And from that time on, they hadn’t stopped emailing each other. Twice, three, four times a day. The first time they Skyped she bawled her eyes out. The second time, he did. They talked about everything. Like music and the fact that he wanted to be a DJ, and she wanted to be a doctor and her netball team had a chance of winning the grand final for the first time ever. Everyone said she was a bitch, but a good centre had to be.

During that time, his dad got a bit better. He started cooking dinner, getting the mail. It made Eddie happy because he had thought things would never be normal again. But one night he could see that his father, who had fallen asleep in the armchair, was having a nightmare. ‘It’s okay, Da,’ he said, nudging him. ‘It’s Eddie. It’s okay.’ And Eddie would never forget the next moment. The way his da opened his eyes and flinched. Cringed.

‘Get away from me.’

So. That was the real truth, then. His father had only ever put up with him because of his mum. He actually thought Eddie was a monster, just like people said Louis Sarraf was when he blew up our Jimmy and the others.

When he Skyped Violette that night he told her, and she said it killed her to see him so sad. He knew by the look on her face she was up to something.

‘What are you thinking, Violette?’

‘I’m going to have to miss out on Duke of Ed camp,’ she said in a determined voice.

‘Why?’ He knew how much Duke of Ed meant to her. It had a lot to do with the other father, Etienne.

‘Because I’m coming there to be with you.’

Bish arrived at Holloway on Saturday afternoon with no visiting order and no clearance from Grazier. But his find last night was burning a hole in his head. Added to that was the news that Khateb had lived in North London at the time of the bombing. As far as Bish was concerned, he had reason enough to talk his way in.

Gray was nowhere to be seen at his hole in the wall. Bish identified himself to the guard and said he was here on his ongoing Home Office business, and was surprised by the startled look in the man’s eyes.

‘That was quick,’ the guard muttered.

Bish was even more confused when he was taken straight to the acting governor’s office. Sitting there with Eleanor Cook were Gray, his younger sidekick, Farrington, a female guard whose nametag identified her as Vasquez, and Allison from the Visitors’ Centre. They seemed alarmed to see him there. Nevertheless, he was invited to sit down.

‘Everyone’s off sick these days,’ the acting governor said once he was seated. She had misapplied lipstick around her mouth. ‘We were short-handed.’

He looked from one to the other of them. ‘And I’m being told this because . . .?’