‘You been in bed this afternoon? Thought you were studying.’ She winced as she spoke the words, realizing immediately that they would be perceived as a criticism. ‘I’m not criticizing,’ she added, taking out the chops and unwrapping them.

Alice’s shoulders were as stiff as the pork chops as she poured boiling water into the mug. ‘Get off my back, Helen,’ she muttered.

Helen gritted her teeth. ‘I’m not on your back, Alice, I was making conversation. Are you having dinner with us?’

Alice snorted. ‘You, Dad, me and Nan sitting round a table in silence? No ta.’

‘It’s not easy for any of us, Alice.’

‘What – it’s not easy for you to sit at a table and look at me, the person responsible for letting Frankie get taken out of her room while I was in the house supposedly babysitting? That’s what you mean, isn’t it. You hate me, don’t you? Why don’t you just come right out and fucking say it!’

Alice was already screeching, looking like a mad girl with her black hair all tangled and her face twisted with a rage that had slashed across Helen’s landscape, tearing it up without warning like a tornado. Normally Helen would have fallen over herself to placate Alice, murmuring platitudes and denials, but as she stared at her stepdaughter, something switched in her head. She was not going to be held hostage by an obnoxious fifteen-year-old, not any more, not with so many far worse things going on in her life. She put her hands on her hips and stared coldly at Alice, strangely feeling more in control than she had at any point since the night Frankie disappeared.

‘I don’t hate you, Alice. But I’ll tell you something – I’m not joining your little pity party, not this time. In fact, since you brought up the subject, why don’t you tell me exactly what you were doing that night? What was so absorbing for you and Larry – yes, I’m not stupid, you can tell the police or your dad till you’re blue in the face that Larry wasn’t there but I bet you anything he was – that neither of you noticed someone break into our house and steal my baby from under your noses? What was it? Sex? Drugs? Drink? All three?’

Alice’s mouth fell open and she stood frozen to the spot, with the black coffee in her hand. Helen idly wondered if she was going to throw it at her. Had anyone ever challenged Alice that directly before? She was pretty sure that neither she nor Sean had. A Tiny Tempah song came on the radio, one of Alice’s favourites. It seemed to snap her out of her reverie and she walked up to Helen, still holding the coffee, her teeth clenched in fury and stress.