MA WAS AT HOME WHEN Rafferty arrived, and remarkably complacent once he’d explained his dilemma.
‘Sure and you worry too much, son,’ she told him after she had made the tea and brought it back into the living room.
‘You’ll have something to worry about, too, Ma, if Paul Perkins drops you in it. If he’s done for receiving, do you think he’s likely to protect the customers who bought the goods his brother nicked? Especially not if coughing up gets him a reduced sentence. There’s no honour amongst thieves, Ma. That’s a fallacy.’
‘Is anybody – apart from you – saying I bought stolen goods?’ When Rafferty didn’t reply, she asked again, ‘Are they?’
‘No,’ Rafferty reluctantly admitted. ‘But that’s not to say they won’t if enough pressure is brought to bear. And don’t forget, it’s not my case.
