‘What are you talking about?’ Tony said.

‘Someone pays,’ Duggan said. ‘That’s how it is.’

‘You’re not thinking of hurting the boy? He’s nothing to do with this.’

‘Mullan sent him in his place. That was his choice. Whatever happens to the boy will be on him.’

‘You can’t–’ Tony was cut short by Barr himself returning from the bar with Duggan’s drink.

‘Everything all right?’ he asked, looking from one face to the next.

‘Great,’ Duggan said. ‘Take a pew.’

The tannoy buzzed into life as the announcer instructed car passengers to begin returning to their vehicles.

‘That’s us,’ Barr said, as Duggan drained his whiskey, slamming the glass down on the table when he was done.

‘Let’s go,’ Duggan said, lifting the bag he’d brought on board. ‘We’ve a bit of a trek ahead of us. Better get started.’

He looked at Tony and Karen who remained seated, unsure how to react. ‘Come on. No time to waste. We’ve a job to do.’

Chapter Twenty-Three

‘We’ve a job to do,’ Karen said. ‘Let’s leave it at that.’

It was two weeks after the row. Tony had resisted calling her, reasoning that she might not want to hear from him. So the first time they met again was in Liverpool Betty’s at the behest of Duggan. Karen had arrived almost half an hour late; Tony assumed she did so to ensure she wasn’t left alone with him before Duggan’s arrival. As a result, he’d had to sit with Martin Kelly for twenty minutes while they waited.

Kelly was less belligerent than on their previous meeting. He bought a round and, when Tony went to get one in his turn, asked only for a 7UP. He had the bag over his shoulder as always.

‘How’d you end up in this?’ Tony asked, the conversation having run dry.

‘This the bar? This Scotland or this my living?’

Tony shrugged. ‘All three, I guess.’

‘The bar because Hugh called. My living was something I got into at home. I was shifting weed and stuff in the student blocks around Derry. Shrooms, shroom tea, whatever. The school I went to over there had this big field next to the playing fields, that magic mushrooms grew in. I’d forget my PE gear every week and when the rest of them were getting stuck into a game, our PE teacher just ignored anyone not playing; I’d sneak over into the other field and pick a batch when everyone else was playing football. I mind this one time, I made tea and then we froze it in lolly moulds with the sticks and all, and me and my mates went into school after lunch eating magic lollies right in front of everyone. It was the fucking trippiest Biology class I’ve ever spent.’

Tony smiled, nodded his head, quietly wondering if any of his own students had done such a thing in his class, to help them survive his lessons. After all, ‘Suffer and learn,’ was his motto, they’d said.