Joyce smirked. ‘A week, perhaps two. Now I’m starving, so let’s eat, shall we?’

* * *

Eddie managed to hold himself together throughout the service and only shed a tear at the end when he heard Tom Jones singing ‘Green, Green Grass of Home’ . Ed had chosen the record to be played as everybody left the church. It had been Paulie’s party piece and there had been many a boozer he’d crooned it in back in the good old days.

As his brothers’ coffins were lowered into the ground, Ed walked away and lit up a cigar. The guilt he was feeling was awful and it was tearing him apart inside. ‘All right, mate? I’ve organised the wake at the Flag. You’re coming back for a bevvy, ain’t ya?’ Ed asked, as Flatnose Freddie approached him.

‘Just walk with me, I’ve got some info for you,’ Freddie replied in almost a whisper.

Eddie felt his heart start to pound instead of just beat. He’d gone to Flatnose Freddie a couple of weeks back and offered him ten grand to find out who had killed his brothers. ‘You got a name for me?’ he asked softly.

Freddie ignored Eddie’s question. ‘Not ’ere,’ he mumbled.

Urging Eddie to follow him behind the wall that was the toilet block, Flatnose Freddie turned to face his pal. He and Mitchell went back years and although he’d often charged Ed to dispose of bodies for him, he had no intention of taking ten grand from him for the info he’d acquired about his brothers. Family was family and business was business in Freddie’s eyes.

‘Right, I don’t know who actually murdered your brothers, but I do know who ordered the hit and I know who the middleman was.’

‘O’Hara fucking ordered it, I know that already,’ Eddie said angrily.

Flatnose Freddie shook his head. ‘O’Hara’s plant was Pete Berkley and when Ronny and Paulie got shoved into the nonces’ wing, Berkley couldn’t get to ’em.’

‘So, who the fuck ordered it, then?’ Ed asked, stunned.

‘Terry Baldwin. He paid Jamie Carroll to sort it.’

Overcome by shock, Eddie’s mind went completely blank. ‘Do I know ’em?’

‘Course you do. Carroll’s out of Plaistow originally. Used to knock about with Dean Arnold. Everyone knows him as the Fixer. As for Baldwin, he’s the grandfather of the kid your brothers murdered, hence the hit, I suppose.’

Ed leaned against the wall to steady himself. He knew the Fixer – he was a slimy fucker and Ed had never liked him much. As for Baldwin, Ed knew him by sight, but had never really had many dealings with him. Ed had heard good things about Baldwin in the past, but he certainly wasn’t in his league.