Ruth’s heart sank.
‘Okay, Tina, thank you. Interview suspended …’ Fitzgerald looked at her watch, ‘at four forty-five.’
‘Can I ask you something?’
Fitzgerald nodded.
‘What’s going to happen to me now?’
‘You’ll spend tonight here and appear before the Magistrates’ Court tomorrow morning, when you’ll most likely be remanded in custody pending a trial. You’ll probably be sent to Weardale, which is the nearest Young Offender Institution.’ Fitzgerald took Tina by the shoulders. ‘You will get a custodial sentence, Tina. I’m sorry about that, but there’s no way you’ll escape one. It’s just a question of how long.’
Tina nodded, trying to be brave, but her face gave her away.
***
Ruth went to speak with the girl when she was back in the holding cell. When Tina saw her, she jumped up off the bed and ran into Ruth’s arms. Ruth didn’t hesitate, she hugged her back.
‘I’m so scared,’ Tina whispered. ‘I don’t regret it, but I’m so scared.’
‘I know, love,’ said Ruth. ‘I understand why you did it and, believe me, no one here blames you for it. But Tina, please, when you’re asked if you regret your actions by your defence lawyer or the prosecutor, say that you do. Cross your fingers behind your back, say you can’t remember picking up the scissors and taking them with you, whatever you like, but show some remorse. It’ll affect the length of your sentence and we all want to see you get the shortest one possible.’
‘So I shouldn’t say I hope he dies?’ Tina showed a flash of spirit when she spoke, which Ruth applauded.
‘No, you shouldn’t.’ She smiled. ‘You had the right, but don’t let pride take any extra years of your life off you. He’s not worth it. Be smart, Tina.’
Tina nodded. ‘It won’t be easy, but it does make sense. Thanks, Ruth, for caring.’
Ruth nodded. ‘Another thing. Your mum plans to go and stay with her sister for a while, but before she goes, she’d like to see you.’
Tina tensed up. ‘Do I have to?’
‘No, not if you don’t want to. But I’d advise you to see her.’
‘Why?’
‘Because she’s your mum, because you’ll be grateful of her visits over the next few years … just because.’
Tina took some time to think it over. ‘Okay, then,’ she said. ‘But will you be there too, please?’
‘No problem. I’ll go and pick her up now, okay?
***
By the time Ruth got back to the hotel, Penny had spoken to her sister in Liverpool and arranged to go and stay with her and her family for a few days. Her bag was packed and her train ticket had been booked online, to be picked up at Central Station in Newcastle. She had decided not to drive and, judging by the bottles of wine on the bedside cabinet, one empty and one half empty, that was a very wise decision.
They drove to the police station in silence, Ruth uncertain about the wisdom of letting Penny meet with Tina in the state she was in. In the long-term, however, she reckoned it was for the best: Tina would need regular visitors, and her mum was her only close living relative. Besides, she had no power to stop her.
Rather than take Penny into the cell to meet with her daughter, Ruth set up the interview room. Karen Fitzgerald had rustled up mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits, and sitting around the table there was a sight more normal than perching on the edge of the bed in the holding cell. Ruth and Penny went in first, then Karen brought Tina along.
Penny had disapproval etched on her face even before her daughter was in the room with her and it only deepened as she saw Tina walk through the door.
‘Well?’ she demanded immediately.
‘Mum …’
‘Well?’ Penny repeated.
‘Well, what, Mum?’
Penny rolled her eyes. ‘Well, what the hell were you thinking?’
‘They were going to let him out.’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, that made you angry.’
Tina paused and Penny just stared at her. Ruth set a mug of tea in front of each of them. ‘Let’s have a cuppa, folks,’ she said. ‘Tina, come and sit down, love. Penny, help yourself to a biscuit.’ It wasn’t a biscuit she needed, it was a square meal to soak up the booze, but Ruth figured every bite would help.
Tina sat at the table and fidgeted with her mug, kept her eyes on it most of the time, but flicked little glances up at her mum to see if she gave any kind of reaction to what she had said. ‘Mum, I just wanted to make you happy,’ she said, after a few minutes. Penny continued to stare at her. ‘I wanted to make you proud of me,’ she finished in a whisper.
‘You aren’t capable of that.’
‘That’s enough,’ said Ruth.
Tina sat unmoving at the table, her eyes on her mug of tea. She looked more resigned than shocked. Ruth felt anger build and while she tried her best to keep it under control, she couldn’t keep an edge out of her voice. ‘Okay, Penny, time for you to go.’
‘I haven’t finished my tea.’ Penny reached her hand out for a biscuit and Ruth moved the plate away.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You have.’
Right on cue, Karen Fitzgerald opened the door of the interview room. ‘Mrs Snowdon,’ she said, ‘we have a car ready to take you back to your hotel.’
Penny stood up ready to leave. ‘Well, bye-bye then, pet,’ she said. ‘I’m going to Auntie Sammy’s. I’ll be back in a week or so.’ Tina didn’t move. ‘No doubt Ruth will keep me up to date with everything.’ Penny patted Tina’s shoulder as she went past, then looked at Ruth, rolled her eyes and shook her head. Ruth gritted her teeth; she was glad when Fitzgerald took the woman out and the door closed behind them.
