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re-built. It had been here for years , this place. It was definitely the atmosphere that brought customers through the door. If y ou want ed a nice quiet pint and a few familiar faces, you came here.   The re was cold beer and a friendly staff, and that was all that mattered in a local.
    It was only early afternoon, so Billy was grateful that the place was so quiet; he could sit and think. Billy was at a loss about what to do. All h e knew was that Jay would be enjoying every moment of this situation . He felt that he could quite happ ily go round to his enemy’s house and kneecap him , and he would have done under normal circumstances, but these weren’t normal circumstances . T his circumstance involved Kate, and Kate’s baby. Whatever his sister thought she might know about Jay, she didn’t know him as well as Billy did. He was a real dog. He shagged anything in a skirt , and his sister was naive to this, she believed in fairy tales for fuck sake . Billy knew there was no such thing as a happy ending where that man was concerned.
                  “Can I get you another , love ? ” Norma had been working behind the bar for years and had been serving Billy alcohol since before it was legal for him to drink. He was always so tall and stocky, how was she to know he was still at school back then ? H e ha d   fooled the local shopkeepers, though, be ing sold cigarettes from the age of twelve.
              Billy nodded , and she took his glass and went off to the bar to fetch him another. Norma was a gem, despite having a face like a pit-bull chewing a wasp and the dirtiest loudest laugh you’ d ever heard. She ran the place on her own, which was unheard of in these parts ; landladies normally had a landlord in tow, but not this one, and she did alright. Norma had dealt with all kinds in her time, but no-one in this pub intimidat ed her, she was thick - skinned and could hold her own and had earned respect for that.
              “Here you go , darling ; I put a large one in there for you . ” S he placed the glass on the table.
N orma had a lot of time for Billy. He and his mates used this place like an office. They had had pl enty of lock-ins over the years until all hours of the mornings, and once the alcohol was flowing, their tongues loosened . S he’d heard all sorts, but she was good at keeping her mouth shut, and it did her well.
    Billy and the others always made sure she was looked after; there was never any trouble if they were in, or not unless it was among them . O ften Norma would find a wad of notes under the till for herself, on nights when it did kick off. They looked after her , and in return she looked after them. That’s how it was in these parts; it was who you knew , not what you knew , that got you by. Norma had never had kids, which was something she had sorely come to regret over the years.
              “Thanks , Norma ; you wan t to join me?” Billy asked.
              The place was quiet, and she could do with putting her feet up, last night had been a late one. Norma was feeling old; she didn’t have as much energy as she used to. Fifty was the new forty , or so all the magazines would have you believ e , but lately she was having trouble convincing herself of that.
              “Go on then , love , ” she smiled , plonking her bum on the seat next to him . “I could do with a fag break. ”
    S he could see that he was troubled, and her heart went out to him. She knew about his temper, she had witnessed it directed towards o thers on many occasions, but she could see more than that in him, which most others couldn’t. He had a vulnerability that he tried to hide.
              “You wan t to talk about it , Billy ? ” she asked , blowing smoke out , aware that she could be overstepping the mark by prying into his business. But , for once , Billy did want to talk; he just