Lynda La Plante - Backlash

Anna closed the office door. Langton was sitting behind the desk, flipping a pack of cigarettes up on its end and back flat down again.

‘You wanted to see me?’

‘Too damned right I do. You walk in on an interrogation, having, I believe, not mentioned to a single member of the team the fucking mind-blowing information regarding the fate of the suspect’s bloody daughter.’

‘Hang on a second, it was all just supposition until I got the DNA result from Pete Jenkins.’

‘What do you take me for, take us all for? You have photographs of boots, underwear, you’d got a toxicology report…’

‘It wasn’t finalized, it still isn’t, I said there was heroin found in her hair to unnerve him.’

‘Lying to a suspect can get interviews thrown out in court, you know that.’

‘Yes, but I’d received a phone call about it and besides you’re always pulling tricks in inter-’

‘This is not about me! What about the DNA? How long were you working solo on this line of enquiry, Travis?’

She felt her legs begin to shake.

‘Again it was just supposition on my part, knowing that Corinna had run away from the rehab centre.’

‘Is that on the board?’ he snapped.

‘I think it might be, but I was just piecing together bits of information that I’d picked up.’

‘That you declined to share with anyone else.’

‘That is not quite true – I didn’t get to speak to the contact from the rehab until late at night, the girl Morag Kelly.’

‘This on the board, is it?’

‘No it isn’t, I didn’t have the time.’

‘So go on, you got in contact with – who was it?’

‘Morag Kelly, she had been in rehab with Corinna Oates, and the reason I wanted to talk to her was to try and find out what clothes Corinna might have been wearing and a description of her hairstyle.’

‘Why was that? Did you happen to mention this to anyone?’

‘Joan or Barbara – I can’t remember – one of them got me Morag’s number.’

‘But they didn’t know why you wanted it.’

‘No. I knew that Mike and you were busy with Timmy Bradford’s interview and I went to the forensic lab. This was after Morag had mentioned that she thought Corinna had stolen her boots. I found the boots described by her in the bundles of clothes removed from Oates’s basement.’

‘But you didn’t mention this to anyone?’

‘No, because I couldn’t be certain they were the same boots until I’d seen them for myself.’

‘So when did you start this DNA enquiry?’

Anna had to gasp for breath, and her legs were shaking even more as she tried hard to control her temper.

‘When I saw the body of the unidentified victim.’

‘I see. So while we were interrogating Bradford you were running around the mortuary…’

‘I wasn’t running around. I went there out of interest, and I told you when I got back that we had not recovered Angela Thornton and therefore had an unidentified victim. Also I-’

‘Yes, yes. I know this – so you go on your own accord out of interest to check the remains, am I right?’

‘Yes, and I noticed that her hair was braided and very dark. Eileen Oates said Corinna used to wear it in braids like Jamaican girls do. I wasn’t sure about her ethnic origin.’

Langton flicked at the cigarette box; it was really irritating.

‘Tell me why the ethnic origin was of such interest?’

‘Well it’s bloody obvious we didn’t have the remains identified, so I suspected from the hair that it could also possibly be a black girl-’

‘Yes, yes, you are missing the point. Why did you request DNA samples from the victim to be matched with Oates?’

‘The forensic anthropologist wasn’t sure but said the unidentified victim could be white European.’

‘Oh, so now the body is not black but white.’

‘The age range fitted Corinna, as did the decomposition to the time frame from when she absconded from rehab. Do you mind if I sit down?’

‘Be my guest.’

She sat down.

‘I had interviewed Bradford and Ira Zacks and they had told me that Eileen Oates had maybe forced Oates into marrying her because she was pregnant.’

He did a mock look around the room.

‘I never had a report about this. You inform anyone else about this shotgun wedding?’

‘No I did not,’ she snapped. ‘At the time it did not appear to be of any consequence.’

‘Oh I see, so when did it, in your opinion, become of consequence?’

She had to clear her throat before she could continue.

‘Bradford told me that when the baby was born, Oates flew into a rage and claimed it could not be his child because it was dark-skinned and Ira Zacks made a similar comment.’

Langton waved at her with his hand.

‘All this is in your notes, yes?’

‘Yes, but I didn’t think at that time it was of importance to the case so I didn’t add it to the incident board, as it was eighteen years ago.’

‘When did it become important then?’

‘Bits of information just all suddenly seemed to fit together. Corinna missing, the boots, the hair colour and hairstyle of the body.’

Langton ran his fingers along the edge of the desk, clicking them, and then looked up.

‘Well go on, I’m listening.’

‘I began to wonder if the unidentified girl was Corinna. Eileen Oates had been adamant that she was Henry’s daughter so I asked for her hair to be tested, and knowing we had Oates’s DNA on record I wanted to determine from familial DNA if it was his daughter. I still only had the boots to really make the connection, the hair was just a possibility.’

‘And?’

She felt as if she was on trial, and it was almost impossibly hard for her to keep her temper in check.

‘It was negative, the hair was no longer suitable for a full DNA profile, only mitochondrial inherited from the mother.’

He leaned forwards.

‘Negative, negative?’

‘Yes.’

‘Jesus Christ, are you now telling me it wasn’t his daughter?’

‘If you would just let me finish: it was obviously disappointing, and one of the reasons why I didn’t put all this out to the team because I still wasn’t sure-’

‘Corinna Oates is not his fucking daughter?’

‘NO, but I then had sent from Glasgow a swab from Eileen Oates, and a blood sample which she agreed to give. Corinna is her daughter, but Oates is not her biological father, even though he is named on her birth certificate.’

Langton jerked at the knot of his tie so hard it came loose.

‘But that still doesn’t prove it’s Corinna. Eileen Oates could have a hundred daughters for all we know. I can’t believe you didn’t see fit not to divulge any of this to the team, to me, to DCI Lewis.’

‘The Scottish DNA database sent a copy of Corinna’s DNA profile to Pete Jenkins and he’s still working on a bone sample from the body for a direct comparison and match.’

‘This just gets better and better, Travis! So you made Oates think in interview that Corinna was his daughter without a full DNA match?’

‘No, I said that a comparison with his ex-wife Eileen’s DNA has identified the body as his daughter.’

‘You lured him into a confession with a lie. If Kumar picks up on this that whole interview will be out the window, case over.’

‘I didn’t lie to him. Yes, I took a calculated gamble, but it paid off.’

‘You seem to have forgotten that I was blind in that interview. I had no idea what you knew or where you were going. You accused him of murdering his own flesh and blood when she wasn’t. The defence will call it oppression and ask for the interview to be thrown out!’

She stood up to face him. She sensed her control was on the verge of slipping.