Lynda La Plante - Backlash

‘Why was that?’

‘Said something about him being unsuitable. Knowing him, he probably got inta a fight.’

‘Carry on, tell me more about Henry.’

‘After that he took odd jobs, but we were always short of money and we moved from one dump tae another. He’d even started tae think Corinna wasn’t his…’

‘Sorry, can I ask why he thought Corinna wasn’t his?’

‘When she was born she had darkish skin. As she grew, her hair was matt black and tight curls, started wearing it like them Jamaicans do when she got in her teens. He was convinced she wasn’t his. I told him ma grandmother’s hair and skin was like that but he just wouldnae believe me. Said I’d tricked him intae marriage over Corinna and then when I was expecting Megan he thought I just wanted tae keep hold of him by getting pregnant again.’

She wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

‘Just thinking about it makes me upset. It was as if he blamed me for everything that went wrong. All those wasted years, being knocked around, trying to make ends meet. I went out working the streets at night, while he was supposed to be at home looking after the girls, but I’d come home and he’d have been out drinking, leaving them on their own.’

Anna put out her hand to reach for Eileen’s and she gripped it tightly.

‘You did what you had to do, Eileen, and you brought them here to Glasgow away from him. I admire you. It must have taken a lot of guts; it’s always hard for a woman who is abused to have the strength to get out of-’

‘Vicious fucking circle, that’s what it was. It’s not got better.’ Eileen started to cry in earnest. ‘Now after all I done, I’ve got a heroin addict on the run from rehab and the other bairn’s got herself pregnant. She’s just sixteen, a boy from off the estate. And I’m nae better; I’ve gone from one bad’un to another. Take a look at this…’

Eileen pulled open her jacket and drew down the top of her sweater. She had a massive dark blue-black bruise in the centre of her chest and red marks around her throat.

‘Oh Eileen, I am so sorry. Is that from McAleese?’

‘You know he’s got form for violence?’

Anna nodded, by now wondering if there was any point in continuing to question Eileen. As there had been no contact with Henry Oates for so long she doubted if she could gather anything more than that he’d been a despicable human being from way back. Eileen meanwhile pulled her sweater back up to her neck and then closed her pink jacket.

‘You know I said I had no connection to why you have been brought here to the station for questioning, and I don’t. I asked to meet you because I am trying to find out what happened to Rebekka Jordan and if your ex-husband killed her as he claims. I doubt that you can help me, but I want to help you. Eileen, you have to be strong and if you are being abused again and forced into assisting Mr McAleese, you can get protection. If necessary you can be placed in a witness protection programme that will take care of you, move you and your daughters to a safe place.’

Eileen had her hands clenched together, twisting the tissue round and round. Her voice was hardly audible.

‘He’ll kill me.’

‘You will never be free of him if you don’t accept help. Remember how you felt when you took control of your life and left London.’

‘You’re right. I’ve had enough shit shovelled over me.’

Eileen lifted her hand, opening and closing her mouth. ‘I’ve just remembered something… oh my God… yes!’

Eileen touched the photograph of Rebekka Jordan still left on the table between them. She half rose from the table and then sat down again.

‘That last time he called me it caught me by surprise; it was very late at night. Oh Gawd, it’s got to be five years ago, more even, maybe six, but you said something about the wee girl worked at a stables?’

Anna felt her body tense. She didn’t correct Eileen that Rebekka didn’t work at the stables, but had been taking riding lessons.

‘I’ve just remembered what he said to me. We hadnae said two words before we started arguing. I called him a layabout, something like that, and he… Oh Gawd almighty… let me get this right…’

Anna waited as Eileen licked her buck teeth, running the tip of her tongue round her lips.

‘Okay, this is how it went doon. I think he started callin’ me a whore and I said to him that he was nothing but a layabout who never earned a penny, that’s when he mentioned he had a job. I called him a liar again and he got really mad, screaming at me that he was working in a stables shovelling shit. I think he said stables, but that would be the only place, shit from the horses, am I right?’

She gave Anna a smile. It altered her whole drawn face.

‘Have I helped ye?’

‘Yes you have. One more thing, Eileen: do you know if he owned a car around this time?’

‘Nae, he could never afford tae pay for one. We never had so much as a bicycle between us.’

‘When he did these odd jobs did he have access to vehicles?’ Anna asked.

‘I dunno. I dunno if he even had a driving licence. Is there any chance I can nip out to the car park for a fag and a coffee?’

‘Sure, I’ll ask an officer to get you a coffee.’

While Eileen was out having a cigarette break Anna took the opportunity to go over what she had recorded on her Dictaphone. She listened intently to the last part of their conversation and in particular where Eileen had mentioned that Oates said he was working in a stables and she wondered if this could be the connection to Rebekka Jordan that she was looking for. She wrote in her notebook to make further enquiries at the stable about employees who had worked there for at least a year before Rebekka went missing.

Eileen was brought back to the interview room by a uniform officer.

‘You okay to carry on? There are just a few more things I need to ask you,’ Anna said.

‘I’ve been thinking about what ye said about being free of McAleese. I don’t want tae lie for him any more but I’m scared of what he’ll do tae me.’

‘So you lied about him being with you when the armed robbery happened?’

‘Aye, but he said he’d shoot me through the heid as well if I didnae give him an alibi.’

‘I understand, but you need to tell DCI McBride what happened. It’s his investigation, not mine, and I have to return to London,’ Anna said sympathetically.

‘Can ye not stay with me, make McBride give me the protection ye said I could have, because if he doesnae I’m terrified he’ll kill me or hurt ma daughters,’ Eileen said as she clung to Anna’s hand.

‘I’ll talk to McBride for you, Eileen, but you should ask for a solicitor to be present. They will provide you with one.’

Eileen sighed and then blew her nose.

‘Ye know, with Henry I put up with a lot more. I did it because at the start I used tae feel sorry for him. He’d had a terrible upbringing, do ye know about it?’

‘No, but I am interested and it could help me with the investigation.’

Eileen explained that Henry’s mother had been a junkie on the game and Social Services had taken him from her when he was about eighteen months old. They found him left in a dump of a place; he’d not been fed and was filthy, then he was put into care. Eventually his mother got him back, not because she loved him but because she wanted the child benefit for drugs. Henry was around five years old, and she and her punters started knocking him about so they took him off her again when he was eight and he went back in a care home.

‘He told me he used tae always fight with other kids but it always ended up with the staff giving him a good beating. Anyways, he run off when he was just a teenager and got tae London, started to work for some old bloke that was an ex-boxer and he took it up, he was like a sort of mentor tae him.’