Backlash by Lynda La Plante Page A

sexually?’
    ‘Aye. I caught him in her bedroom, she was only ten. I took a broom and belted him. After that I’d had enough so I packed a few bags and while he was out I took what I could and left with the girls.’
    ‘Did he try to get you back?’
    ‘Nae, I said I’d report him tae the polis. For all his fists and loud mouth, he was scared they’d arrest him. He was also, believe it or not, ashamed about trying it on with his own daughter, blubbering that he was drunk and got intae the wrong bed.’
    ‘Was that the last time you saw him?’
    ‘It was, aye, he did try, but I wouldnae even speak to him. Couple of years later he sent some presents one Christmas for the girls, but it was just the once. We’ve moved a few times so he had nae forwarding address.’
    ‘But you must have made contact when you filed for divorce?’
    She shook her head and said the solicitors had handled the papers. Eileen then tapped the table with her finger.
    ‘Not a penny because he was unemployed and had nae income. I got sweet F-all, but at least it meant hecouldnae find us. Is that why you’re here, is he trying tae see us?’
    ‘No, I’m here in connection with a murder your ex-husband has been arrested for and charged with.’
    ‘Well, not before time. He shoulda been banged up years ago for what he did to me, never mind his own daughter. We’d not have had food on the table if I hadnae … it was him that put me on the game.’
    Anna listened as Eileen went into a lengthy excuse as to why she had been charged with prostitution, and the more she talked the angrier she became, constantly slapping the table with the flat of her hand.
    ‘I’ve worked as a shop assistant, shelf filler, cleaner, but I never did it again. Now I’ve got a steady job in a dry-cleaner’s and part-time in a bar. Bein’ brought in an’ out of this place is doin’ ma heid in, I could lose my jobs. So if you’re finished with me, can I go?’
    Anna opened her briefcase. ‘This shouldn’t take long, Eileen, but I need your help. You see, your husband also claimed that he had been involved in two other murders.’
    ‘I wouldnae know about anythin’ he done. Like I told you, I’ve not seen him for over eight years.’
    Anna took a photograph of Rebekka Jordan out from her file. ‘One of the possible victims is this little girl, missing for five years. When your husband was arrested for the—’ Anna was interrupted.
    ‘He killed that wee bairn? Is that what he’s been arrested for?’
    ‘No, another woman, but he claimed he had killed this child. Her name is Rebekka Jordan. But he then retracted his statement, denying that he had admitted having anything to do with her disappearance.’
    ‘She’s just a wee child.’
    Eileen looked at the photograph of Rebekka, shaking her head and sucking in her lips.
    Anna explained that Rebekka had last been seen leaving a stable yard in Shepherd’s Bush. She asked if Oates had ever worked in that area.
    ‘I wouldnae know. He did odd jobs, but I cannae remember if he was workin’ there. I don’t even know where he lives now. When I left him we had a place in Brixton, but I know the solicitors for the divorce had a hard time tracing him to sign the papers as he wasnae living there. He used to move into squats, never had any money.’
    ‘You said previously that he had assaulted your eldest daughter. Do you know if he had ever had sexual contacts with other young girls?’
    ‘When he was drunk he’d have sex with a dog. He was a perverted bastard, but I wouldnae know if he had other wee girls.’
    ‘Tell me about when you went to London and met him.’
    She said that she was sixteen when she left home in Glasgow due to a drunken and abusive father. Her mother had arranged for a friend’s family, who lived in East London, to take her in and they had a daughter, Anne, who was the same age as her. Anne’s father, who had recently died of cancer, had been an amateur boxing promoter and not long