‘It’s none of your business.’

‘None of my business? I’m making it my business. You come here with your fancy job and your bighead attitude and think you can push people around. Well, you can’t push me around. You were always a spoilt little brat when you were growing up and time has only made you worse.

‘You might look down your nose at me but I’m telling you, in my eyes you were never good enough for my Jack. I was as happy as Larry when he got shot of you, best thing he ever did if you ask me. You like to pretend it was what you wanted but I know how upset you were. I used to see the way you looked at him, the way you went after him. You were like a fucking Rottweiler, you were. Once you got your teeth into him, you were never going to let him go. He was just your type, wasn’t he? Everything you ever wanted. Thought you had the world at your feet. And then he dumped you and you thought you’d get your own back. Keep your little secret to yourself.

‘You can mess up your own life just as much as you want but Sophie, she’s something different. She’s his daughter. And daughters need their dads. That’s not something you can replace, no matter how special you think you might be. You’ve got no right messing him around like this. Messing her around like this. You’re totally out of order. Just because you spend your whole time acting like a man for your job doesn’t mean you’re any kind of substitute for a real father.’

‘Are you quite finished?’

‘I’m just getting started.’

‘I’ve heard enough of your crap. It’s you who thinks you’re God. You think you can waltz in here and tell me how to live my life, tell me what is best for my daughter? Who the hell do you think you are? You don’t know anything about her. You don’t know anything about me and my life right now.’

Ella longed to tell her that she had met her daughter but knew she had to keep it secret. She took a deep breath. ‘I’m the woman who’s trying to put right all the things you’ve made wrong. I’m the woman who has to come along and clean up the godforsaken mess you’re making of other people’s lives.’

‘Nah, you’re just some busybody who’s sticking her nose in where it’s not wanted. You always were.’

‘Oh grow up, Stacey. You had both your parents around all the time and you’re still fucked up. You wouldn’t go around treating people this badly if you weren’t. What the hell do you think is going to happen to Sophie if you continue to mess her around like this?’

‘She understands the situation. She knows the reasons why.’

‘That’s what she tells you. Jesus Christ, woman, how many times did you ever lie to your mother? You think Sophie is so perfect that she won’t tell you the odd lie if she needs to?’

Stacey thought back to the summer, when Sophie had gone missing for several hours. She had told her she was going to spend the evening with a friend but had ended up at a wild party. Although they had never spoken about it in detail, Stacey was certain that Sophie had taken drugs that evening too.

It was all too much for Stacey to handle. She had just learned that the brutal serial killer they were after had managed to make everyone on the team look like an idiot. On top of that the murderer was now taunting them with the fact that he had taken another body from right under their noses. A serving police officer, no less. Then she’d gone and made herself look like a total idiot by going to her boss and insisting the killer was someone it simply could not be.

All this was going through her head and she wanted nothing more than the chance to sit down and think through it all, to work out a way to go forward. Instead she had Jack Stanley’s idiot of a mother shouting at her. It was more than she could bear. It felt as if her whole life was collapsing around her.

‘You want to talk about being a good mother? You think I have anything to learn from you, you fat bitch? Where were you when little Jack was growing up, going out mugging people and selling drugs and killing and all of that? Is that what you brought him up to do? What on earth qualifies you as an expert when it comes to parenting?’

Ella Stanley hit back immediately. ‘Because I’ve seen the damage that can be done when there is no father around. It might be more obvious for boys but that doesn’t mean it’s any less damaging when it comes to girls. It’s more subtle but it doesn’t mean there is no effect. I just want what is best for your daughter. She’s a little angel and –’

‘Best for my daughter. You don’t even know my daughter.’ Stacey stared at her hard as the realization dawned. ‘Jesus Christ, you’ve met her, haven’t you? You’ve actually bloody met her. When did this happen?’

‘It’s not important –’

‘It’s important if I say it is. I want to know what the hell is going on. Have you met her or not?’

‘No. I haven’t met her. I’ve seen pictures. Jack has told me all about her. He adores her. I want to meet her, is all. I’m her grandmother and she deserves to have the love that I have to give her as well as the love that comes from your parents.’

‘She gets more than enough love already.

‘You can’t get too much love. You’re just being silly now. You don’t know anything about kids, just like you don’t know anything about men. If you didn’t want Sophie to grow up like this, if you didn’t want her to be surrounded by people that love and care for her, if you didn’t want her true father to be a part of her life, then you should never have told him about her. You should have given her up for adoption the day she was born. But you didn’t and that means you have to face the consequences.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I don’t want to do this but you’re giving me no choice. I know that no one back there’ – she flicked her head in the direction of the police station they had just emerged from – ‘I know that none of them know about the situation. And I know that the fact that my Jack hasn’t always been a good little boy is going to reflect very badly on you. So here’s the ultimatum. I don’t want to have to do this but you don’t give me any choice. You haven’t seen the damage you’ve been doing, you don’t see the way it’s tearing my boy apart.

‘Either you let Jack start seeing his daughter again or I’m going to make sure everyone in that building and all of your bosses and supervisors know exactly who Sophie’s father is.’

Stacey said nothing for a few moments, turning over her thoughts in her mind. The two women stood on the side of the street staring at one another intently. When Stacey spoke it was not out of anger. Her voice was calm, controlled and utterly menacing.

‘What you need to understand is this: the only reason that Jack Stanley is still out and about, the only reason you get to see him without a glass partition in the way, the only reason he isn’t eating prison food and panicking about what to do every time he drops the soap in the shower, is because of me.

‘I made one terrible mistake fourteen years ago. I slept with Jack and I got pregnant. And I’ve paid back that mistake a thousand times ever since. If you don’t back off, and I mean right off, I can take it all away. I’ll put Jack behind bars and I’ll make sure he has so many charges against him that he’ll never see daylight again.

‘If that’s want you want, Ella, then just keep on talking. Just keep on doing what you’re doing right now. If you want things to remain the way they are, then what you need to do is shut your big mouth, turn around and make sure I don’t ever have to look at your face again.’

Ella Stanley hesitated for a moment or two. Her lips were moving together as if she were grinding her teeth in frustration. For a moment Stacey expected her to take a step towards her, for things to get really ugly.

But then, suddenly, Ella Stanley turned on her heels and stormed off.

19