Songbird. Josephine Cox

patting her hand, like a mother soothes her child; and now she was telling her softly, ‘You’ll be allright … you’ll see. Help is on its way… you’ll be allright my darling.’ Turning her head she gave another frantic shout, ‘OVER HERE … SHE’S HURT … HURRY … PLEASE HURRY!!’

      ‘Go from here.’ Alice’s voice was almost inaudible, gasping. ‘No more contact with him …’ Slipping fast away, she could hardly make herself heard. ‘Promise me.’ When she now took a breath, it was a rasping, frightening thing for Maddy to hear.

      ‘Be still,’ the younger woman pleaded. ‘Be still, be still.’

      But Alice would not be still. With a huge surge of strength, she had slightly raised her head and was looking the girl straight in the eye.

      ‘Promise,’ she said, then fell back again.

      Desperate, Maddy shouted again, this time her voice charged with anger. ‘Hurry! For God’s sake, hurry!’

      In that moment, one of the ambulancemen looked up from treating Jack and spoke to his colleague before making his way over to them.

      With Alice’s flickering gaze trained on her, Maddy gave her her word. ‘I promise,’ she whispered, holding her close. ‘I’ll never come back … I swear it. Just hold on, please, Alice. Help is on its way. Don’t die, please don’t leave me all on my own. I can’t bear it.’

      As the medics took over, Maddy clambered up on shaky legs, and looked straight into the face of the devil himself.

      Two policemen had arrested Drayton. Handcuffed, he was being marched towards the waiting squad car. Before they managed to get him inside, however, he turned and spat a message at Maddy, the words of which would haunt her for the rest of her days. ‘Your card is marked, you bitch. Keep looking