Coronation Street has teased the return of Nicky Wheatley (Kimberly Hart-Simpson) to the show amid the drama surrounding Joel Deering

(Calum Lill). Viewers will remember that Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard) grew close to escort Nicky following the sad death of his wife Sinead

back in 2020. She was last on our screens earlier in the year when he hoped she could help him after being implicated in the disappearance

of Lauren Bolton’s (Cait Fitton).

Authorities looked into Daniel’s history of employing sex workers, and thought that due to his close relationship with the teen, he might be responsible.

He and girlfriend Bethany Platt (Lucy Fallon), also hoped that she would have intel on whether paedophile Nathan Curtis (Christopher Harper) was responsible.

She then met up with a girl named Ellie (Lola Blue), who had been paid off by Joel – who was actually responsible – to keep quiet.

Lisa and Dee-Dee are adamant to get evidence against

As we now know, DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) is doing everything in her power to ensure that Joel doesn’t evade justice, despite being warned to drop the case from her superior.

She’s been working with Dee-Dee Bailey (Channique Sterling-Brown), and in doing so managed to track down Joel’s former colleague that provided them with his old phone – which contained some crucial evidence.

In tonight’s episode we learned that the phone had come back and revealed some pretty intense text messages between him and Ellie.

Lisa headed into the station and had a chat with Craig Tinker (Colson Smith) about what she’d found.

He remembered back to finding Ellie amongst the Nathan investigation, and how she had ran off to avoid questioning (and after further blackmail from Joel, that only us fans were privy to).

Craig told Lisa that he knew her new address as a result of being picked up on a shoplifting charge, and handed it over to her.

Sadly, later in the episode, it became clear that Lisa’s attempts at speaking to her were unsuccessful. Dee-Dee told Daniel that she’d slammed the door in her face.

However, Ellie’s name was significant to him – and he wondered whether Nicky could help in speaking with her.

Lisa and Craig joined them for a drink in the pub, asking him to reach out to her.

Will she hold the answers to putting Joel behind bars?