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She was still up at 2.30 a.m. when he parked out front and switched off the ignition. The light shining through the gap in the front-room curtains was a warning. He knew what awaited him. He’d failed her, but there was an extra bounce in his step as he let himself in the front door. He could take what she meted out, because in his cold heart he knew he had not failed himself.

‘Well, any luck?’ She was staring over his shoulder as if something or someone was looming behind his back.

‘It’s too soon. Guards are everywhere. Outside pubs and on street corners. Patrolling in squad cars.’

‘That’s all your fault, moron. Why are you so late? Why didn’t you just turn around and come home?’

This was the tricky bit. He could lie to the whores, but he found it difficult to lie to the woman standing in front of him.

‘I wanted to scout around. To see if there was any area of town the cops had forgotten to patrol.’

‘And?’

‘A few places, but nothing good for my mission.’

‘ Our mission, you lug. Ours.’

‘Sure. You’re right. I think I’ll turn in.’

‘That one needs to go soon.’ Her tone was sharp and stopped him leaving the room.

‘I thought she was doing okay.’

‘Okay? Are you blind? She’s a disaster waiting to happen. She has proved impossible to bend to my will. Just when I think I have a breakthrough, she goes and does something stupid.’

‘Maybe you need to give her more time to adjust to her circumstances.’

‘She’s been here long enough.’ She paused. Dangerous, he thought. ‘And what circumstances would you be referring to?’

She continually confused him when she talked like this. Why couldn’t she just say what she meant? Why couldn’t he tell her what he thought? What he felt?

‘I see you have no answer, because you are a stupid, stupid man. God knows what I did in a previous life to be lumbered with the likes of you and?—’

She was cut off by the sound of a muffled shriek from upstairs. She lashed out and clipped him on the ear. ‘I’d need the patience of a saint with you lot. The patience of a saint…’

Her words trailed up the stairs behind her. He rubbed his ear as he filled the kettle for a cup of tea. She had sucked all the energy out of the room and his motivation had fled with it.

He was trapped.