all right, though, more’s the pity. Seems he poached the bloke’s bird, a little queen called Sadie.’

‘But Georgio is all right?’

Paddy nodded again. ‘Oh yeah, he’s champion. It got Lewis off his back for a while. He’s due back in the poke in ten days.’

‘This Sadie is on the same wing as Georgio?’

‘So is this Timmy, the boyfriend - though he was roasted alive on Saturday night. You know the old scam, chicken wire and tolly. Always a northern scam that. But Lewis’s arm is long. He’s dying, I heard, this Timmy.’

Alan frowned. ‘I hope he is, poor bastard. I remember a bloke having that done to him when I was in Durham. He survived it, and I think he was sorry he did. He topped himself the day they put him back on the wing. He looked fucking rough, Paddy. No eyelids, nothing. The tolly burns through everything - skin, bone, the lot. He’ll be lucky to keep his sight.’