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‘What did she do?’

‘She was a barhtfavours on the side Trouble is, I’m still not sure if I was the result of one of those favours’

William didn’t comment

‘But the cash dried up when she began to lose her looks, and it didn’t help that ular black eye if she didn’t coh cash to pay for his next bottle of whisky and the chance to back another fourth-place nag’

Fred fell silent, while Williaht about his own parents, who usually went out to dinner and the theatre on a Saturday night He still found it difficult to comprehend the tyranny of domestic violence He’d never once heard his father raise his voice in front of his mother

‘London’s a long way fro to learn more

‘It wasn’t far enough forwhen a young couple scurried away ‘I was fourteen when I left home I jumped on the first tramp steamer that would have hteen and landed up in London’

‘Is that when you joined the force?’

‘No I still looked on the superot bored with that, so decided to join either the army or the police If the police hadn’t interviewed eneral by now’

‘Or dead,’ said William, as they walked onto the estate

‘You’re just as likely to be killed in this job as you are in the modern army,’ said Fred ‘I’ve lost seve

n colleagues in the past twenty years, and far too many others, injured and invalided out of the force And at least in the army you knoho the enemy is, and you’re allowed to kill the warfare, while most of the public prefer not to know’

‘So why did you stick at it when you could have chosen a far easier life?’

‘We may have come from opposite sides of the tracks, Choirboy,’ said Fred, ‘but we do have one thing in co the job ere destined for And let’s face it, I’ve never had a job that’s half as exciting or rewarding as being a Met copper’

‘Rewarding?’