‘Yeah, sure,’ said Nula. She’d been feeling so down, so deep in depression that the doc had given her some stronger pills, but this cheered her. Charlie would be home soon, she couldn’t wait to tell him. She put the phone down and went to fetch her journal, to write up the good news.

‘She buy it?’ asked Charlie as Candice put the phone down.

‘Yeah,’ said Candice, whose boyfriend was one of Landon’s one-kilo boys. She was rough as arseholes but she could put on this very nice Home Counties telephone voice, so Charlie had selected her to play agency lady on the phone to Nula, and Nula had swallowed it whole.

‘Good,’ said Charlie, and bunged her a twenty. ‘No one ever hears about this, though, OK?’

‘Of course not, Mr Stone,’ said Candice, grabbing the cash and dreaming of her next hit. She looked at the boy, sitting quietly at the table in her kitchen. ‘He’ll need cleaning up. He’s fucking filthy.’

‘You can see to that, right?’ Charlie peeled off more notes. ‘I’ll get some paperwork done, make it look good and official, you’ll clean him up, get him some new togs, and then next week you’ll visit with the kid, Nula will fall in love with him, and we’re sorted. Bit more chat on the blower, couple more forms to fill in, then couple of weeks after that, the kid arrives at the house – with you – and he stays for good. Yeah?’

Candice looked dubious for a moment, so Charlie peeled off yet more notes. Personally, Candice thought the kid was a bit, well, odd, but this was Charlie Stone, and he was paying, and whatever Charlie Stone wanted, he got. You didn’t question it. If you did, you’d be sorry.

‘Yeah, that’ll work,’ agreed Candice, looking at the money.

‘It better.’ Charlie’s button-bright brown eyes went from friendly to threatening in an instant. ‘This will work. And you’ll keep shtum.’

‘Yeah, Mr Stone. I will.’

‘Or I could get angry.’

‘I won’t breathe a word.’

35

The boy Nula and Charlie adopted was a handsome seven-year-old with honey-coloured hair, a long pale face, an unsmiling mouth and serious light grey eyes. Charlie was delighted with him. Little Milly was affronted; her dad was suddenly lavishing nearly all his attention on this interloper. But Milly had a consolation prize: of a similar age and living in such close proximity to Belle Barton, the two girls had become firm friends, so Milly wasn’t too badly put out about Harlan’s arrival in the Stone household.