Georgio grinned. ‘None taken, Sadie. She looks young in that one. I’d better get meself down to the bathroom and clean me teeth before lockup. Do me a favour, Sadie, talk this bloke of yours into having a bath, would you? He don’t half pen and ink.’

Sadie chuckled. ‘Tell me about it!’

Timmy laughed good-naturedly. ‘I smell like a man, you cheeky beggars.’

‘Yeah, a man that’s been dead a fortnight.’ Sadie rolled her eyes.

Georgio was still laughing as he entered the shower-room. As he turned on the tap Sadie sidled up to him.

‘Listen, Georgio, don’t ask me how I know this, and don’t repeat it to a living soul or we’ll all live to regret it, but I heard a whisper today that your wife has a little surprise waiting for her, courtesy of Lewis. Warn her well.’

Georgio felt faint at the words. He grabbed at Sadie’s nightdress. ‘You what? How do you know this?’

Sadie looked into his worried eyes and shook her head. ‘I heard it through the grapevine. She looks a nice little body and I don’t want to see her get hurt. Just remember to warn her, or get someone to watch out for her. But whatever you do, don’t let on I told you or I won’t be able to get any more information on anything. Most of all, don’t tell Timmy I said anything, OK?’

‘When is this surprise?’

Sadie shrugged. ‘That I don’t know, mate, I swear. I’m only telling you because, for all my faults, I like people to play fair, know what I mean?’ She left the shower room as quietly as she had entered it.

Georgio stood under the freezing shower and felt the prickle of tears. The surprise could be tonight. As he stood under the shower his Donna could be getting a hiding, being raped or tortured. He felt panic welling up inside and he willed it to subside, leave him in peace. But the pictures in his head grew stronger and more vivid.

He was stuck in Maximum Security and his wife, his little Donna, could be gasping her last breath. The futility of his situation was the hardest to bear - that he could do nothing, nothing at all. He clenched his hands into fists and began beating the tiled wall, blood soon running from his knuckles and mixing with the water, trickling in crimson rivulets down the drain.

One word was going over and over in his mind: Donna. Donna. Donna.

If only he could reach out to her with his mind, could warn her in some way.

Two wardens pulled him from the shower and Georgio began fighting with them. Between them they eventually overpowered him and marched him to the Punishment Block. Thrown into the damp cell, naked, he slid down the wall and cried bitter tears into his hands.