Backlash (52 page)

Lastly, Oates explained how Angela Thornton had really died. He said that everything happened as Timmy Bradford had told them, up to a point. They’d seen Angela alone and
drunk by the Tube station, persuaded her into the car and to go to Bradford’s flat, then to have more alcohol with them both. Timmy got drunk and had sex with her in the bedroom. Oates said
that he had carried on drinking a bottle of brandy, and the more drunk he got the more he thought she was a cheap slut – in fact she reminded him of what his mother was like. When he went
into the bedroom, Timmy and Angela were both out of it in a drunken stupor. The bombshell came when Oates said that he had felt like a child again seeing his mother in bed with yet another man. He
wanted to end the misery so he put a pillow over her face and suffocated her. To him it wasn’t Angela he had killed but his mother. The next morning he realized what he had done and thought
it was funny. He told Timmy that the police would think he had raped and killed Angela. Timmy thought it was all his fault, and started to panic and cry. Oates realized that by getting rid of the
body he would have a hold over Timmy that he could call upon whenever he wanted something from him. He used Bradford’s car to take the body to the quarry. The pathway along the side of the
woods was so wet and muddy he didn’t dare risk driving down it, not after the incident with the Jeep, so he carried her to the first part of the woods and dug a shallow grave with his hands
as he didn’t have a spade or anything he could use to bury her properly, and covered her over with old logs and leaves. Afterwards he cleaned the car and sold it to a dealer at a car auction
close to Wandsworth Bridge. He had kept her bracelet as he knew he could always use it against Timmy Bradford.

Oates confirmed that over the last five years he had obtained sums of money from Bradford, threatening that if he didn’t give him what he wanted he would go to the police
and tell them about Angela. He knew Bradford would have to help him after his escape because of the hold he had over him. Oates admitted he was surprised that Bradford had intended to fit him up
with his mother’s murder, and the coolness of this statement left Mike and Langton stunned.

After the interviews were over Oates was formally charged with four further murders: Rebekka Jordan, Kelly Mathews, Mary Suffolk and Alicia Jones. Langton had contacted the
CPS, who had said that they would want to read the files on Angela Thornton and Corinna Oates before they decided whether to have him charged with their murders as well. This was not only due to
the fact that Angela’s body had not as yet been recovered but also because there was a possibility that Oates might be lying and Bradford had killed her after all, or they had both done it
together. As for Corinna, Oates had denied murdering her and said she died of an overdose, so the CPS decided to wait for the forensic and pathology work to be done on the body, before reaching a
decision on whether or not to charge him with her murder.

Langton had asked for a crate of wine to be brought into the incident room, and they had a surprise visitor, Paul Barolli, on crutches, looking a lot thinner and very
pale-faced, who was given a round of applause. It wasn’t exactly a celebration, but there was a sense of incredible relief. Meanwhile, the work would continue for months in preparation for
the trials, and the pathology department would have their work cut out for them as they continued the detailed examination of the victims’ remains to try and establish the likely dates when
each victim had been buried.

Members of the team would also be present at the funeral of not only Rebekka Jordan but those of all the victims. Grieving parents and other members of their families might
then manage to reach some kind of peace, but they would all have to face the trial and learn the horrific details of what happened to their daughters.

Anna did not call Eileen Oates personally, but informed McBride that they had found Corinna Oates’s body. It would be left to a family liaison officer to tell Eileen.

Anna was sipping the last drop of her wine, watching the party begin to break up, when Langton approached to say he would like a word with her in private. She saw him asking
Mike if he could use his office. Mike glanced over, and then turned away, back to his conversation with Barolli, who was sitting down. Joan and Barbara had fussed over him and he’d told them
he was going on extended leave for while.

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.

‘I only got the result ten minutes before I came into the interview room. Yes I had the photographs of the boots, yes I had the photographs of the underwear, yes I had her identified when
nobody else bloody had, and I can’t understand why you are interrogating me as if I have acted or conducted myself in an unprofessional way. Everything I requested from the lab was logged and
listed, everything I wanted from forensics was logged and listed — do you want to see the reports?’

‘Sit down.’

‘No I won’t. You know maybe, just maybe, you should be giving me a fucking pat on the shoulder. The connection between Oates and the murder of his daughter was what opened him up:
after he was accused of having sex with her, abusing her, he hated it! I DIDN’T DO THAT! From then on he started telling the truth. Now you maybe don’t like the fact that it was me and
not you that brought the evidence to the table, but facts are facts.’

‘Sit down, Travis, don’t you dare yell at me.’

‘I am not yelling!’ She was. ‘I am telling you the facts. You brought me onto this team because of Rebekka Jordan, a case from five years ago that you headed up. Do I hear
“Congratulations, Travis”? I have been out there working my arse off, so EXCUSE me if I have not marked up a couple of items on the board.’

Still refusing to sit, she faced him across the desk.

‘Maybe, sir, I should also have added to the incident board that the victim Rebekka Jordan’s doll’s house was discovered in your flat! Not on the incident board, why not? Oh,
it wouldn’t look very good, would it? WOULD IT?’

She leaned across the desk, pushing her face towards him, spittle forming at the edge of her mouth in her rage.

‘If it hadn’t been for me, Chief Superintendent, we’d never have got the Cherokee Jeep connection. You want me to list how much I have brought to this case, do you? DO
YOU?’

The slap was so hard it sent her reeling sideways, but she managed to stay upright, her fists clenched. She lunged at him across the desk, swinging a punch; he was so shocked he stepped back,
away from her. She picked up the telephone and threw it at him, then anything she could lay her hands on she hurled with as much strength as she could. He dodged sideways and the next moment she
was round the desk and fighting like a wildcat, kicking and punching. He didn’t defend himself, just tried to catch hold of her arms.