Classic Bestsellers from Josephine Cox: Bumper Collection. Josephine Cox

good experience … it’s learning time, in preparation for my own business. The more I learn, the better I’ll be, and the better I am, the quicker I’ll get somebody to believe in me … say a bank manager, or a backer who’ll take a risk on me.’

      Roy nodded in agreement. ‘By! If I had the money,’ he declared boldly, ‘I’d back you myself.’

      ‘Honest? Would you?’ Knowing Roy’s wicked sense of humour, Jack never knew when to believe what he said. ‘Or are you just having me on?’

      ‘Am I heck as like!’ Roy was genuinely indignant. ‘Any fool can see you’ll have your own business one day, it’s just a matter o’ time.’ He gave a knowing wink. ‘I dare say once you get your own premises, you’ll be away with the best. And what’s more, I’ll be right there … your right-hand man, looking out for you all the way. Ain’t that what best friends are for?’

      Jack laughed. ‘Looking out for yourself, you mean,’ he chided, before adding in a serious voice, ‘It’s allus been my dream, to get my own premises. And when I do, I promise you hand on heart, you will be alongside me, and we’ll look out for each other. How does that suit you?’

      ‘Suits me just fine.’ Roy was thrilled. ‘I’ll be the first in my rotten family, to be a foreman.’

      ‘Hey, don’t get carried away! I never said you’d be foreman.’

      ‘You’ll not be able to refuse,’ Roy was confident. ‘I’d work my socks off and learn the trade inside out. You’d be proud of me so you would. What! I’d be the best foreman you ever had.’

      ‘All right then,’ Jack laughed at his brashness, ‘I’ll think about it.’

      While Jack made the coffee, Roy made himself comfortable. ‘D’you want to know a secret?’ he asked tantalisingly.

      Jack popped his head round the kitchen door. ‘What have you been up to now?’

      ‘I’ve not been up to nowt! It’s just that I know summat you don’t.’

      Jack returned to making the coffee. ‘What’s that then?’

      ‘I’ve just been round to see Don.’

      ‘So?’ Returning with the coffee, Jack declared, ‘There’s nothing mysterious about going to Don’s place,’ he said. ‘You visit him most weeks that I know of.’

      Lounging in the chair, Roy took a leisurely sip of his coffee. ‘I just thought you might be interested in what I’ve just seen.’

      ‘Now, why would that be?’ Settling into his armchair, one long leg dangling over the side of the chair and the other stretched out to the hearth, Jack waited for an answer.

      Roy placed his cup in the hearth and leaned forward, his eyes aglow as he imparted his newly discovered secret. ‘He’s got a new woman friend.’

      Jack stopped him right there. ‘Aw, look, I’ve no interest in the man’s love-life, for God’s sake. Why would I want to know a thing like that, eh?’

      Undeterred, Roy continued, ‘She told him her name was Helen, only her name isn’t. It’s Georgina.’

      ‘Helen, Georgina …’ Jack shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter to me either way. Now then, is there another reason why you’ve foisted yourself on me tonight, because if there isn’t and you intend talking about Carson’s new woman-friend, I can think of a thousand better ways to use my time.’ Standing up, he headed for the kitchen. ‘So, you might as well drink up and head for the street.’

      Roy’s voice followed him. ‘She’s Luke Hammond’s sister-in-law.’

      Stunned, Jack spun round. ‘Your gaolbird friend … and Hammond’s classy sister-in-law? What kind o’ sad joke is that?’

      ‘It’s no joke,’ Roy said, ‘and there’s more.’ Having now caught Jack’s interest, he deliberately paused, a look of mischief curling his face. ‘Oh, I forgot! You don’t want to hear about it, do you?’

      Intrigued, Jack returned to sit down again. ‘What else do you know? You’ve got this far, you might as well tell me the rest.’

      Roy took his time, before revealing his own thoughts on the unlikely relationship. ‘Think about it, Jack,’ he urged. ‘Don Carson is pally with the man who attacked Sylvia Hammond. I know for a fact Don visits Stratton in gaol.’

      Again he paused to let his words sink home. ‘And now her glamorous sister is on the scene … making up to Don like there’s no tomorrow.’

      Realistic as ever, Jack mused aloud, ‘Happen they just fancy each other?’

      ‘It’s all too convenient,’ Roy insisted. ‘My bet is she must have found out that Don was pally with the man who damaged her sister.’

      Thinking on it, Jack slowly chewed on his bottom lip, as he did when something bothered him. ‘It doesn’t make any sense, does it?’ He wondered if it was a cruel twist of Fate, or simply animal attraction. Besides, even if she did know the connection between Carson and her sister’s attacker, there was nothing much she could do about it.

      ‘I must admit it’s an odd coincidence, though,’ he went on. ‘This Georgina is not short of a bob or two; she’s attractive and desirable by anybody’s standard, so why would a woman like that want a man like Carson?’

      Roy had the answer. ‘To get even for what happened to her sister.’

      ‘But the man who attacked her sister is already behind bars.’

      Roy nodded affirmatively. ‘I know that,’ he replied, ‘and I don’t know how she means to get her own back, but for the life of me, I can’t see any other reason for her to come after Don.’

      ‘I can!’ Like a light had switched on in his mind, Jack had seen something Roy couldn’t see, or didn’t want to.

      ‘What’s on your mind, Jack?’

      ‘Your friend, Don.’

      ‘What about him?’

      ‘You’re not his only friend, are you?’

      ‘You know I’m not. He’s got a lot o’ good friends.’

      ‘Ex-convicts like himself, are they?’

      Not too comfortable with his line of questioning, Roy demanded to know, ‘What are you getting at, Jack?’

      Jack revealed his thoughts. ‘I’m wondering about Georgina,’ he said. ‘I’m wondering if she’s the kind of person who would want her sister’s attacker done away with, and if she did, who better to go to than an ex-convict, with contacts who might well be prepared to carry out a sort of execution … for a price?’

      Against his better instincts, Roy could see the feasibility of what Jack was proposing, and was shocked by it. ‘Jesus! Are you saying she might ask Don to put out a contract on Stratton?’

      Throwing out his hands in a gesture of helplessness, Jack asked, ‘What do I know? But look, mate … you have to admit, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility. Is it?’

      ‘You must be bloody mad!’ Scrambling out of the chair, Roy slammed his half-empty cup onto the mantelpiece. ‘You don’t know him like I do!’ Shock trembled his voice. ‘All right, I’ll admit … Don Carson spent time in gaol, so he’s an ex-convict and keeps in touch with others of his kind. But I’m an ex-con too, and I keep in touch with Don, so you could say we’re out of the same mould.’

      ‘I never said any such thing!’ Getting out of his chair Jack confronted him. ‘All I’m saying is, this woman might not be what he thinks. After what he did to her own flesh and blood, she might want Stratton taken out for good, if you know what I mean?’

      ‘You might be right,’ Roy agreed, ‘but even if