Exasperated by the woman’s callousness, Frankie kicked the cell door. ‘Bitch!’ she screamed as she sank to her knees. Frankie clasped her hands together, looked up at the ceiling and prayed. ‘Please God make my friend Babs and her baby both be OK. And also God, give Jed his comeuppance for what he did to my grandad. Amen.’

Over in Rettendon, Eddie Mitchell was sitting at the kitchen table gingerly sipping a strong black coffee. His initial reaction to Pat Murphy’s phone call the previous day had been one of pure shock, but within minutes, the shock had turned to anger. He’d wanted to drive round to the O’Haras’ himself to stick a bullet up the Old Bill’s arses to find his grandkids, but Raymond had managed to stop him.

‘Don’t do anything stupid, Ed. Ring Larry and ask his advice before you go charging round there like a bull in a china shop.’

Larry was kept in the loop about most things that went on in Eddie’s world and he immediately warned him that under no circumstances should he go anywhere near the O’Haras’ house.

‘Just leave it with me to deal with, Eddie. I’ll make some phone calls and find out exactly what’s going on. If I get no joy over the phone, I’ll drive straight down to Rainham first thing in the morning. You do not go anywhere near that house, OK?’ he had insisted.

‘Why didn’t you come up to bed last night?’ Gina asked, as she sat down at the table opposite her husband.

The news of Georgie and Harry’s disappearance had literally knocked Ed for six and he’d spent the whole of last night knocking back the Scotch and planning how he was going to break the news to Frankie. Finally, he’d passed out on the sofa.

‘I was drunk. I didn’t wanna disturb ya,’ Ed replied.

Gina leaned across the table and held his hands. ‘Please let me cook you a decent breakfast, Ed. You didn’t touch your dinner yesterday and you’ve got to eat something.’

‘This must be Larry. Cook some bacon sandwiches or something and bring ’em into the lounge,’ Ed replied when the doorbell rang.

Larry followed Eddie into the lounge and sat down in one of the armchairs. He’d got up at four o’clock that morning and had been in Rainham by daybreak. Still, he couldn’t complain as, like his father before him, Eddie paid him a handsome yearly wage, which over the years had kept him in the life of luxury he was now so very used to.

‘What’s the score, then?’ Eddie asked.