‘My name’s McNamara and I’m assigned to you from today. I work for Alan Cox. You’re in deep shit, mate, and my advice is to listen to me carefully. I am going to be bringing you in messages, regular messages. The first one is this: Cox and Anthony Calder want you to know they are both extremely annoyed at the setup with O’Neil and Carvello. If anything like that happens again, they’ll pull and leave you to it.

‘Cox also says that if you so much as hint at anything untoward between him and D, he’ll leave you high and dry. I’ll be back with more news soon.’

As he walked towards the door, McNamara looked over his shoulder and said, ‘Oh by the way, Lewis is back in four days. Made a miraculous recovery by all accounts, but his stitches will hinder him for a while. Losing a kidney takes it out of you, like. But his brain’s back on track - as I expect you’ve already guessed. Be seeing you.’

Alone once again, Georgio sat on his bunk and felt the anger welling up inside him. He needed Calder and he needed Cox, but once he was out he could do what he liked. He hung on to that thought to stop himself from screaming out loud. Four days and Lewis was back . . . it was like a death knell in his mind. Four days until everything was back to square one: watching his back, watching his words, and watching Lewis and his henchmen. He had to see Davey Jackson and soon. Whether his dear little wife liked it or not, she’d have to forego a visit, and Georgio admitted to himself that after her little performance in Scotland, he wasn’t sorry about it.

At that moment, Sadie walked into the cell and lay down on the bottom bunk. ‘Fucking doctors, what do they know? Gave me another AIDs test. I’d already told them I was clean. I’ve had regular checks since the late eighties. I mean, in my game you have to, don’t you?’

Georgio nodded.

‘Cheer up, Georgio, it could be worse. You could be dead. Especially with Lewis around.’

‘Bollocks to Lewis, Sadie. He’s the least of my problems at the moment. In fact, if he opens his big mouth I’ll rip his stitches out, see how he likes that one.’

Sadie closed her eyes and said quietly, ‘Alan Cox is a lot of things, Georgio, but he ain’t a philanderer. Your wife’s safer with him than anyone else. Paddy needs a kick up the arse for telling you different.’

‘Nah.’ Georgio shook his head. ‘She came out of his flat, Sadie, with her overnight bag and wet hair. Don’t tell me she was in there having a shower for fun, love. Even I ain’t that fucking stupid!’