Peter could see how the world was going, he could see that these were dangerous times for people like them. They were sensible in that they had enough legitimate businesses to explain away their lifestyles, but there was no reason to attract too much attention to them as people, as personalities. They had enough creds – they didn’t need any more. Plus, if they kept their violence quiet, so only the people who were in their world knew about it, he believed they would get a much better profile anyway. Times were changing, people were much more aware of how they were perceived these days, the Filth had so much more at their disposal, so why play into their hands? Why put yourself in the frame, when you could quietly and calmly take out your enemies with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of terror? If a person just disappeared, never to be heard of again, Peter felt that was a much more sinister ending than a gun shot in a car park, or a battering in a public place. He wanted a low key takeover of the Smoke, not a fucking remake of High Noon. He felt instinctively that the lower the profile, the better the earn. The days of bursting into a place waving a sawn-off shotgun, or kneecapping an enemy in full view of a crowded pub, were long gone. He believed, strongly, that this was the era of the quiet disappearance, of the ‘Reported Missing’; no one these days drew too much attention to themselves unless they had to. Even then you used someone else to do your dirty work, making sure that when the skulduggery occurred, you were out with at least fifty people who would happily swear on oath that you were in their company should it all turn pear-shaped, and a court hearing ensue.

Daniel needed to get this point through his head and, after they had seen Alfie, Peter was going to make sure that Daniel understood that, if he wasn’t careful, his actions would eventually be the cause of their demise. Already his brother was pissing him off, making him nervous, jeopardising everything they had worked towards, but this wasn’t anything new; he had always pushed it to the hilt – it was part of his so-called fucking charm. Whereas Peter was the voice of reason, Daniel was the voice of absolute chaos. He relished the drama of the fight, never allowing for the fact that the more people who knew what they were up to the more chance there was of a fucking serious capture.