‘It was after that robbery in the street the day before …’

‘Robbery?’ Ellen was alarmed. ‘Good heavens, surely Gina wouldn’t—’

‘No, don’t worry, dear, she hasn’t taken to street robbery, I’m certain of that. She was the victim on this occasion. She had her handbag stolen.’

‘Oh, no! Is she all right?’

‘A bit grazed and bruised but nowt that won’t soon heal. We tried to get her to go to the police but she completely refused. Now, of course, we understand why. The police would have been very interested indeed to meet her.’

‘And did you never guess she was a fugitive from the law, Mary?’ asked Tom, also including Ruth in his question with a kindly look.

‘We guessed straight away that summat was all wrong about her: a story that didn’t hold water about her luggage, and she seemed not only to have no family but not to have anyone at all in her life,’ Ruth answered.

‘It was as if she had been suddenly cast adrift from all human relationships when I came across her at Preston station, but now I know she was on the run I can see that there was no one she felt she could go to,’ said Mary.

‘She could have come to us,’ said Ellen, and Tom reached out and squeezed her arm. ‘We know she can be bad, but we’d have stood by her and … she should have come to us. If you can’t go to your family, where can you go?’ Ellen sighed heavily.

‘True,’ said Ruth. ‘We tried to look out for her, guessing, as I say, that she might be in some kind of trouble, but in the end we are not her family and there was nowt we could have done to keep her here if she felt she had to go.’

‘She can’t run away for ever,’ said Ellen, remembering Betty Travers telling her exactly that. ‘We were so nearly here in time to find her after Mavis told us about you, but Gina can’t have gone far, surely? I can’t think she’s going to leave the country like James … Well, she’d have gone abroad straight away if she was going to, I reckon.’

‘Yes,’ said Tom. ‘Lancashire is all she knows and I reckon she’s gone no further. Now, I think we’d better go to the police and tell them everything we know. We can’t save her from the law, and it would be dishonest to try when we know she’s done wrong, but we can’t help her either if we can’t find her.’

‘Yes, you’re right, of course,’ said Mary. ‘We’ll get our coats on and we’ll all go together now; get it over with.’