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shook her; Stella’s head lolled about wildly, her hair falling all over her face, her manacled hands clenching and flexing behind her back.
    ‘You want the rough stuff? Eh?’ he barked.
    ‘As rough as you can make it, Guv’nor.’
    ‘Careful what you wish for … you might just get it.’
    Stella was panting hard, pushing her heaving breasts into Gene’s barrel chest: ‘You’re … You’re …’
    ‘Speak up, petal!’
    ‘You’re getting close to making me … making me …’ She was breathing so hard she could barely get the words out. ‘… Making me talk.’
    Gene span her round and yanked her arms up awkwardly behind her. She let out a cry – a cry of ecstatic pain.
    ‘Talk!’ Gene ordered. ‘Talk, you pervy slag. Or would you rather I turn you over to my colleague DI Tyler?
He
won’t treat you tough like this. Oh no. He’ll be soft and gentle.
Very
gentle.’
    ‘No!’ Stella cried.
    ‘He won’t lay so much as a finger on you. He’ll be patient, keeping his temper, treating you like a
lady,
with
respect
.’
    ‘No, please!’
    ‘Hour after hour of it! Cups of tea. Polite questioning. Playing it by the book. Never losing his rag – not once. Being
nice
!’
    ‘
Please!
Don’t leave me alone with him!’
    ‘You don’t want the Tyler treatment? Then get talking!’
    ‘Denzil and Spider!’ Stella panted, struggling to speak through the delicious pain. ‘They grew up together. Spider used to stick up for Denzil when the other kids picked on him and called him a coon and all that. They got them tattoos done together, to show they were like … you know, blood brothers. They didn’t have no family, not really – just each other.’
    ‘Very touching,’ said Gene. ‘But this a murder enquiry, not
This Is Your Life.
I want to know who’d have a grudge against Denzil!’
    ‘Denzil and Spider got into the word of illegal bare knuckle fights when they were still just kids,’ Stella went on. ‘It was all they could do to survive. Between them, they went up against some right hard bastards … big-money fighters, real legends …’
    ‘Names! Names!’
    ‘Too many to mention!’
    ‘
Give me names
!’
    ‘Lenny Gorman, Bartley Shaw, Patsy O’Riordan out of Kilburn. I could name a dozen others. Big men … real men …
hard
men …’ Her eyes glittered at the thought. ‘Any one of them could have had a grudge against Denzil.’
    ‘Why? Why would they have a grudge against Denzil?’
    ‘It’s what the underworld’s like,’ said Stella. ‘Fights that get fixed, fellas making off with winnings what aren’t theirs, blokes paid to bust other bloke’s hands. It’s the way it is. Betrayal and revenge. Denzil and Spider got involved in some pretty scummy business to earn themselves a crust. They were no different from anyone else in that world. Or in
your
world, Mr DCI Gene beautiful beautiful Hunt!’
    ‘Knock off the flattery and stick to the facts!’ snorted Gene, rewarding her compliment with a cuff round the ear that sent one of her dangly earrings flying off to join her missing stiletto.
    ‘They had a past, that’s no secret,’ Stella went on. ‘But they were good lads at heart. They were just trying to survive in a world that didn’t give a stuff about ‘em. And now boxing’s changing, offering a chance for boys like them to go legit, turn pro. They saw a chance to have a
real
life, a proper life, all above board and legal. That’s why they wound up at my gym. I got ‘em training under Dermot. He was Denzil and Spider’s mentor. I told ‘em, I said
work hard, lads, do what Dermot tells you, and I’ll I see you meet all the right people, get real chances to make a go of it.
But it looks like Denzil’s past caught up with him.’
    ‘And if someone’s settling an old score with Denzil, then odds on that they’ll want to settle it with Spider too.’
    ‘Most like,’ said Stella. ‘If I knew who it was, I’d tell you. I’d let you rough me up some more first,