Still Kate was silent, and Willy was getting exasperated now.

‘He only wanted you to keep your bloody job! He was worried about the way he’d compounded you . . .’

‘Compromised, Willy. That’s the word you’re looking for.’

‘Yeah, well, that and all then. But you know what I mean, girl, you’re not a silly bird. You know the score. Your old man won’t be any more or any less hurt by what happened to him. He was asking for it. I know it must have seemed a little scary to you, ’cos you’re not used to it, but believe me, Pat wouldn’t have bothered but for you. You and your job. He knows how much it means to you.’

‘Can you take me home now, Willy? I have to get my car for work.’

He nodded and they drove back to Kate’s in silence. The traffic was thick now and she felt the stares of the other motorists wondering who was in the large Rolls Royce. As she stepped out at the bottom of her street, she patted Willy’s arm.

‘You’re a good friend to Patrick, you know.’

‘I worship that man, Kate. I know the good in him. I think you do too, otherwise I don’t think you’d have got involved with him in the first place. Don’t take what he did last night too much to heart. He loves you, I know he does, and he just wanted to help you. He’s a bit cack-handed in the way he goes about it, that’s all.’

Coming from Willy this made her smile. A smile she had not thought she had in her at the moment. It was definitely food for thought.

Willy drove back to Patrick’s with a heavy heart. He had tried. If Pat had known where he had gone, he would kill him stone dead. But he’d had to try.

Kate and Patrick were good together.

George sat at work listening to Peter Renshaw’s voice go on and on about the ‘night out’. It was finally decided they would hold it on the Wednesday night, just two days away. George forced himself to smile as Peter regaled him with anecdotes on the leaving dos he had attended in the past. From what George could gather there were about twenty-five people going to his, most of whom he had never spoken to in his life.

Mrs Denham came into the office.

‘May I see you for a moment, Mr Markham, in my office.’

George followed her and watched Renshaw’s eyebrows rise rudely. George was glad of a respite from Renshaw’s almost frenetic bonhomie. The anecdotes and jokes bored him no end. Once inside the office, Mrs Denham offered George a seat and closed the door behind him.