Karen sat back a little, as if stung by something Tony had said.

‘So, were you the favourite at home?’

Karen nodded, her eyes glinting in the light from the bar. ‘I’m an only child, so I was both their favourites. My mum died when I was ten so me and Dad were so close growing up. He did everything for me.’

‘I’m sorry about your mum.’

Karen smiled sadly. ‘Dad tried his best to be both mother and father, but it all got a bit mad for him. The whole time of the month thing just broke him, having to go into a supermarket to buy tampons. He handed me the box, made some piss-poor explanation of why it was happening and left me to figure out the rest. I had to ask my friend’s mum to explain it to me properly.

‘Must have been a nightmare for any boyfriends,’ Tony laughed.

‘Not really. He just showed them his shotgun and they behaved themselves,’ she said, laughing lightly.

‘Does he miss you over here? Tony asked.

She shook her head. ‘He’s dead now. That’s when I moved across.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Tony said, rewinding the conversation in his head, wincing at every comment, which, in the light of this, seemed now crassly insensitive.

She shook her head. ‘Can we go? I need a breath of fresh air.’

Chapter Sixteen

‘I need a breath of air,’ Karen said, standing. ‘Excuse me.’

The three men watched her leave, Tony rising slightly in his seat as she stood.

‘She’s not changed,’ Duggan said. ‘She was always half-hearted about it.’

‘That’s not true,’ Tony said, a little more defensively than he’d intended. ‘She was the one convinced me to help you with that first run to Paisley.’

‘What run?’

‘You sent us to a restaurant in Paisley, told us leave the car open and then bring it back again. She was the one convinced me that night.’

‘She’d nothing to do with it.’

‘We were at a party. We were leaving when you arrived and you walked us out. You asked us to drive to Paisley. I wasn’t sure, but she agreed to it, convinced me to do it.’

‘I don’t remember that.’

‘There was a car bomb in the centre of town.’

Duggan shook his head. ‘She wasn’t there that night. You and I met in Liverpool Betty’s and talked about it. You asked could you bring her along.’

Tony frowned with bemusement. ‘That’s not what happened.’

‘I remember the night I asked you. You wanted to do something for your brother; you asked to be more active. I asked you to do the run for me. The cops were keeping a bit of an eye on some of us at the time and you were a new face. You said you wanted to bring her with you; you thought it would be good cover to have a couple there.’

‘You said that,’ Tony laughed.

‘Does it matter?’ Barr asked.

‘It matters if we’re hoping to remember where the hell Martin Kelly is,’ Tony hissed, concerned now. ‘I remember that night.’