Frankie bent down, picked up her little sister and smothered her in kisses. Rosie was absolutely adorable and her presence never failed to cheer Frankie up, however bad her mood. Aaron was cute as well, but he could be a boisterous little sod at times and was forever breaking Brett’s toys, which pissed Frankie off no end.

‘Brett and Kelvin are in the garden if you wanna go and play with them,’ she said, ruffling her little brother’s hair.

As Aaron ran off, Eddie nudged Stuart. ‘Where’s the bag?’

‘I’ll get it out the car later,’ Stuart said. He didn’t want to make himself look like a knob by giving Frankie her present in front of the whole of her family. He’d rather do it later when most of them had gone home.

Babs helped Frankie pour everybody a drink. ‘Have you got to pick Jordan up later?’ Frankie asked her friend as she clocked her pour herself another one.

Babs smiled and shook her head. Her elder son, Jordan, was fourteen now and football-mad. He played for a local team on a Saturday and today his friend’s mum was dropping him home for her.

Joey thanked Babs for his drink, then turned to his father. ‘The O’Haras’ house looks well posh now. Me and Dom had a good nose at it as we drove past earlier. It’s all been painted and they’ve laid new grass all around the front. Whoever bought it is obviously a keen gardener, as they’ve planted trees and all sorts. Did you ever find out who the bloke was that supposedly sold it, Dad?’

Eddie glanced at Gary and Ricky. The O’Haras’ gaff had been sold about a year after their disappearance, and finding out that it wasn’t in Jimmy’s name and instead was in the name of a traveller from Birmingham called Johnny Bullock was a real kick in the teeth for Ed and the police. It was Larry who had got hold of the inside information on Bullock, and Ed and the lads had gone to Birmingham to pay him a little visit. Neither they nor the police had had any luck finding him, though, as he’d also done a disappearing act.

‘No. We’re still looking for him, though, and I’m sure if we find him, he’ll lead us to Jimmy. I’ve got loads of people on the lookout. In fact, I had a phone call from an old pal who has links to Wolverhampton yesterday. He gave me the address of a remote site there where a geezer called Bullock lives. Ray and Terry are gonna check it out on Monday for me.’

‘You should have seen Baldwin clump that flash bastard that cut us up the other day, Dad. The geezer flew about four feet in the air; he was a big old lump an’ all,’ Ricky said, laughing.