Georgie grinned and nodded eagerly. She really liked her Grandad Eddie; he was cool and treated her like a big girl. ‘Can we live with you, Grandad?’ she asked hopefully.

Feeling himself getting all emotional again, Eddie stood up. Anything could have happened to those kids today, absolutely anything. Say some nonce-case had spotted them and abducted them? The O’Haras wanted shooting and the fact that they’d put his grandchildren in danger made Ed want to be the one to pull that trigger even more.

‘Where you goin’, Grandad?’ Harry asked as Eddie bolted from the room.

‘Toilet,’ Eddie lied. The truth was, he was struggling to hold back the tears and it wasn’t in his nature to show weakness, not even in front of his own.

Alice O’Hara was inconsolable. Crying one minute, screaming, ranting and raving the next. She was losing the plot, especially with Jed, and Jimmy knew it. They’d all spent an hour searching on foot, but there was neither hide nor hair of Georgie or Harry. It was as though the kids had disappeared into thin air. Knowing they had to widen their search, Jimmy had now called reinforcements in. His nephew Sammy had already arrived and his son Billy was on his way and was bringing another four blokes from his site with him. Pat Murphy had offered to help as well. He’d got here within minutes of Jimmy’s phone call, as he only lived down the road.

‘Don’t just fucking stand there, then!’ Alice screamed at everyone.

Jimmy grabbed hold of his wife and held her shaking body close to his chest. ‘We’re just waiting for Billy boy, love, and then we’ll jump in three or four motors and we’ll find them. They’ll be OK, I promise you that.’

‘You promised me Marky’s funeral would be OK and look what happened there. As for you,’ Alice yelled, breaking free from her husband and punching her youngest son in the side of his head, ‘you ain’t fit to be a father, you selfish, no-good cunt.’

As Sally tried to cuddle him, Jed pushed her away. He blamed his girlfriend entirely for what had happened. It was all her fault; he’d been happily watching the telly with the kids until she’d started rubbing his cock. She should never have done that, not when she knew he had to look after Georgie and Harry.

‘Do yourself a favour and go back to your father’s tonight, Sally. I ain’t in the best of moods, OK? If you hadn’t have come round ’ere today, none of this would have happened.’

Sally looked at Jed with an incredulous expression on her face. None of this was her bloody fault. How could he even say that when the reason her beautiful son was dead was because of him?

‘You bastard! My Lukey boy died because somebody was trying to shoot you. How can you blame me for this, Jed? After everything we’ve been through, how could you be so callous?’