‘Terry’s right, Ed. If we gave him the wrong information, then it ain’t his fault,’ Raymond said, bravely defending his colleague.

Stuart, who was usually the one to sit back and let all the others do the talking, was getting angrier by the second. ‘This is fucking ridiculous. Poor Frankie is sat upstairs in bits wondering if her kids are coming home and all we’ve done so far is sit here blaming each other. Why don’t we just concentrate on bringing Georgie and Harry home, eh? Surely that’s the most important thing, isn’t it?’

Eddie felt a bit guilty as he ran his hands through his hair. Stuart was right, and had made him feel like a complete moron. ‘I’m sorry, Stu’s right, so let’s get cracking. This is the plan.’

Everybody listened intently as Eddie began to explain. ‘I suggest we use two untraceable vans with stickers down the side again. I’ll ring Flatnose in the morning to sort those out. Once we’ve got the motors, we drive straight up to Scotland. I’ve already found out the proper name of the boozer that Jimmy O’Hara supposedly drinks in. It’s called the Babbity Bowster and the tart on directory enquiries said there’s nothing of a similar name, so that’s got to be kosher. What we do then is follow Jimmy back from the boozer – he’s bound to be half-pissed, so won’t be that vigilant. We can take it in turns to tail him, and I’ll make sure Freddie gets us two completely different vans, that way Jimmy won’t notice anything following him. Once we find out where the cunt’s living, we keep watch on his gaff. We wait for Jimmy and Jed to both go out, snatch the kids and bring ’em home. Job done!’

Gary and Ricky glanced at one another. Their father made everything sound so easy, but in their minds his plan was full of pitfalls.

‘How we gonna know what the kids look like now? There could be hundreds of kids living there, for all we know. You know what these pikeys are like, they bang ’em out one after the other,’ Ricky said.

‘We’ll know. I’m gonna go out tomorrow and purchase the most expensive binoculars money can buy. Georgie and Harry have gotta be living with Jimmy and Alice, Jed, or both. They’re my flesh and blood, I’ll fucking know ’em when I see ’em, don’t you worry about that,’ Ed snapped.

Gary picked up the bottle of Scotch and topped everyone’s glasses up. ‘If Jed is still alive, he’ll be down ’ere like a rocket trying to snatch the kids back. Even if he ain’t, Jimmy will. We need to kill ’em, Dad. It’s the only way to end it once and for all,’ he said.