‘She ain’t talking to me still, but I’m gonna have a word with Larry, see if he can sort out a visit for me. Then again, you know how stubborn our Frankie is, she’s bound to tell me to take a running jump,’ Eddie added.

Joyce chuckled. Frankie was her father’s double, whereas Joey was much more like Jessica.

‘You got your phone switched on, Dad? It ain’t ’arf been quiet today,’ Joey asked.

Eddie checked his mobile. It had rung while he was making love to Gina earlier and he’d switched it off and forgot to turn the bloody thing back on.

‘So, is that the only reason you came to see me today to tell me what the children said at the court case?’ Joyce asked sceptically.

‘No, I’ve got something else to tell you,’ Ed replied, looking a bit sheepish.

‘I thought so. Come on, spill the beans,’ Joyce exclaimed knowingly.

About to disclose the true nature of his visit, Eddie was disturbed by his phone ringing.

‘Go on, you’d better answer that, it might be important,’ Joyce said. She had a feeling she knew what Ed was going to tell her, and if he answered the phone it would give her an extra couple of minutes to get her head around it.

Eddie’s face turned an angry shade of red as he listened to what the caller had to say. ‘So why didn’t you tell me all this fucking yesterday, then?’ he screamed into the handset.

Joey glanced at his nan. So much crap had happened to their family recently, surely another disaster wasn’t on the horizon.

* * *

DI Blyth sat in the visiting room waiting for Frankie to be brought in, and thought about the last conversation she had had with the girl. She could even remember Frankie’s exact words at the end of it.

‘The only thing I can tell you is Jed is a traitor. The rest is a secret and for my dad’s and my children’s sake, that’s the way it will have to stay,’ Frankie had stated.

Blyth would never forget the haunted look in Frankie’s eyes that day. Alarm bells had rang in Blyth’s mind and she knew whatever secret Frankie was carrying was enormous and would one day become a lead weight inside the girl’s mind.

As the door opened, Blyth looked up and smiled. ‘Hello Frankie. My, you look blooming. How many weeks until baby is born?’

Blyth had been prepared for Frankie to be agitated, nervous, perhaps even tearful; what she hadn’t expected was for her to stroll into the room and sit opposite her full of anger and insolence.