‘Don’t you dare blame that girl,’ Alice yelled at Jed.

Desperate to get back into his mother’s good books, Jed did what he was best at and lied. ‘You don’t know the fucking half of it, Mum. I told her to leave me alone, but she kept touching me in front of Georgie and Harry. I didn’t want them to see all that shit, that’s why we went upstairs. I mean, I ain’t had sex for weeks, so what was I supposed to do?’

Jed had always been the apple of Alice’s eye and she was now glad she had an excuse to stop hating him and blame somebody else. ‘Go home, Sally, and don’t fucking come back until you learn how to behave,’ she screamed viciously.

Jed pushed Sally towards the front door. ‘Wait at the end of the drive. I’ll order you a cab and ring you tomorrow.’

Sally was in floods of tears. Her dad was right, the O’Haras were scumbags and Jed was a lying, cheating, no-good bastard.

Seeing his brother Billy pull into the drive, Jed waved his hand for him to stop, then ran over to Sally.

‘I’ll bell you when the chavvies are home,’ he said, attempting to peck her on the cheek.

Sally turned her head and, seeing Jed for what he really was for the first time ever, boldly spat in his face. ‘Drop dead, you shit-bag. And I swear, if you ever try to contact me again, I will make sure my dad fucking kills you!’

Larry Peters arrived at Joycie’s at 9 p.m. He had represented the Mitchell family and had been on their payroll for many decades, hence his quick response to Eddie’s phone call. When asked by some of the snobs in his profession about his relationship with the notorious clan, Larry liked to describe himself as a family friend. He had been especially close to Harry, Eddie’s father, and had been devastated when Harry had met his maker in such awful circumstances.

Larry turned the ignition off, got out of the car and opened the passenger door for Carol. Larry had known Carol Cullen for many years. She had done him a few favours in the past and vice versa and he knew she was the right person to be involved in an incident like this. If anyone could pull some strings for him in social services then that woman was Carol.

Eddie opened the front door, shook Larry’s hand and was then introduced to Carol. ‘Thank you so much for visiting us at such short notice. My grandchildren have had the most awful ordeal and I’m very concerned over their future well-being. They miss their mother enormously,’ he said, laying it on as much as he could.

Carol shook his hand, then walked into the living room and smiled at Georgie and Harry.

‘Hello, my name is Carol. Wow, don’t yous two look nice and snug with them big bath towels wrapped around you?’

‘Can you take us to see our mummy?’ Harry blurted out.