‘I’m picking Carol Cullen up at eleven o’clock and she is coming to the police station with me. She is going to tell the police that she feels the children’s lives are in danger, so they’ll have to get their backsides into gear then. I’ll also get Carol to contact the authorities to let them know that the custodial rules have been broken. We need a warrant put out for the O’Haras’ arrest immediately.’

Eddie put his head in his hands. He had a feeling that finding the O’Haras was going to be anything but easy.

‘Do you know if the children had passports, Eddie? I’m sure that’s one of the first questions the police are likely to ask me.’

‘I dunno. The only one that might know that is Frankie. Pikeys don’t really go abroad much, so I doubt Jed would have got ’em one,’ Eddie answered.

‘You’re going to have to tell Frankie what’s happened today, Eddie. I’ll call the prison, inform them what’s occurred and we’ll both go up there this afternoon. The police are bound to need to speak to her at some point very soon. They’ll want to know if she has any idea where the family might have run off to.’

‘Oh, Jesus. What am I meant to say to her, Lal?’

‘I don’t know, mate, but you’re going to have to explain things to her as best as you can. Whatever you say, do not mention that Jed is dead. We can’t chance Frankie knowing that, in case she puts her foot in it when she speaks to the police. They’ll be bang on your case if that were to happen.’

Eddie nodded. ‘Don’t you think the Old Bill will wanna question me anyway?’

‘I really don’t know, but I should imagine so. If there has been an incident around there, unfortunately for you, you will almost certainly be a suspect.’

Eddie put his head in his hands once more. ‘Me and the lads have all got alibis for Wednesday night, but say the Old Bill ain’t got a clue when it happened? We’ll all be in shit street then, won’t we?’

‘You’ll be OK,’ Larry said, in the most confident tone he could muster. He stood up. ‘I’d better dash and pick Carol up now. I need to run a few things past her before we go to the station. I’ll call Holloway and arrange a time on the way. I can meet you in the Albion car park and we can travel up together if you like?’

Eddie nodded, saw Larry out and shut the front door.

‘Are you OK? What did Larry say?’ Gina asked, putting her arms around her husband’s fit body.