‘Well, the cheek of her! Was she calling us thieves, then?’ Peggy looked wounded. ‘That woman needs to wash her mouth out. Who the hell did she think she was talking about?’

‘Little Paddy, did you get a name, love?’ Kathleen’s voice was urgent, pleading and coaxing all at the same time. ‘Did the woman say who she was at all?’

Little Paddy took a deep breath. ‘She did.’ There was silence. Kathleen dared not speak again and she placed her hand on Peggy’s arm to silence her. The event had occurred not five minutes since and if they gave little Paddy enough time it would come to him, eventually. So they stood, they waited and little Paddy blinked and frowned; he looked back across the road, he pursed his lips and then, as if a light bulb had been switched on inside his head, he blurted out, ‘She told me her name is Mrs Wright and her husband’s name is Frank.’

Paddy also wanted to say that he had seen Kitty and Kitty had been trying to tell him something, but the look of complete horror that now crossed his mother’s face and the tears that sprang to her eyes made him think twice.

‘Dear God, can my life get any worse?’ Peggy blurted out. ‘Kathleen, it’s Frank the Skank who’s moving next door to me! Jesus, I think I’m going to faint.’

‘No, no you’re not, you just need a bit of breakfast. Get inside,’ Kathleen ordered Peggy, and then she called down the hallway, ‘Alice, knock on to Shelagh with the mop and you need to run to Cindy and tell her you have to cancel your hairdo. This is an emergency. We need the women round for a powwow; I may even have to read the leaves for we’ve got a big problem to sort out. Off you go, kids, and thank you, Paddy, you’re a very clever boy.’

Paddy grinned with pleasure. Nana Kathleen had said that in front of Nellie and everyone knew how clever Nellie was.

Peggy turned to face Kathleen. ‘You know who it is, don’t you?’

Kathleen pushed Peggy along towards the kitchen. ‘I do, he shopped the bizzies who were in on helping us on our docks and got them sacked – and not only that, not one of them can get a job because the minute Frank hears about it he has a word with whoever is taking them on. Some of them have left the police and are trying to get work elsewhere, but he has eyes in the back of his head and he finds out somehow. He’s a bad, bad egg that man. Jerry has told me that the men who work with him are the only people who dislike him more than we do.’