“You don’t have to worry about anything I do, Angela darling,” Ester replied loftily. “I was outsmarting the Filth before you were a twitch in your daddy’s underpants.”

Angela was tempted to point out that for someone skilled in outsmarting the Filth, Ester had spent a lot of her adult life behind bars, but it wasn’t worth it. She behaved as long as she thought she had the upper hand. And behave was all Angela actually needed her to do.

“So, what’s the cover story for four middle-aged women heading to Europe in a 25-seater coach?”

“There’ll be Rob and my kids as well,” said Angela. “So I imagine we’ll look like friends going on holiday, if you can manage to smile.”

In fact Julia was also planning to bring three kids from the home, but they would keep that quiet until the final second before they were due to leave, so that Ester had no option but to accept it. Sam, Darren and Suzie were unrelated orphans who would never in a million years be successfully fostered—they were too damaged for ordinary people to love. They were exactly the sort of kids Dolly would have wholeheartedly embraced if The Grange had ever been successfully transformed into a children’s home. Julia adored each one of them. They were very difficult in their own ways but the rewards, when they came, were heart-warming. She wouldn’t dream of leaving them behind.

Laura thanked the custody sergeant as he let Jack into Audrey’s cell.

“Five minutes, Jack, OK?”

Inside, Jack handed Audrey a cup of coffee she hadn’t asked for, which confused her, until she glanced to the top right-hand corner of her cell, at the CCTV camera pointing down at her. Her blood ran cold and the penny dropped: Jack didn’t have a legitimate reason for being in her cell. He was covering his back so this little visit wouldn’t come back and bite him in the arse. Their conversation would appear cordial to anyone watching, but even Audrey, who wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box, could see that the man standing in front of her now wasn’t the same kind man who’d earlier plied her with coffee and biscuits.

“Tell me about Harry Rawlins.” Jack’s tone was calm but cold.

“I never met the man,” Audrey said. “I know he was a big noise back in the day. I mean, he even put the willies up the Fishers and no one did that.”

“Go on,” he prompted.

“I don’t understand what you want me to say,” she whined. “I never met him, like I said.”

“You lived in his world, Audrey, so tell me about him.”

Audrey shuffled on her thin, plastic-covered mattress.

“Well, he lived out in Potter’s Bar. Married to Dolly—you know that bit. No kids. I don’t know much about him. I didn’t live in his world at all, DC Warr, I only skirted round it.”

“DC Warr?” Jack knew he had Audrey on the back foot. She was uneasy and she was scared, and she was compliant.