‘She could have been lying to you,’ said Toni, with a sceptical sneer. ‘That could just be her cover story.’

‘I never let anyone lie to me.’

Toni sighed, faintly dismayed. ‘Are you vouching for her, Poppy? Because if you are, you’d better be sure.’

‘I vouch for her. If I find out she’s lying, I’ll kill her myself.’

Toni straightened up slowly. She looked at Bailey and then at the syringe. Her eyes narrowed. An idea seemed to have occurred to her.

Still clutching the needle, she reached into her back pocket and took out a mobile phone.

‘Just to be sure, I want you to call your lawyer right here in front of us, right now. I want to listen to his voice. I want to know that he actually exists.’

The phone sat there in Toni’s outstretched palm, shiny and menacing.

Muscles let go of Bailey’s right arm.

Bailey reached out and took the phone. They all stood there silently watching as she dialled Frank’s number with a shaking finger. As soon as the ringtone started, Toni reached across, took the phone from her and put it on speakerphone so they could all listen in. She held the phone in front of Bailey’s mouth.

Rita’s nasal sing-song voice answered. ‘Hello, Sullivan Knight Solicitors. How can I help?’

Bailey could visualise Rita sitting there in the office with her headphones on, probably filing her nails at the same time. Bailey swallowed and took a deep breath.

‘It’s Bailey Pike speaking. It’s really important that I talk to Mr Knight.’

‘He’s just with a client at the minute. If you hold just a moment I’ll see if he can come to the phone.’

Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ came on. But this time it seemed to play for ages, longer than the usual five seconds or so.

The gang glared at her silent and stony-faced as the melancholy chords tinkled from the phone’s small speaker. In what could be her last moments, Bailey made an effort to savour the beauty of the music, noting ironically that it sounded more funereal than ever under the current circumstances.

It stopped abruptly as Frank came on the line.

‘Hello Bailey. I’m glad you called. No doubt you’re wanting to know where I am with your appeal. Well, I’m just putting together the last few bits. In a nutshell, I think we’ve got a good chance of the appeal working on the basis that the key prosecution evidence used against you was way too flimsy. I’ll be in court this afternoon with some other cases, but I should have everything related to your appeal completed by lunchtime tomorrow. Do you want to call me back then?’

Toni was staring fiercely at Bailey, the phone in one hand, the syringe in the other.

‘Bailey?’ said Frank. ‘Is everything okay?’

‘Everything’s fine. Just fine. Tomorrow sounds great. Thanks for everything.’

‘No problem. Talk to you soon. Take care now.’

‘You too.’

He ended the call.

Toni lowered the phone and slipped it back into her pocket.