Larry shrugged. ‘All the police seem bothered about is finding out whose blood it was they found. Oh, that was one other thing I did find out. Somebody had thrown bleach all over the inside of the horse-box and the driveway to try and wash the blood away, apparently. Bar that, they don’t seem that bothered, Ed. In their eyes, Jed’s the kids’ father. It isn’t like they’ve been abducted by a stranger. You have to remember, they don’t know that it’s Jed that is no longer with us, do they?’

‘I think it’s fucking bollocks. I bet if it was someone else’s grandkids they’d get off their fat arses and find ’em. It’s because they’re mine they don’t wanna know, I’m telling ya. The filth have always hated me, Lal, you know that. They hated me father an’ all. I bet the bastards see this as some kind of payback for all the years me and the old man led ’em a merry dance, don’t you?’

‘I spoke to Fitzgerald Smythe again the other day. He has no doubt he will get Frankie off, whether the O’Haras are traced or not, but he did say it will make his job ten times easier if they aren’t found until after her trial. Perhaps this is something you should bear in mind if you are thinking of tracking them down. Frankie’s trial is looking likely to be in August, which is only five months away, isn’t it?’

Eddie stared out of the window and took in the murky weather. How could he choose between his daughter and grandchildren’s well-being? It was a nigh-on impossible choice, but he knew that if he was forced to, he would put his daughter’s liberty above anyone else in the world.

Frankie was barely listening as her legal team pleaded for her release. All she could think about was Brett being back at the prison without her and she just hoped that the staff were looking after him properly. Frankie had begged them to let Babs look after her son in her absence, but the prison staff said that it was against the rules.

Wrapped up in her own little cocoon of worries, Frankie never heard the judge say the words, ‘Application for bail granted,’ and it wasn’t until her dad leaped out of his seat and punched the air that she realised that she was a free woman. Well, until her trial at least.

Rita and Hilda were sitting side by side in the back of Joycie and Stanley’s new car. Both women were used to a bit of tediousness in their everyday lives, but as Joyce rambled on about the car’s fixtures and fittings yet again, Hilda and Rita glanced at one another in pure boredom.