Now looking the part was half the trick. And it started with keeping a close eye on what he stuck in his gob. Clean eating, he called it. Although he knew his mum would have laughed at that: ‘It’s just fruit and veg, Donny,’ she’d have told him. ‘Eat your greens and don’t pretend it’s a new religion.’ But it was to Donny. Protein, protein and more protein. Those muscles didn’t come from nowhere.

His eyes were sea blue. Come-to-bed eyes he liked to call them. And his hair? That was a masterpiece; every day he’d spend a good ten minutes styling it, making sure it was on point. What with the wax and the setting creams, he spent a bomb on his products. Looking good didn’t come cheap.

He heard footsteps heading down the hallway towards him and paused for a second, then carried on admiring himself in the mirror. It’d only be the missus. Donny had started to slip his crisp white shirt over his broad shoulders when she opened the door.

‘Oh my God, how much longer are you going to spend in there, Donny? I’m going to be late. Every bleeding morning you hog the bathroom, you’re worse than any woman I know.’

Susan stood with one hand placed firmly on her hip and shook her head as she watched him preening. She couldn’t see the point – unless he was trying to impress someone? She felt a sudden rush of jealousy. Was he seeing somebody else? Did he have his eye on another woman? After what happened two years back he’d promised her that he’d never go there again, vowed he would never be unfaithful. But the signs were there, right in front of her. If there was no one else surely he’d just have a quick wash like any normal bloke? One thing was for sure, Susan would cut his balls off and make a necklace out of them if he was up to something. Her brothers had wanted to put him in a body bag when they’d got wind of what he was up to before, but she had held them back, begged them to leave him alone. More fool her if he was at it again. She exhaled slowly, let the thought pass. No, he loved her, nobody else.

She checked her watch and sighed. Whatever he was or wasn’t up to, one thing he wasn’t doing was listening to her. No effort to let her have the bathroom, still staring in the bloody mirror. She’d had enough. She banged her fist on the wooden cabinet.