He followed at a run. She was hailing a cab, making her escape. There was something here. He knew it. All he had to do was make her talk about it. But she just kept clamming up, running away. He caught her arm, brought her to a standstill.

‘Wait! What I’m saying is, I think your mother and you were abused by Donny Maguire. Imprisoned, if you like, as some sort of punishment for what happened with his family. Are you telling me I’ve got that wrong? Only I don’t think I have.’

‘Let go of me,’ said Angel, wrenching her arm free of his grasp.

Then a cab pulled up to the kerb and she was gone.

148

‘The front door at the flat’s being done, they’re going to drop the new keys in later,’ said Lil to Angel when she and June got home.

‘I’ll make some tea,’ said June, going through to the kitchen.

‘You OK?’ asked Lil, taking off her overcoat.

Angel looked up from the dining-room table. ‘Yeah, fine.’

She wasn’t. Since the aborted lunch with Farmer, she’d been sitting here, scared to move, feeling that the whole world was crashing around her ears. The phone had been ringing, ringing. But she hadn’t answered. She had a feeling it was him.

‘Well, tell your face. You look wiped out.’

Lil dumped her bag and came and sat down opposite. ‘It’s not too bad over there now. Couple of things to be replaced, but Tom’s got the contents insured, hasn’t he?’

‘I dunno. I suppose so,’ said Angel.

Lil patted her niece’s hand. ‘Don’t let it get to you. Tom’s on the mend. That break-in was just . . .’

‘Just what?’ Angel demanded when her aunt hesitated, searching for the right words. ‘I’m telling you, we’re being targeted. I was warned. Then Tom was hit. Now the flat . . .’

‘Well now the police are involved. They’ll sort this out, don’t you worry.’

Angel gaped at her aunt in disbelief. Lil seemed to have a naive faith in all authority figures, including coppers; Angel had lost all faith in anyone, years ago. She’d seen how bent people could be.

‘I’ll give Aunt June a hand,’ said Angel, and stood up and was halfway through the kitchen doorway when she heard June say, ‘What the fuck?’

Just Aunt June, kicking off about something – anything – as per usual. Angel stepped into the kitchen. At the far end, beside the sink, was the half-glazed door into the back garden. A big hard-eyed man had just walked in. Angel felt her entire body freeze. Wasn’t that the same man who’d grabbed her arm that night in the club? The man she’d seen loitering near Tom’s flat?

She thought it was.

She was sure it was.

Aunt June stepped toward the man and said: ‘What do you think you’re . . .’ and he struck her once on the face, so hard that she cannoned back and fell to the cheap lino floor.