He stopped. But now he was a little nearer he could see Frankie’s chest rising and falling. She was alive. Oh, thank God.

‘I’m sure you’ve been looking after her, right?’

Still keeping the gun trained on him, Penny crouched down and stroked the unconscious child’s hair.

‘Little Alice,’ she said. ‘Such a good girl.’

Patrick and Carmella exchanged a look.

‘She is a good girl,’ Patrick said. ‘And we don’t want her to get hurt, do we? Why don’t you give me that gun?’

Penny ignored him. Instead, she stared down at Frankie. ‘My little angel. We’re going to be together forever.’

With surprising speed and strength, she scooped Frankie up, the child lying limp in Penny’s arms, and took a step backwards towards the edge of the building – and the sixty-metre drop.

Patrick and Carmella took a couple of swift steps towards them. Where the hell was back-up? Penny swung Frankie over her shoulder like she was made of feathers and retrained the gun on Patrick.

‘Where’s Helen?’ she said. ‘She’s supposed to be here. And Sean – I want to see him too. I want them to see this.’

Her voice was hard, especially when she said – or spat – Sean’s name.

Patrick said, ‘Helen’s downstairs. She’s waiting to see her daughter. You’re not going to harm her, are you?’

Penny’s face darkened with anger. ‘Frankie is not her daughter any more. She’s mine. That bitch doesn’t deserve a child and neither does Sean. Why should he get to be the one with the perfect life, with the perfect family? I deserve it. Me. All I’ve wanted was a child of my own, someone to love me. No one is going to take Frankie away from me, you understand?’ She took a half-step backwards towards the edge of the building, causing Patrick’s stomach to lurch.

He said, ‘But you have a child. Alice. Maybe we can arrange for you to see Alice, talk to her, if you let Frankie go. Helen is Frankie’s mother. She’s desperate to see her, Penny. You’re a mum. You understand that, don’t you?’

‘Alice? That monster? I don’t want her. She’s impure.’

What was she talking about?