Stanley felt like crying as he got into bed and pulled the quilt over his head. Tomorrow he would ring his grandson. If anyone could talk Joyce into taking him back, then that person was Joey.

Chapter Twenty

CHAPTER NINETEEN

DI Blyth had been due to have the following day off. She had arranged to spend it with her husband and friends, but had now cancelled her plans to return to Holloway and take a proper statement from Frankie. The police had all but closed the case on Harry Mitchell’s murder due to lack of evidence and Blyth was desperate to get Frankie’s allegation written down in black and white so she could reopen the investigation.

‘Are we ready?’ Blyth asked Frankie.

When Frankie nodded, Blyth picked up her pen and paper. Frankie had insisted on giving a written statement, rather than a recorded one.

‘It was my friend Kerry’s idea to plant a cassette recorder in Jed’s Shogun and press the “record” button just before him and his cousin Sammy went out. We knew that they were playing around with other girls and we also knew that they were earning a living by conning old people and we just wanted to get enough evidence on tape so that we could leave them. Jed had always threatened that he would never let me take the kids away from him and Sammy told Kerry the same, that’s why we needed something on them, so we could blackmail them and threaten to give the tape to the police. That way they would have had to let us leave,’ Frankie explained.

‘So where is the tape now?’ Blyth asked.

‘Sammy got hold of it. I was so stupid, I left it in my handbag. If only I’d have hidden it somewhere else, we would have ’em bang to rights.’

Blyth was gutted. Without the tape, unless there was some evidence to link Jed to the scene of the crime, it was just Frankie’s word against his. ‘So was it on this tape that you found out about your grandfather?’

Frankie nodded. ‘They were laughing about his death and joking about how they had tortured him. What will happen now? Will you arrest Jed and Sammy?’

‘Not yet. We need to reopen the case and find some evidence to link them to it first. What we musn’t do is let Jed and Sammy know that we’re on to them, so tell no one about this conversation, OK?’

Frankie had already told Babs, but she didn’t tell Blyth this, as she knew her friend could be trusted. ‘I did send a threat to Jed via a travelling girl in here,’ Frankie admitted.

‘What exactly did you say?’

‘Just that I was going to tell you everything.’

‘Well, don’t send any more threats, for goodness’ sake. We don’t want to frighten them off,’ Blyth said.