Frustrated, Charlie flipped the Toyota’s glove compartment. It was crammed with junk, including change for parking meters, packs of boiled sweets and a baseball cap. But she got lucky with a floral-patterned zip-up bag, containing make-up and a small pair of nail scissors.

‘Patrick, sweetie, I’m gonna need you here on my lap. Let me look at that butt.’

‘What are you doing?’ Ed asked as he helped Patrick step between the two front seats. ‘Shouldn’t we be getting away as fast as possible?’

Charlie laid Patrick face down in her lap and pulled down his night shorts to expose his buttocks

‘Touch the bit where it hurts,’ Charlie said.

Patrick reached behind and tapped his upper right buttock. Charlie and Rosie had both looked before and just noticed a small red mark, like a zit, but this time Charlie pinched the flesh beneath and felt a hard lump, the size of a rice grain.

I was right …

‘Oww,’ Patrick moaned.

‘I know, sweetie,’ Charlie said, taking the nail scissors off the passenger seat. ‘This will sting, but be brave and try to stay still.’

Patrick bucked and wailed as Charlie dug the sharp little scissors into his buttock.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ Charlie said, feeling awful. ‘The more you stay still the quicker it will be.’

‘Stop hurting me.’

‘What are you doing?’ Ed blurted, thinking his sister had gone mad. ‘He’s bleeding. Leave him alone!’

Patrick’s heel kicked Charlie in the head as she pushed two fingers behind the little grain inside his buttocks.

When it neared the surface, Charlie grabbed tweezers from the make-up bag, pulled out a tiny silver cylinder and dropped it on the passenger seat.

‘What is that?’ Ed blurted.

‘I’m so sorry, Patrick,’ Charlie said, grabbing a wad of tissues out of a box in the door compartment and pressing it against the wound. ‘I’ve taken the itchy thing out now. You need to press the tissues down hard to stop the bleeding.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Ed said.

‘Shh, shh,’ Charlie soothed, rubbing Patrick’s back as he continued to scream. Then she glanced back at Ed.

‘It’s a mini transmitter,’ Charlie explained. ‘The guy who killed Juno and Mikey injected it into Patrick’s buttock. Fawn must have known he was my godson and that I’d probably take him home when I found Juno dead at the motel. That’s how they found our house. It’s all my fault. Harry died because I let them track me home.’

Ed disagreed. ‘Harry was stupid to stab that guy.’

‘Take Patrick. I need to keep driving,’ Charlie said, sobbing and shaking as she passed Patrick between the seats to Ed. ‘Try and calm him down. Keep the tissues pressed on the wound until it clots.’

Charlie wiped her face, then flicked the blood-smeared transmitter out of the car window.