The Wronged: No parent should ever have to bury their child...

‘Here we are. There will be four prison officers in the room with you for security purposes.’

‘I would much rather speak to Jamie alone.’

‘I’m afraid that won’t be possible. The guvnor’s orders, not mine. Jamie has been involved in numerous violent altercations while in our care, so the boss didn’t want to take any chances. He doesn’t allow many visits of this kind, so you’re lucky you’ve got one.’

Knowing it was now or never, Johnny took some deep breaths to try to calm himself. He couldn’t lose it in there, because if he did and got himself arrested, Deborah would probably divorce him.

‘You OK?’ the screw asked.

Johnny leaned against the wall and nodded. ‘Just give me a minute.’ The last time he could remember his heart beating at such a frantic pace was when he’d been plotted up outside that club waiting to shoot Vinny, and that hadn’t turned out too well. He’d drunk Scotch to calm his nerves and had accidentally shot Roy Butler instead. ‘I’m ready now.’

The first thing that struck Johnny as he entered the room was how different Jamie looked. He was eighteen now, full of muscle and had the body of a man rather than a teenager. His dark hair was cropped, and he had a big scar that ran diagonally from his right ear to the corner of his mouth.

‘Thanks for coming, Uncle Johnny. I had doubts you’d show up.’

Johnny was sure that, had he not been in prison when she was born, had he met his granddaughter, held her in his arms, read her bedtime stories and got to know her little personality, no way could he have stomached this visit. Perhaps the reason he was able to face Jamie was because the only memory he had of Molly was a couple of photographs.

Pulling the chair out from under the table, Johnny sat down opposite his nephew. Jamie had the same piercing green eyes as Vinny, which was no surprise seeing as it was now common knowledge they were half-brothers. ‘Cut the “Uncle Johnny” bollocks, and say what you gotta say. I don’t wanna be anywhere fucking near you, so the quicker you spill your guts and I can get out of here, the better.’

Jamie stared directly into his uncle’s eyes. ‘I asked Nan to speak to you because I wanted you to hear my side of the story. I’ve been framed, Johnny, and you are the only one who can help me. I am so sorry about what happened to Molly. You and your family must have been to hell and back, but I didn’t kill her. I swear to God, I never.’

‘Pull the other leg, it’s got fucking bells on,’ Johnny hissed.

‘What type of monster do you think I am, eh? I could never hurt a little kid. I promise you, if I’d been guilty of such a despicable act, I’d have killed myself by now. What type of cunt could live with themselves after murdering a three-year-old? Not me, that’s for fucking sure.’

If it hadn’t been for the four prison officers standing guard, Johnny would have lunged across the table and beaten his nephew black and blue. How dare he have the front to do what he’d done and then blatantly lie about it?

‘I want to speak to the police and urge them to re-open the case. Molly’s killer needs to be caught.’

Johnny looked at Jamie in disbelief. ‘As if the Old Bill are gonna do that. You were caught with a bedroom full of newspaper cuttings, you’d been ripping missing posters off walls and fucking lampposts, you even rung up the cunting police station and told them you had taken Molly. You were seen sat opposite the club on the day she went missing. Have you hit your head since you’ve been in here? The police got you bang to rights, boy, and you know it. Now why don’t you do me a favour and just admit it. It’s upsetting your nan the way you keep pleading your innocence. You’re making her ill.’

Eyes brimming with tears, Jamie shook his head furiously. ‘No way would I ever admit to something I didn’t do. It’s bad enough that the whole world sees me as a child-killer when I’m fucking innocent. I’ll hold my hands up to the newspaper cuttings, ripping the posters down and phone calls. That was wrong – bang out of order, in fact – and there isn’t a day goes by when I don’t regret it. But I was fourteen years old, for fuck’s sake. And I only did that shit because I hated Vinny so much. He tried to make my mother abort me – as you well know – and I blamed him for Mark’s death. That night we started the fire at Vinny’s club, Mark was climbing out the window when some evil cunt pulled him back in that storeroom. It had to be Vinny or a member of his staff. I can still hear Mark’s screams now as he burned to death. I could even smell his flesh being cooked,’ Jamie wept. Mark had been his older half-brother and they’d been so very close.

‘So you killed Molly to get back at Vinny. Is that what you’re trying to say?’

‘How many more times have I got to tell you, Johnny? I didn’t fucking touch Molly. I never even met her, let alone strangled her. The police found not one shred of evidence connecting me to Molly’s body or the area where she was found. I’d never even heard of that place, let alone been there.’

‘But you admitted you were sat opposite the club on the day she went missing.’

‘Yeah, I was. It would have been Mark’s eighteenth that day. I was upset, which is why I bought some cider and drowned my sorrows. If I had planned to snatch Molly you don’t honestly think I would be sitting opposite the club so the whole world could see me, do you?’

Johnny shrugged. ‘Well, you was silly enough to do all the other stuff, so why not? Hardly fucking Einstein, are you?’

‘No. But I’m no Ian Brady either!’ Jamie banged his fist on the table and all four prison guards instantly took a step forward. He raised his hands in apology, took a couple of deep breaths to bring his temper under control and then continued: ‘Listen, I found out something recently which I want you to tell the Old Bill. They won’t listen to me, but they might you.’

‘What?’

Jamie put his elbows on the table and leaned towards his uncle. ‘There’s a lad from Whitechapel in here. Good pal of mine. Did you know that Little Vinny’s best mate topped himself around the time of Molly’s funeral?’

Johnny shook his head.

‘Don’t you find that odd? Why would a young lad with his whole life in front of him want to hang himself down Hainault forest for no reason, eh? Guilt maybe? Word is, he was a right oddball, into glue-sniffing and all sorts. Perhaps the little weirdo couldn’t live with something bad he’d done? You get my drift?’

Johnny shrugged. He was feeling more uneasy by the second, truth be told. Jamie certainly did not have the demeanour of a guilty person. Quite the opposite, in fact.

‘Do you mind if I tell you what it was like in here at the beginning for me, Johnny?’

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