At this point, Tommy peeled himself off the wall and came over to the table. ‘Listen, Sean,’ he said, addressing me, ‘I can vouch for these two men. I’ve known them years, and you know I’m kosher, so I wouldn’t be messing you about.’

This was true enough. In the three months since I’d met Tommy in a well-known villains’ pub in Stepney, we’d not only spent a lot of time together shooting the breeze in various drinking holes, I’d also done work for him on his sideline operations. This had involved delivering quantities of coke to some of his wholesale customers, as well as going with him to collect a debt from a dealer who owed him money. I’d had to hold the guy’s legs while Tommy lifted him off the floor and repeatedly dunked his head down the toilet. I hadn’t wanted to do it but knew I had to prove myself to my new boss, and thankfully the dealer had coughed up the money before any real pain was inflicted on him.

I nodded slowly, appearing satisfied. ‘I trust you, Tommy, so if you vouch for them, that’s OK with me.’

His face cracked an almost paternalistic smile, even though he was only a dozen years my senior. ‘Good lad.’ He turned to Wolfe. ‘I can vouch for Sean as well, Ty. He’s reliable.’

‘I don’t like the look of him,’ Haddock grunted.

‘I don’t like the look of you, either,’ I snapped back, ‘but I’m not complaining, am I?’

Haddock’s eyes narrowed and he glowered at me with an almost theatrical rage, but the other two laughed. ‘Lighten up, Clarence,’ said Wolfe, standing up. ‘Come on, Sean,’ he said. ‘Why don’t you, me and Clarence take a walk?’

I could think of any number of reasons why not, but I knew that unless I went with them, this op was dead before it had even begun. I glanced over at Tommy and he gave me a nod in return to tell me it would be OK. He might have been a thug and a career criminal, but there was something about Tommy I implicitly trusted (maybe it was this paternal air he had), so when he let me know that it would be OK, I believed him.