As Georgio watched them play, he saw Beavis and Butthead having a conversation in a corner. They were supposed to be playing cards but were deep in conversation, and Georgio noticed that they looked over at him now and again.

Nervous already, because of the jump planned for the next day, he began to feel paranoid. They knew a lot about him, and if they opened their mouths he could find himself in big trouble. He sauntered over to their table and sat with them for a few moments. No one noticed, everyone was too busy watching either TV or the game of pool. Only Sadie observed this and she kept an eye on Georgio from her chair by the TV, her face set in a frown. Georgio spoke to the men, then stood up and stretched languidly before going back to the pool table.

Sadie watched him for a few more seconds then slipped from the room unobtrusively.

Georgio didn’t see her go.

Alan Cox sat in his office nursing a brandy and smoking a cigar. All he wanted to do was crawl away somewhere and come back in forty-eight hours, when it would all be over. But he knew he couldn’t do that. He knew he was too involved with Donna Brunos to do that.

If it hadn’t been for her, he told himself, he would have blind-eyed the whole bleedin’ affair. Then he shrugged mentally, telling himself that was a lie.

He was blaming her because he was involved, and he wanted a scapegoat. Donna, with her airs and graces, her clean-living good looks, was perfect for the part.

What was really bothering him was the fact that he’d thought he knew Georgio Brunos, when he hadn’t. He hadn’t even scratched the surface.

He recalled Georgio as he had been when they were young, when Pa Brunos had taken them boxing. Once they had gone their separate ways, they had both changed. But the boyhood friendship had lasted. Look at what Georgio had done for him when he had been put away . . .

Now, Stephen was dead, Georgio was for the out . . . and Alan had to try and prevent it.

The knock on his door disturbed his thinking and he said loudly: ‘Enter!’

The door opened and he was amazed to see Donna walk into the room.

‘Hello, Alan.’

He looked at her as if she had just appeared out of a glass bottle.

‘Donna?’ It was a question and she smiled slightly as she took a seat opposite him.