‘Shut up, Delia, I ain’t interested in explanations, not yet anyway. I want you to listen to me carefully, very carefully. The police have already been here looking for you.’ She saw Delia’s eyes open wide. ‘Your mother sent them away with a flea in their ears, but they’ll be back. She told them you was sedated with shock. They believed her, but as I say, they’ll be back. Now you tell them that you had a fight with Jimmy, right. But afterwards you left the flat and you were here, with your cousins and father, all day and all night. Me, you and your mother will be the alibi. Cissy’s staying here as well. She will say she served dinner here. If we all stick to the same story, they can’t do a thing, get it?’

Delia nodded, her eyes wide open.

‘Now listen to me, Delia, this is serious, very serious, and if the boys go down and your father too, there’ll be hell to pay. Do you understand what I’m telling you? You caused all this and it’s up to you to help salvage as much as we can from it.’

Delia nodded, her eyes wide and frightened. Briony knew, looking at her, that she would be the one they had to watch. She could be the fly in the otherwise perfect ointment. The evidence was gone, disposed of. That would cause a stir, but all the same, without it the police had nothing. The boys’ fingerprints would be in their cousin’s flat, that was only natural. So that evidence was negligible. Jimmy Sellars was a known drug dealer, anyone with a grudge could have killed him, anyone he owed money to or supplied. If they all stuck together, the three men would be home in the morning. Ruby was already working on a writ accusing the police of harassment; this would be served if they tried to carry on their investigation in the wake of the loss of evidence. Everything pertaining to the pickaxe handle was now in Ruby’s possession. All the files had been lifted, everything. Tommy had seen to that. Briony herself would dispose of them when the time came.

Other than Delia, the cause of all the aggravation, it was all well under control.

She poked a slim finger at her niece.

‘I know for a fact it was you who hammered Faithey, not Jimmy. That boy died because you’re a trouble maker. I never thought I’d say this to you, Delia, never, but in future you give me a wide berth. You keep a distance between us because I don’t know yet what I’m capable of where you’re concerned. Do you understand me? The twins will be told the truth of what you done, that’s only fair. You used them, and you don’t ever use family. Think on that.