His voice was quiet, full of pent-up emotion. ‘If you knew the number of times I’ve thought of us like this . . .’

His voice trailed off. She was better than his wildest fantasy, and as far as he was concerned, Georgio Brunos must have been stark staring mad to let her go. But then, Georgio never did have any real taste.

Donna leaned up on her elbow and looked down into his face. ‘I think we both needed it. After today, it was the natural conclusion really.’

Her words hurt him, cut him to the quick.

‘It meant more than that to me Donna. Much more.’

She lay down again and let the cool water run over her body. She couldn’t answer him.

‘Tell me why you murdered that man, Alan. I really want to know.’

He sighed painfully. ‘Are you sure?’

She snuggled tighter into him, feeling the pull of the man beside her.

‘I’m sure,’ she whispered. ‘After the last few weeks, I don’t think anything could ever really affect me again.’

Finally, after what seemed an age, Alan began to talk.

‘Years ago when I was in the West End, before the restaurants and all that, I used to do a lot of ducking and diving. Me and the wife weren’t hitting it off and I spent a lot of time in the clubs and that. I was the typical villain in those days, out all night, asleep all day, poncing around making a bit of bunce. I’d had me day with the bare knuckle and I was investing in all sorts of places. That’s when I met Joey’s father.

‘You see, Donna, we sorted out the Chinks. They were everywhere then, and we all realised that if we weren’t careful, they’d take the place over. There weren’t any real big villains about then, the Krays were the only ones who ever really had an empire of sorts and by today’s standards that was penny ante. But anyway, back to the story.

‘I first met up with Jack Coyne and JoJo in a house in Fulham. They were all down: the Liverpudlians, the Geordies, the Birmingham boys, even the fucking Scots. They were everywhere, see, and they were running women. Now the Asians, or Pakis as we called them all in them days, were like us. They felt there was room for everyone. The rinky dink dinks, however, had different ideas. They wanted the lot - gambling, women, everything. Well, the Chinks are renowned for kids. You only have to look at Thailand and that. And they were catering to that market. We was all up in arms, see.