‘I’m being serious. Give it a rest, will you!’

‘If we just stick to what we know we’ll have more money than even you could ever spend. Why the hell do you want to take risks just to make more? Risks which could ruin everything?’

‘Listen Mister Yuppified Middle-Class Wankhead, you can’t stand still. You’ve got to keep on the move. Change with the times. Go with the flow, all that shite. There’s business out there and I’m going to make damn sure we get our share of it, and some. It’s how the old man worked. It’s how I work. Like father, like son – this son.’

‘We run things now and in any case you know dad wouldn’t touch things that were too risky. That is why we are where we are. That’s how I do business. Like father, like son – this son.’

‘I do things differently. That’s it – and if the polis want to get in the way, they can be dealt with.’

‘How?’

‘I know how.’

‘Kevin, this is crazy. How ?’

‘That’s my problem.’

‘No, it isn’t. It will be our problem. You’re talking pish and you know it. And it’s not just the polis. You’re getting right up the noses of other people.’

‘I’ll deal with them too.’

‘Talk sense, Kevin.’

‘Enough. Fucking leave it. You’re not the boss. You tell me fuck all what to do. No cunt tells me fuck all what to do. Got it? Have you got it Paul?’

‘I’ve got it, but you’re heading for deep shit, Kevin. Someone’s going to stop you.’

‘They can fucking try.’

She sipped at the coffee, ignoring the fact that it was now stonecold. Despite her concerns over Kevin’s activities, Annie had loved her son. He would always be her wee boy – mischievous, petulant, needing constant reassurance from her that he was special. She could picture him, tousle-haired, clothing dirtied and torn, hands and face bloodspattered as the result of yet another scrap. Tears welled in her eyes as she recollected the last time she saw him – in the mortuary. Her little boy had no longer appeared mischievous. His head was an horrific mutilation. He had been brutally violated. His eyes seemed to be crying out to her in pain and terror. His mouth was open and she could hear the voice calling ‘Ma! Ma!’ as it had done so many years before. An observer would have found the scene horrific, sickening, obscene. Not Annie. She saw her son and felt his pain.

Time to go.