About to say that seeing as they were in Upney, there was nowhere pleasant to drive to, Stanley clamped his mouth shut again. What Joycie wanted, Joycie got, so there was little point arguing with the deranged woman.

Joyce strolled up Rita’s path first, banged on the door and, without waiting for an answer, did the same at Hilda’s.

‘Whatever’s the matter, Joycie?’ Rita shouted, looking out of her bedroom window. She had her hair in rollers and, even from a distance, Joyce could see she had a discoloured white dressing gown on.

‘What the hell’s going on?’ Hilda screeched, answering the front door in a pink nightdress and fluffy slippers.

As proud as a peacock, Joycie pointed to her new car. ‘I’ve come to take you both for a ride in my new top-of-the-range Jaguar XJ6,’ she announced boastfully.

‘But you’ve just woken me up. What time is it?’ Hilda asked, bemused.

‘Just gone quarter-past seven, now, come on get yourselves ready. Stanley’s our chauffeur for the morning and he’ll drive us wherever we want to go,’ Joyce replied.

‘It’s gonna take me a good hour or so to get bathed and dressed. Do you want to come in and wait?’ Hilda asked dismally.

‘Nope. Stanley and I will wait in our new car. It smells lovely and fresh and the leather seats are just so comfortable,’ Joyce said, smiling.

Hilda shut the front door, picked up her phone and dialled Rita’s number. ‘What a fucking liberty, waking us up this time in the morning just so she can show off a poxy new car. She’s off her head, that one.’

Rita agreed. ‘She’s a bleedin’ nuisance, Hild. No wonder poor Stanley pissed off and left her that time, and why he would want to go back, I’ll never know.’

Thanks to James Fitzgerald Smythe’s insistence, Frankie’s bail hearing was to take place at ten o’clock at Snaresbrook Crown Court instead of Chelmsford. Eddie had chosen to travel to Snaresbrook alone with Larry so they could have a good old natter about stuff in private. Stuart had last week treated himself to a BMW and had offered to pick up Joey. Raymond, Gary and Ricky were travelling together and had arranged to collect Carol Cullen on the way.

‘I can’t believe the Old Bill haven’t released any more details. I mean, there should be something in the papers or on the news about the O’Haras’ disappearance now, surely,’ said Eddie.