'Heard what?' Joe sounded irritable and this irritated his daughter in turn.

'About your darling daughter Maggie.'

No one spoke, and Jackie felt on the verge of screaming. As usual, none of them thought the marvellous Maggie could do any wrong.

'You leave poor Maggie alone, she's enough to contend with.'

It was her mother's tone of voice, the reverence with which she spoke about Maggie, that set Jackie off and she hollered as loudly as she could, wincing at her own inebriated ramblings, 'She reckons my Freddie raped her. Have you ever heard anything like it?'

She now had what she always wanted, the attention of the whole room, and as three pairs of eyes looked at her in absolute disdain she bellowed, 'And she reckons, or so she told my Kimberley anyway, that Jimmy Junior was his baby, Freddie's son, not your fucking precious Jimmy's.'

'Get out, Jackie.' Her father's voice was harsher than she had heard it for years. He grabbed her by the hair and he physically dragged her to the front door. Opening it he threw her with all his might out into the small lobby.

'Fuck off, and don't you ever come back here again, you hear me?'

Jackie was unsure exactly what had happened until the door slammed and she scrambled to her feet. Her father's voice was so final, so full of dislike, that she understood that any last chances she might have had were long gone. Kneeling on the floor, she cried as she had not cried in years.

Melanie was aware that they were alone in the pub. Her uncle Paul had put a bottle of Scotch on the bar and Freddie was pouring it out for them both in huge quantities. The coke had made her higher than she had ever been, and the sudden exodus around her was making her feel uncomfortable for some reason.

She put it down to coke paranoia. She had experienced it before, but this stuff Freddie had was out of this world. Each snort had made her feel more and more adventurous, in fact she was almost willing to strip off and go for it as Freddie kept urging her. If her aunt had not been upstairs, she knew the temptation would have been too much for her.

This was the life she dreamed of, being with someone like Freddie where every day was a holiday and every night was just a round of pubs and clubs and getting out of it, and making yourself up for your bloke.

No job, no real income, just an endless round of enjoying yourself.

If she played her cards right, she knew she could find herself right on her feet with Freddie Jackson. She wasn't silly, she knew he was married and she knew his wife was a right headcase. But she would cross that bridge when she came to it.

She only wanted to be his bird. He was far too old to think of marrying, he was almost Jurassic, bless him.

She was still congratulating herself on her catch of the day when a younger, much better-looking version of Freddie walked into the pub.

Freddie, who had been regaling her with his tales of derring-do whilst in prison, was suddenly aware that the place was empty, quiet.

Even the jukebox was silent.

'Well, well, if it isn't fucking Livingstone.'

Jimmy smiled. 'Pissed, are you? What happened to you this morning? I was waiting for you.'

Jimmy was talking nicely, almost conversationally. But Melanie picked up the nuances in the conversation and a fright took hold of her. The two men were so alike, but the younger one, he had the stature and the standing of someone important, someone who was listened to.

Freddie Jackson, beside him, looked like the poor relation and she guessed that Freddie felt the same way as she did.

The younger man had on a smart pair of trousers and a smart shirt, his gold watch was thin-banded and obviously expensive. He had well-cut hair and manicured hands, and even his voice was modulated. He sounded educated, sounded like someone who, as she had first thought, was listened to.

Next to him Freddie looked what he was, a dishevelled and bloated also-ran. He had the button eyes of a grifter and the sneaky look of a con man. In her heightened state of awareness it occurred to her that Freddie Jackson was not such a prize after all. This man was a prize, though, this man was someone to aspire to.

She smiled at him as he stood in front of her.

'Fuck off.' His voice was cold, calculatingly cold, and it unnerved her.

She immediately looked at Freddie for his reaction to the man's rudeness. Freddie grinned and she now saw the nasty glint in his eyes, the sallow skin and the redness around his cheeks that told her he was a drinker.

She raised her eyebrows at him to see what she was supposed to do, and he kept his eyes on the younger man as he said nonchalantly, 'You heard the man, Mel, fuck off.'

She was shocked at the callous way he spoke to her. A few minutes earlier she had been contemplating stripping off and doing whatever he wanted, she had even contemplated a relationship of some kind with him.

Now he was pushing her away, discarding her without a backward glance. She was also aware that she was letting this man talk to her like she was dirt, letting him look down his nose at her.

Freddie was laughing now. The look on Melanie's face was priceless, and now that Jimmy had come to him he was feeling an adrenaline rush.

'Come on, girl, chop chop. The big man has spoken and everyone has to do what you tell them, don't they, Jimmy?' This was said quietly, like a schoolboy to a teacher.

Then, passing her a drink, he took Mel's arm gently and led her to a table by the stained-glass window. After she was seated Freddie smiled at her and said, 'Wait here, this shouldn't take long.'

Jimmy watched the man he had admired all those years ago and wondered at what had happened to him. He had no respect left for him whatsoever. Freddie was dragging this stupid girl into their argument, into their business, because he could not do anything without an audience.

Walking over to them, Jimmy took her bodily by the arm and walked her through to the living quarters of the pub.

'Piss off, love.'

As he walked back he saw Freddie pouring out more drinks, and he sighed. Freddie was drunk and as always he was mean drunk.

'You came, then?' Freddie seemed to think that this was hilarious, and once more Jimmy was aware of how little esteem he now held this man in.

'I knew you'd come to me eventually.' This was said smugly, as if he had won something.

Jimmy didn't answer him for a few seconds, and then he said seriously, 'You're out, Fred.' He was gratified to see Freddie's look of complete astonishment.

'What do you mean, I'm out?'

Jimmy grinned. 'What I say, you are out.' He said the last few words distinctly as if talking to a small child, or a deaf person. Enunciating every word.

Freddie was nonplussed for a few moments. Then he said, 'Out of what, Jimmy?'

Freddie sounded as if he was in a padded room, narked up with Dospan. He sounded amazed and also as if what he was hearing was unbelievable to him. Which of course it was.

Now Jimmy laughed, as he said in a clear voice, 'You are out on your arse. You are finished, Freddie, and you had better get that through your thick head once and for all.'