Page 28 of We Chase Shadows

Steve nods.

‘I can see you as a copper,’ says Georgie. ‘He was always a cut above, Vern, always grew towards the sun, you know? Had plans. And I thought I might tag along with him, go where he was going.’

‘Legal plans?’ Rosie asks.

‘Sometimes,’ says Georgie. ‘Sometimes not. Knock-off perfume, that sort of thing. Hard to get out of Kensal Rise without breaking a few windows, you know? Did you ever have to struggle, Rosie?’

Well, wasn’t that a question? Why not be honest. ‘I did, yes.’

‘I can see it in you,’ says Georgie. ‘It never leaves the eyes. Even eyes as beautiful as yours, Rosie.’

Okay, that’s not terrible flirting, to be fair. Perhaps Georgie’s just a woman who knows her audience, and she has pegged Steve as being a little more basic than he is.

Some people do take Steve as a bit simple, and he rarely tries to discourage them. He makes it work for him.

‘We got married at eighteen,’ says Georgie. ‘And we’d made a million by twenty.’

‘Doing what?’ Steve asks.

‘Vern set up a boxing gym in the City,’ says Georgie. ‘Before everyone set up boxing gyms in the City.’

‘So far, so legitimate,’ says Rosie.

‘Well, no, the real money was selling steroids,’ says Georgie.

‘Ah,’ says Rosie.

‘Ah,’ says Georgie. ‘Illegal, but not as illegal as cocaine, which everyone asked him for too.’

‘He didn’t fancy that?’ Steve asks.

‘He fancied the money,’ says Georgie. ‘He just didn’t fancy the world that went with it. As I say, he’s always been careful. No one really cares if you sell steroids to bankers, but as soon as you start selling coke, you’re never far from a copper or a bullet.’

‘Or from somebody shooting your bodyguard,’ says Rosie.

‘You know what,’ says Georgie, sitting back, ‘this is a lot of fun for me. Thank you for coming to see me. I worry my world has got a bit nice and a bit safe recently. I don’t really have anyone to talk to about cocaine and bullets. The neighbourhood WhatsApp is mainly about recycling.’

Rosie sees that Steve is now itching to ask her questions about the recycling.

Georgie nods. ‘Yeah, this is nice. I’ve missed it.’

‘Our pleasure,’ says Rosie. Georgie seems to be a different human being when she is talking about Vern. Or talking about her own past, Rosie supposes. She might drive a Škoda and paint rainbows on crockery, but you don’t have to scratch too deeply to find someone else entirely.

‘He always knew how to stay just the right side of the line,’ says Georgie. ‘To protect himself. I know he was selling steroids, but at least he felt guilty about it. He even went to church a couple of times, but then he started selling steroids to the vicar.’

‘And how do you come into the whole thing?’ Rosie asks. Her phone buzzes with a message from Ernesto. He is saved in her phone as ERNESTO 10/10.

‘It was the beginning of all the “wellness” stuff,’ says Georgie. ‘Yoga and chakras and essential oils. Of people wanting to spend money on all that anyway. Some of the wives, it was wives back then in the City, started asking Vern for all sorts and he didn’t have a clue, so asked if I’d like a little project, and I looked into it, did a bit of research, saw that people were happy to pay a lot of money for basically nothing, and it was legal, and we were off to the races.’

‘So the supplements, the tablets, the whole thing,’ says Steve. ‘That was your idea?’

Georgie smiles again. ‘I suppose so, but I wouldn’t have done it without Vern, would I? Takes two to tango, that’s what I say.’

‘That’s what a lot of people say,’ says Rosie. She is warming to Georgie, but she’s not going to lower her standards. ‘Vern takes the idea, runs with it, but the two of you split up?’

‘Got together at fourteen, didn’t we?’ says Georgie. ‘Split up at forty. No kids, no hard feelings, we went our separate ways and wished each other well. Still do.’

Steve pulls out an account of the court case. The dispute between the two of them. ‘This would suggest otherwise.’