Georgie stared at the sausage, chips and beans. The mention of school had made her appetite disappear, so she sulkily pushed her plate away with force.

‘You naughty girl,’ Alice yelled, as the plate smashed on the kitchen floor and the contents went everywhere. Alice yanked Georgie out of the chair by her arm and slapped her on the back of her bare legs. ‘Now go to your bedroom.’

Georgie immediately started to cry. ‘I want my Mummy!’ she screamed.

DI Blyth thanked Kerry for her help and told her she would be in touch in due course.

‘So what will happen now? Will you arrest Jed and Sammy?’ Kerry asked hopefully. She hated her two sons spending time with their father. She didn’t trust Sammy an inch and was frightened that one day he wouldn’t bring them back at all.

‘What happens now is I hand all the details I have over to the Met and then they see if they can find enough evidence to charge Sammy and Jed. I will be involved and notified of any happenings, but because Frankie’s grandad was murdered in Canning Town, it’s not my job to actually solve the crime. I work out in Essex, you see,’ Blyth explained.

‘So how will the Met solve it? Frankie said that her dad has since sold her grandad’s house, so they won’t find any clues there if new people have moved in, will they?’ Kerry asked, perplexed.

‘When a murder such as Harry Mitchell’s has taken place, the Met would have taken scene exhibits at the time and they would have been stored for safe-keeping.’

‘Like what?’

‘Well, I’m not exactly sure because I haven’t spoken to them yet, but say, for instance, the victim was wearing clothes, or in Mr Mitchell’s case, probably pyjamas at the time he was murdered, they would have been stored in case they had the killer’s DNA on them. From what I remember, the police had very few suspects, but now we’ve got names, we can match any DNA that is found.’

Kerry nodded. ‘But say you don’t find any DNA? You can’t let Jed and Sammy get away with it; they definitely murdered Frankie’s grandad, I heard the conversation with my own ears.’

‘I shall get in touch with the Met tomorrow and they can do some tests. I would have contacted them earlier, but I needed to speak to you first to confirm Frankie’s story. In the Met’s eyes two statements are far better than one. If by any chance they can’t match any DNA to Sammy and Jed, we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it, but the one thing I can promise you, Kerry, is even though I’m not allowed to work directly on the case, I will still do everything in my power to ensure a conviction.’