Bailey once again sensed the maternal emanations coming from Nancy. In a strange way, Bailey almost felt reciprocal, for she could talk to Nancy on a level that she couldn’t with her own mother. But then she had to remind herself that letting someone this dangerous get too close to you was very risky indeed.

‘You intrigue me, Bailey. I feel like we can do business together. Maybe after this deal is done, you can even come on the firm.’

Bailey realised that Nancy was implying that she could join their criminal family as an associate. Given Nancy’s obsession with the importance of blood, Bailey realised just what a significant gesture this was.

‘Would you like that?’ asked Nancy. ‘To come on board?’

‘I would be honoured,’ said Bailey, radiating what she hoped was the suitable amount of deference and gratitude.

Nancy stared hard at her with her small dark eyes. ‘Of course, when you’re playing at our level, you need to have a tolerance for certain things.’

It sounded ominous. ‘What kinds of things?’

‘Have you ever attended a gangland interrogation?’

Bailey swallowed and suppressed the involuntary shudder that went through her as she tried not to recall her agonising torture at the hands of the car theft gang in their scrapyard.

‘Not exactly,’ she whispered, reflexively brushing the scar on her face.

‘I’ll invite you along to the next one,’ said Nancy. ‘Show you how we conduct business.’

‘I’ll look forward to it,’ replied Bailey, forcing a grateful smile onto her face.

35

‘The ninth of March, huh?’ said Frank. ‘That’s still a way off. We’re only just into February.’

Bailey was sitting on the knackered old sofa in the temporary HQ. It was a Monday morning, two days after the boxing, and she was filling in Frank and Dale on the latest developments in the operation. They were both sitting on chairs at the folding table.

She scratched her head. ‘Like you said, it sounds like he’s waiting for the guns to arrive. Otherwise we’d be closing the deal a lot sooner.’

Frank stroked his moustache and thought about it. ‘It makes a kind of sense though. Looking at it from his perspective, he doesn’t want to risk holding the weapons here in the UK any longer than he has to without a buyer. All those guns lying around are a bit of a liability. It’s a safer bet for him to secure a buyer first before proceeding with bringing the weapons here. I imagine they’ll probably be arriving on, or around, the ninth of March. He’ll want to transfer them to you and get them off his hands as soon as possible after they enter the country.’

She nodded. Frank’s explanation seemed very feasible.

‘Talking of which,’ he added, ‘I got the seven hundred and fifty thousand signed off. You’re going to need a big suitcase for that much cash.’

Bailey rubbed her jaw. ‘When it comes to the actual exchange, Rick said he’d clarify the precise details closer to the time. So, at the moment, we don’t know the location or the ins and outs of how it will actually go down.’