Under similar circumstances, the Mrs Bondarchuks of this world tended to reach out to the cops, but this particular Mrs Bondarchuk was aware of the ambivalence with which the gentlemen on the upper floors viewed the police. Instead, although not without reservations at potentially being branded a worrywart, she had contacted the mysterious Amy, who – in what could only be described as a dulcet tone – thanked Mrs Bondarchuk for her vigilance, and assured her that her concerns would be addressed. The last Mrs Bondarchuk saw of the three undesirables together, they were being escorted into the back of a van by a group of four men who had embraced them in what, to the casual onlooker, might have been mistaken for friendly bear hugs, assuming bears carried guns. Two weeks later, she passed one of the undesirables while she was feeding bread to the ducks in Central Park. He caught her eye, and took a moment to recall her, before proceeding on his way, the speed of his departure hampered only by the new cast on his right leg and his lack of familiarity with crutches.

‘I’ll look after everything,’ said Mrs Bondarchuk as she fed pieces of sausage to the Pomeranians.

‘I know you will,’ said Angel. ‘Having you here is a weight off our minds.’

He meant it, too, and she knew he did. He patted her hand, and Mrs Bondarchuk grinned fit to burst.

And while Angel spoke with Mrs Bondarchuk, Louis again went over the documents passed to him by Ross, even as he understood that the knowledge they contained was insufficient for his purposes.

Five names.

He had no idea where these men might be. For all he knew, they could already be back in their own country, and Louis’s cursory knowledge of Serbian culture suggested that, if this was the case, a black man would have difficulty operating inside its borders without attracting attention. At the minimum he would be an object of curiosity, and that was before he began asking questions about Serbian criminals. A black American, meanwhile, might even be a lightning rod for overt hostility, given that US planes had helped NATO bomb some sense into the Serbs in 1999, killing over a thousand soldiers and police, and half as many civilians. If the Vuksans were in Serbia, Louis’s hopes of striking at them were minimal.