He waited all afternoon for the man to call back. He worked out, pumping weights, rowing back and forth, back and forth. When he dropped the barbell on the floor – causing a great crash – he didn’t care. He felt powerful, energy flowing through him, direct current making his bones strong, his mind sharp. Fucking hell yes, they were going to pay. Oh fucking hell yes.

Kirsty would come back.

Everything would be OK.

Life would be sweet again.

The man rang back at five o’clock. Again, there was no background noise. The man spoke quietly. ‘Right. Do you know where Mile End stadium is? Good.’ The man proceeded to give Jamie instructions of where to meet them. ‘We won’t pick up the money ourselves. Our courier will use a code word to prove who they are.’

Jamie almost laughed, giddy with a mad kind of euphoria. This was like the movies.

‘The code word is neighbour.’

‘Good choice.’

The man spoke in a low tone, shot through with menace: ‘This isn’t a game, James. If you think that, we can call it off right now.’

Jamie felt another surge of panic: ‘No, no, I don’t think it’s a game. It’s the most serious thing I’ve–’

The man cut him dead. ‘Yeah, yeah. Save it.’

‘It will take me a couple of days to get the money. It’s in a savings account.’

‘Yeah, whatever. We’ll make it Wednesday then. Thirteen-hundred hours.’

‘Fine.’

Halfway through the word, the man terminated the call.

He drove to the local branch of their bank and picked up the form he needed to fill out in order to withdraw the money. He took the form back to the car and signed his own signature on the left and Kirsty’s on the right. His hand trembled as he did so, and the ‘t’ in Kirsty’s ‘Knight’ wobbled a little. He remembered watching Kirsty practising her new signature when they got married. ‘Kirsty Knight. KK. Thank God my middle name’s not Katherine or Kate – I could never marry you. Or I’d have to keep my old surname.’

‘You could keep it anyway,’ he had said.

‘No.’ She kissed him. ‘I like the idea of us having the same name. It will be easier for our child, as well.’

Jamie’s eyes misted over and guilt stabbed him in the gut. Get a grip, he whispered to himself. Be a man.

He filled in the amount that he wanted to withdraw – £10,000, everything they had – then took the form back to the bank.

‘This will be available in 48 hours,’ said the clerk.

He nodded.