'Had your fucking look?' Her voice was harder than she intended but it had the desired effect. The women knew they had overstepped the mark and she knew they would be chary of repeating that mistake in the future.

Janie was now inside the house and, hearing Lil's angry voice, her earlier bravado was deserting her by the second.

Lil could feel the fear and the loathing coming off Janie Callahan in waves; she saw the widening of her eyes and the way she bit on her bottom lip. She knew that it had taken every ounce of courage Janie possessed to come and knock on this door. She knew that this was serious, that this was not about the usual childish arguments or the kids' pranks so prevalent in the street. Janie was on a mission and her mother's quietness was, in itself, enough to convince her that Lance was indeed the culprit and that, as she had thought earlier, he had been seriously out of order.

Lil was frightened of hearing what Lance had done, and yet she knew it was inevitable that she would be regaled about his latest misdemeanour.

'Make a cuppa, Mum.'

She smiled at Janie and it took every ounce of courage that she possessed. Then she said quietly and with a friendliness she didn't actually feel any more, 'Come through to the lounge, Janie, and let's sort this out, shall we?'

Janie nodded in relief but she saw the way Annie looked at her and knew she had just made herself an enemy for life.

Cain was out of his box and his smile was as phoney as his annoyance was real. Leonard Barker was never happy at any time, but giving this young man the news that his brother was searching for him all over the Smoke was making him even more depressed than usual. Cain had to be some kind of mug; Leonard would give his eye-teeth to have someone on board with him like Spider. But Cain was so blitzed he just shrugged it off.

Leonard walked from the room; he had done his chore for the day and he wanted to distance himself from this man as fast as possible.

Having heard the bad news, the Williams brothers were scattering. They were suddenly off for the evening, leaving Cain alone even though they knew he was not fit to use the toilet without help. But that was the Williams boys all over, they seemed to enjoy taking this boy down with them. And Cain himself was galloping towards obscurity and censure as if it was the only thing he wanted in the world.

Leonard Barker was collecting glasses out the front of the Speiler when he saw Patrick Brodie slip through the door. There were a few regular customers at the bar and Leonard noticed how Patrick was being observed without anyone actually looking directly at him. He waved nonchalantly at no one in particular and everyone in there greeted him heartily. Leonard felt his heart sink down to his boots and wished that his boss wasn't such a lazy cunt so he would not have to be the person overlooking this pile of shite. He would be glad when Cain finally got his comeuppance.

Patrick nodded at him in a friendly way; no one would ever guess at his anger or his dismay that it had come to this. He opened his arms as if in supplication and Leonard Barker nodded almost imperceptibly towards the back room knowing that Brodie would have all the information he needed before he would have even deigned to walk through the doorway. It was a game that had been played out over and over again for years and the only changes were the players in the little soap opera. This time though, a renowned lunatic, Patrick Brodie, had seen fit to sort his problems out in public and Leonard knew it could go either way for him because of that. He would either be the villain of the piece or the knight in shining armour, depending on the outcome.

Leonard just wanted his wage in his back pocket and fuck the dramas that came and went with a depressing regularity. He was further dismayed to see two huge men come into the bar with baseball bats neatly wrapped in red insulating tape. When the dirty deed was done they could unwrap the tape and burn it, thereby leaving the bats in pristine condition for further use and any evidence as ash.

Two of the regulars at the bar drank up and walked out quickly without saying their usual good-humoured goodbyes and this seemed to be the sign for a general exodus, as was expected. No one questioned anything; the atmosphere said enough and no one wanted to get caught up in the situation here, and who could blame them?

Patrick smiled then and Leonard poured him a large Scotch before shutting the bar flap and leaving the place himself. He would sit it out in the cold and wait for them to vacate the premises before going back inside. Brodie owned the bar, even though he didn't run it, and Leonard knew that Cain was about to find out just what owning something or, more to the point, someone really meant.

Leonard sat outside in his little Hillman Imp and rolled himself a cigarette; his hands were trembling and that annoyed him. He started up the car and pushed a cassette into his eight-track system. Elvis Presley's voice filled the void around him and he closed his eyes and wished to Christ that he too felt lonesome tonight.

'What's wrong then, Janie?'

Janie sighed heavily. Her earlier bravado had deserted her and she was perched on the edge of the sofa with a dry mouth and a heart that was beating so loud it was almost drowning out her own thoughts.

Lil was aware of the woman's discomfort and she smiled once more, feeling phoney because a large part of her didn't want to hear what this poor woman had to say.

'Lance is bullying my kids, Lil. I can't sit back and let him, it's gone too far this time.' It was out, it was said and the world had not come to an end.

'In what way?'

Lil was asking all the right questions, she knew, but the truth was that she could have written Janie's script for her. But what Janie answered was nothing like what she had expected and she had, as always where Lance was concerned, expected the worst. She was stunned as she listened to the woman talk.

'Eight stitches in the head and that was when Lance pushed her off the bus…'

Janie trailed off as she saw the shock on Lil's face. She had assumed that Lil had heard about it. It was the talk of the school; not that they were willing to do anything about it. But what could Janie do? This had to be resolved because her kids were in mortal fear of even leaving the house.

'Her? Did you say her?'

Janie nodded. Her long face was even more worried now as she realised that Lil really had no idea about what had happened and she had gone so white she looked on the verge of fainting. Lil's huge belly and swollen legs were suddenly all Janie could focus on and she saw that Lil Brodie was ill. She was also in a state of total shock at the news she had just imparted to her. She guessed that Annie made sure Lil didn't get any information until after she had edited it to her own satisfaction.

'My Lisa is only six and he pushed her off the bus; she landed in the road on her barnet and the hospital said she was lucky she wasn't hurt really badly. Lil, I don't want to put this in your lap; I can see you are ready to drop but I can't let this go on. Lance has tortured them and he mouths me off if I say anything. He effs and blinds at me. I don't want to cause any trouble for you… I don't want Patrick after me, but if that's what it takes… It's either this or I have to move and I ain't got the wherewithal to do that as I am sure you know… Me old man's banged up.'

Janie's voice was breaking now with sheer relief that she had said it out loud. Lil looked awful and Janie was sorry for her because she could see the woman genuinely had no idea about any of it. If she had not seen her reaction with her own eyes she would never have believed it.

Lil was digesting everything she had just heard and was now trying to make some kind of sense of it. She was stiff with anger and humiliation; this woman honestly believed that she had known of her son's antics and that she had allowed those things to happen without any kind of redress. Did everyone else think that? Did they assume that she didn't care? Did people think she condoned his behaviour?