Page 114 of The Black Trilogy

I stuck my mouth guard in and waited for Lee to strip off his tracksuit. A small crowd gathered to watch, and cash began to change hands. One guy I recognised gave me a wink, and I suppressed a smile. How much money had he bet?

Jimmy rang the bell.

Quick off the mark, I almost got Lee with my first punch. He fell to his knees, but when I stepped back, he scrambled up, a new determination in his eyes. Guess I wasn’t going to be as easy to beat as he’d assumed.

And once he put in some effort, he wasn’t a bad fighter. We were halfway through the third round when he got me against the side of the cage with a couple of jabs. The small crowd gasped as he came at me again. In for the kill, or so he thought. I feinted with a high right hook. As my fist swung, his eyes cut to it, and I got him under the jaw with a left-handed uppercut. My ears relished the satisfying thump of leather on flesh.

That dropped them every time, and he’d left himself wide open.

“He’ll have a monster of a headache when he wakes up,” I said, stripping my gloves off.

“All part of the game, sweet pea,” Jimmy said.

He and another of the trainers tended to Lee, and once he started to come round, I headed off for a quick shower.

“Won fifty quid on that one, darlin’,” the guy who’d winked at me called as I headed upstairs to Jimmy’s flat.

I returned his thumbs-up. “Drinks are on you, then.”

I still kept a few clothes in a drawer there, and Jackie made me an egg-white omelette while I got dressed.

“You staying all day?” she asked.

“Can’t. Got things to do.”

“That missing girl?”

I nodded. “There’s no sign of her yet.”

“Poor child. Let us know if there’s anything we can do.”

I promised to stop by when I had more time then headed back downstairs to say goodbye to Jimmy. Lee had woken up by that point and was slumped on a bench, holding an ice pack to his face.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“This is my almost daughter,” Jimmy told him, and the pride in his voice made my breath hitch. I didn’t deserve his admiration right now.

“Wish I’d known that beforehand,” Lee said, holding out his hand for me to shake. “No hard feelings, eh?”

“She’s taken down far bigger men than you,” Jimmy said. “Just shows you have to train harder and lose some of that cockiness.”

I left Lee and Jimmy to it and began the jog home. My legs felt heavy after their workout, and I took it slow. Yes, I still had a way to go fitness-wise. I chose a different route back, backstreets rather than the main roads—it was always good to keep up with how the city was changing. I’d learned that the hard way on the night I met my husband, although it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Having settled into a steady rhythm, I took a right onto Laburnum Avenue. Why did that name sound familiar? I’d heard it somewhere recently. Half a minute later, it came back to me—Mack had mentioned this was where the owner of the stolen number plates lived. Was he back from his trip abroad yet? It wouldn’t hurt to check while I was in the vicinity, and it only took a second to call Nye and get the house number.

Number forty-three turned out to be the bottom half of a Victorian, once a modest family home and now converted into two flats. The door looked freshly painted, a contrast with that of forty-three-A’s, which was peeling at the edges.

A small, dark-skinned man opened the door with a frown. “Are you selling something?”

“No, I’m not.” I stuck to the same story as the original team and explained the number plates had been used in a burglary.

He broke into a smile. “Oh, come in, come in. My sister said somebody called, but she was not sure who. Her English is not so good. I wondered if you would return.”

“Thanks. Are you Gabir Hassani, then?” I asked, although the fact he shook with his left hand rather than his right and walked with a slight limp was a bit of a giveaway.

“Yes, I am. Would you like some tea?” His English was careful, precise.

“I’d love a cup.”

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