‘Jesus wept! Are you sure about this?’

Donna smiled grimly. ‘Sure as I’ve ever been. Take it, start up another business, Carol. The notes are untraceable - that’s why Georgio wanted it. You can spend it where the hell you like, love.’

Carol grinned, showing off her white teeth. ‘You’re getting to be a right villain!’

Donna shrugged. ‘Well, I had a good teacher, didn’t I?’

Bunty was sitting in her lounge reading a magazine when she heard the sound of a car on her drive.

She carried on reading, waiting for the inevitable knock. Bunty never opened a door before it was knocked on at least twice - it was part of her so-called image. People felt as if she was too busy to see them when she did that. It made her trivial little life worth leading to give the impression of busy-ness and authority, as if the world would stop turning without her.

When the knock didn’t come, she put down her magazine and went over to the window. Her scream brought Harry from the kitchen, sandwich still in hand and linen napkin still tucked under his ample chin.

‘What the hell’s the matter, woman? Mrs Jenkins nearly sliced off her bleeding hand!’

‘Look, Harry! Look what they’re doing!’

He went to the window and what he saw gave him such a shock that he dropped his sandwich on to the damask covering of the chair beside him.

Then they were both rushing to the front door, fighting one another to get there first.

Flinging it open, Bunty shouted, ‘What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?’

Donna gave her a big smile. ‘I’m making a delivery, Bunty. Sorry it’s not a Porsche. But this lot is where it should have been from day one!’

Piled on the drive were the books and magazines from the lock-up garage. Tipped out of their cardboard boxes, they were strewn everywhere, the wind picking up the magazines and distributing them haphazardly around the garden.

‘By the way, I’m burning the floppy discs, Harry. I think that’s the best thing, don’t you? Oh, and before I go, you two had better get cleared up here. I’ve phoned the Standard, Recorder and Sun. They’ll be here in no time. Child porn is big news, isn’t it? Especially for the tabloids. And think what the local papers will make of it, you a magistrate and all!’

Carol and Donna got into the Astra van and watched Bunty as she began laying into Harry with her tongue.

Carol grinned. ‘Be the first time Bunty ever did manual work in her life, eh?’

Donna watched the two of them in the van’s mirror as she drove away.

‘I enjoyed that,’ she said. ‘Now let’s get home and see what else the day brings us, shall we?’