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you need a break.’ He’d given all the tenderness he had to offer. It was time I manned up or shipped out.
    ‘I can’t. If I blow this, job M Gee might not trust me with another. And besides, what would be the point? I’m better off here, keeping busy.’
    Joe studied me hard. ‘Don’t go doing anything without my say-so. Stay focused on the job.’
    ‘I can handle it.’
    I avoided Bastion Square and mum’s spot on the way east. I’m not so stupid as to think Mum could have known, but I felt embarrassed at being so angry at the world. Not to mention bone-deep ashamed at the way I wanted to lie down and wallow in self-pity. Yet another person had left me. Me, me, me. Besides, I wasn’t in the mood to watch my language, far from it. I wanted to scream and curse and work the anger out of my system.
    I watched Stuart wait for Gemma outside her school. He stood right up close to the door so, when it opened, all the kids came streaming past him like water round a pebble. He kept his hands in his pockets and stood square. The teachers hung back and whispered behind their hands, giving him wary looks. When Gemma didn’t appear, Stuart yelled at the teachers and paced about looking agitated.
    I plugged in my earpins and tuned in.
    ‘You must know!’
    ‘You need to leave the premises, Stuart.’
    ‘Not until you tell me where she is.’
    ‘Leave now or we’ll call The Law.’
    I toyed with the idea of wandering over, nipping out any potential trouble before it took root. But Stuart strode away and took his mobile from his pocket.
    ‘Dad? Why didn’t you tell me you were getting her?’
    He stopped walking and sat on a low wall.
    ‘Boarding school? When? Where?’
    My spine turned icy cold. Something was wrong. M Gee would have told Joe if one of the kids was going away. Or maybe she had and he’d forgotten to tell me. Unlikely. A horror shiver ran right from my toes up. Oh God, I’d lost Gemma.
    Stuart jogged all the way to his dad’s house and hammered on the door. If his mum’s street rated posh, then his dad’s road, which I didn’t even know existed, must rank palatial. They might easily have got away with calling it Greedy Gits Close. There were lawns and cutesy little flower borders, ponds with little stone boys weeing into the breeze - even little summerhouses sitting pretty in quaint designer gardens - all tucked away behind a row of trees and a high spec security fence. Just one of those trinkets might have helped Fran out of whatever hole she’d found herself in.
    I stood out of sight of the cameras under a big old oak. Some woman, Stuart’s stepmother I presumed, opened the door. I tuned in.
    Her voice twanged tinny and cold. ‘I’ll get him for you.’
    She left Stuart stood on the doorstep like a Jehovah.
    His dad appeared, in a well-ironed tracksuit, and stood with his hands in his pockets. ‘What can I do for you, Stuart? We’ve got people coming over.’
    Stuart sounded angry enough to spit. ‘Oh really? Am I being a bit of an inconvenience, Dad? Care to have me shipped off somewhere, like you have Gemma?’
    ‘She’s a little girl, Stuart. She needs stability, looking after properly.’
    ‘Does Mam know?’
    Good question, Stuart. I couldn’t have done better if I’d been in there asking the questions myself.
    His dad sighed but stood straight to his full height and folded his arms across his chest. ‘Of course she knows.’
    ‘You’re lying.’
    ‘Now don’t go getting chopsy.’
    ‘You want chopsy? I’ll give you chopsy. What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Stuart spoke through his teeth, it sounded like he was the strict father and struggling to keep his fists to himself. He turned in a small circle, his hands on his head before stepping back up into his dad’s face. ‘And I don’t just mean Gemma, I mean about you being a sad old git who thinks he’s pulled a young, horny little thing.’ The words poured out in one big rush. ‘Hell, I wouldn’t touch