Ronnie and Ed Bailey in front of the Rovers in Coronation Street

Some boys having a quiet afternoon’s fishing turned to horror on Coronation Street on Monday (October 14) when a dead body floated past them in the river – and was swiftly identified by the police as being that of Joel Deering (Calum Lill).

The news quickly spread around the street after detective Kit Green (Jacob Roberts) paid a visit to Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) and Dee-Dee Bailey (Channique Sterling-Brown). When the two women were alone together they comforted each other, with Lauren telling Dee-Dee that Joel couldn’t hurt them any more.

Lauren suffered at the hands of Joel for months as he groomed, abused and harassed her and left her fearing for her life. He also tried to kill her unborn baby and she’s been left constantly terrified that he could try to take the baby from her.

Dee-Dee, who was engaged to Joel, was manipulated and lied to by him and attempted to destroy her career in a revenge plot after she realised what kind of person he was.

Both of them had good reason to be glad that Joel was dead, but Dee-Dee was cautious and suggested that, even from beyond the grave, they weren’t safe from Joel’s malice.

When it was revealed that Joel hadn’t died by accidental or self-inflicted drowning but had been killed before he was put in the river, the situation changed and the police launched a murder enquiry. Suddenly Dee-Dee’s words seemed like they could be the reaction of a guilty person – had she finally snapped and killed Joel?

Later, we saw her waking up from a nightmare and sobbing helplessly. Tears of guilt, and fear that she would be found out? Or just a normal reaction to finding out that Joel was dead?

Kit and Lisa looking sombre in Coronation Street

Kit’s focus was more on Lauren, whom he questioned at length about where she was on the day that Joel didn’t turn up for his hearing. She said she was at the Platts’ with Max (Paddy Bever), having pasta that David (Jack P Shepherd) had cooked. David confirmed this story.

Of course there are plenty of other people who might have wanted Joel dead, and at the end of the episode the focus shifted to Ed and Ronnie Bailey (Trevor Michael Georges and Vinta Morgan) – Dee-Dee’s father and uncle.

Dee-Dee met them in the Rovers and gave them the news about Joel’s death being murder. As she told them that the police would want to speak to her about it at some point, Ed and Ronnie exchanged uneasy glances. ‘They can’t think you had anything to do with it,’ Ed reasoned. Overcome with her feelings, Dee-Dee left the table.

It quickly became clear that Ronnie and Ed know something about Joel’s death. ‘Murder,’ said Ed. ‘What are we gonna do?’

Ronnie’s advice was to keeps their mouths shut, but Ed was worried. ‘They’ll catch up with us,’ he fretted.

‘You don’t tell a soul,’ Ronnie warned, ‘And neither do I.’ He told Ed to pull himself together before Dee-Dee came back.

‘Stay nice and frosty,’ he advised.

Are Ronnie and Ed killers? We’ve seen them previously being violent towards Joel as they tried to defend their beloved Dee-Dee from being hurt any more by him. Could they have decided to finish the job by getting rid of him for good?