Looking at her grubby face, her broken nails and white blouse covered in ink from the carbon paper he had stuffed into the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, Davey began to laugh. Donna, to her surprise, began to join in. Only her laugh was high-pitched, on the verge of hysteria.

‘I’m sorry, Donna, I should have got Carol to have a sort-out here. She does that, now and again.’

‘Now and again being the operative words. It wasn’t like this when Georgio was here.’

‘I meant to employ someone, full-time like, but I never got round to it. You know what my Carol’s like.’

Donna wiped her eyes and grinned. ‘Well, I think now I’ve sorted this place out, I can keep it under control. To be honest it’s the first time in ages I haven’t been brooding over Georgio. I’ll take on the job of secretary, it might do me a bit of good.’

‘Whatever you say, Donna. You and Georgio own more of this place than I do.’

‘Don’t be like that, Davey.’ She put a hand gently on his arm. ‘Georgio respects you a lot. He’s over the moon at how you’ve kept the place running since he’s been away.’

Davey nodded. ‘You’ll soon learn the ropes.’

Donna walked through to the kitchen and began washing her hands. She shouted over her shoulder, ‘By the way, what’s a goer? A bloke rang up for an XJS. I told him I was a temp and he put the phone down on me.’

In the now tidy office Davey closed his eyes in distress and said lightly, ‘One thing at a time, Donna. You’ll learn it all soon enough.’

And that, he remarked to himself, was just what he was frightened of. He had envisaged her coming in and doing a bit of typing, maybe a bit of the legit book-keeping, but no way had he thought she would start to look through everything. If she had bothered to read the files under the desk . . . It did not bear thinking about. He would stay late tonight, and move them to the inner office. Thank God she had not gone in there; he kept it locked. Now he would have to keep a few more things locked up.

Donna stood up as Georgio was brought into the visiting room. She was smiling widely but as he kissed her, felt the familiar sting of tears in the back of her throat.

‘Hello, darlin’.’ His voice was gruff with emotion.

‘Oh, Georgio, it’s so lovely to see you!’