Determined not to spoil a day out that she knew her son would enjoy, Frankie turned to Stuart and smiled. ‘I’m just thinking how thoughtful and kind you are. You’ll make a lovely husband to some lucky girl one day, you know.’

Stuart raised his eyebrows. He wanted to tell Frankie that he would like her to be that lucky girl, but as usual, he didn’t have the guts to say anything.

Eddie Mitchell was relieved as he heard Gina’s car pull up outside. Looking after the kids on his own had done his head in and he now realised just how hard women worked when men were out grafting.

‘Mummy!’ Rosie and Aaron screamed excitedly as they ran to greet Gina.

‘Why aren’t you at school?’ Gina asked her son.

‘Had a sore throat,’ Aaron lied.

Gina grinned as Eddie put his arms around her. ‘How’s your mum?’ he asked.

‘Fine. She’s driving me dad mad again, so she must be on the mend. What about you? Did you cope all right with the kids?’

‘Piece of piss. I dunno what yous women moan about,’ Eddie replied untruthfully. Admitting he’d struggled to cope with anything just wasn’t part of Ed’s make-up.

‘Your phone’s ringing, babe,’ Gina told him, hearing his familiar ringtone.

Eddie ran indoors. Raymond and Terry had driven up to Wolverhampton early that morning to check out a gypsy site where Johnny Bullock might be hiding out, and as Eddie saw Raymond’s number flashing up, he hoped the news was good for once. ‘Well?’ he asked expectantly.

‘No joy, Ed. There is a Johnny Barrett living there and also a Robbie Bullock, but neither are our man, mate.’

‘Are you absolutely sure?’

‘Positive. We did some snooping around with the locals before we went there and both families come from Liverpool. We then checked the site out and they all have Scouse accents, unlike our man, who supposedly comes from O’Hara’s neck of the woods.’

‘Fuck,’ Eddie mumbled as he ended the call.

‘What’s up?’ Gina asked, walking into the lounge with her daughter in her arms.

‘Just another lead we had to the O’Haras that’s gone by the wayside.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry, Ed. Shall we go out for lunch? I can’t be bothered cooking today?’

‘McDonald’s!’ Aaron shouted.

Eddie picked his urchin of a son up and dangled him over his right shoulder. ‘Little boys with sore throats shouldn’t eat McDonald’s, so we’ll have to go to a boozer instead.’

‘Says who?’ Aaron asked cockily.

Eddie looked at Gina and laughed. ‘Says me, you cheeky little shit.’

Surprisingly for Frankie, once she got over the initial shock of returning to Southend, she found she actually enjoyed herself. Peter Pan’s was like a proper fairground and watching Brett’s excitement reminded her of when she and Joey were young.