‘You’ve got to put that out of your mind,’ she told Tina. ‘Concentrate on what’s happening to you right now.’
‘She hates me.’
‘I’m sure that’s not true.’ Ruth tried to sound reassuring, but she was beginning to think the kid might have a point.
***
‘George Cotter has been moved out of intensive care and into a private room,’ Karen Fitzgerald was telling Ruth over a glass of wine.
‘How can he afford that?’ Ruth asked, taking a sip of chilled Chardonnay. ‘Is he banking on a pay out for false imprisonment?’
‘Over my dead body,’ said Karen. ‘No, he has a benefactor.’
Ruth raised an eyebrow. ‘Who?’
‘Do you remember he was a churchgoer? When we questioned him initially, he’d been to church on the Sunday.’
Ruth nodded. ‘“Hallelujah, praise the Lord” types.’
‘That’s them. Well, it turns out the church is pretty well off.’
‘I thought churches all over the place were falling down for lack of funds?’
‘Not this one. It’s well established, popular, and the good people of the church all tithe, as per the Bible.’
‘They do what?’
‘They each give ten per cent of their income to the church.’ Karen sipped her wine. ‘In fact, some give more than that. The pastor devotes all his time to the church, he’s paid out of church funds. They also run a youth group, a crèche, and, every Friday, a free luncheon club for the elderly of the area.’
‘Busy people.’
Karen snorted. ‘Propaganda. These are all just ways to recruit more people for the church. More people equals more money coming in.’
‘I wouldn’t have thought the elderly had much to give.’
‘Well, a lot of them struggle finding cash but own their own homes. The church believes in investing in the future. Sometimes they score for the whole house, sometimes they have to settle for a chunk of the kids’ inheritance. You can bet however it happens, they make a profit on a weekly plate of mince and dumplings.’
‘You don’t think very highly of them.’ Ruth topped their glasses up from the bottle in the ice bucket.
‘No, I bloody don’t. Cheers.’ Fitzgerald tipped her glass to Ruth and took a sip. ‘Anyway, church funds have been made available to Cotter to cover private medical costs. I think the church has been helping out Cotter’s wife, too.’
‘Sounds like they look after their own.’
‘Don’t you find it odd that they’re happy to support a child killer and his wife?’
‘Well, the wife was never suspected of any involvement and, so far as the rest of the world’s concerned, Cotter has now been shown to be innocent.’
‘Yes, but I did some digging and guess what? The pastor has been visiting Cotter in prison every fortnight since he was banged up. He saw him more often than the wife did.’
‘Trying to sort out the lost sheep, do you think? Or was he never convinced of his guilt in the first place?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Fitzgerald. ‘But I think it’s bloody strange.’
‘How’s Cotter looking?’
‘I think he’ll pull through. Bastard doesn’t deserve to, but it’ll go better for Tina if he does.’
‘She’s got sod all else in her favour.’ Ruth raised her glass. ‘I never thought I’d hear myself say it, but here’s to George Cotter’s full and speedy recovery.’
A couple of weeks later Ruth pulled her car to a halt outside of Weardale prison and headed in to see how Tina Snowdon was coping. Weardale housed both adult and young offenders in the same institution, so when inmates reached the grand old age of twenty-one, all staff had to do was move them to an adult wing.
Before she met up with Tina, Ruth had a meeting with Mary McCluskey, her personal officer, to hear what the official word on the girl’s progress was.
‘Under the circumstances she’s doing about as well as could be expected,’ Mary told Ruth over a cup of tea, her accent pure Belfast. ‘She was very withdrawn for the first week, she hardly left her room. That’s not unusual, of course, but we couldn’t allow it to continue. She’s had some visitors, you know how much that normally helps, although I have to say, her mother is something of a mixed blessing.’
‘Her mother’s a bloody nightmare.’ Ruth sipped her tea.
‘Christina says she looks forward to seeing her and I think in some way, on some level, her visits do help. But they also upset her. The woman can be very harsh.’
‘Penny thinks the wrong little girl escaped when the two kids were abducted. She’s spent all her time since then making sure Tina knew that.’
‘You’ve known them a long time?’
Ruth nodded. ‘I was the FLO when it happened.’
‘Christina speaks very highly of you. She looks up to you.’
‘She’s a good kid. Did she tell you she stabbed Cotter to try to make her mother proud of her?’
‘Such a waste.’ McCluskey put her hand to her chest and Ruth noticed the shape of what looked to be a large, ornate crucifix underneath the woman’s clothing. ‘How is Mr Cotter?’
‘He’s going to make a full recovery. I’d never have believed it possible. I was there when she stabbed him and I didn’t think he’d make it to the hospital, never mind pull through.’
‘Better for Christina this way,’ said McCluskey.
‘True. We should be thankful for that, at least. How’s she getting on with the other girls?’
‘Well, she’s mostly kept herself to herself, but she’s made one friend. Leanne, a girl on the hairdressing course. I put Christina to work in the salon when she told me what she’d been planning before she was arrested. I’ll get her on a course, help her to get a qualification.’
‘What about her exams? She was due to take those in a few months,’ said Ruth.
‘Don’t worry, things will be sorted out so she studies and sits them,’ McCluskey told her. ‘I think we can safely assume she’ll be with us for some time.’
‘Yes, I think you can,’ said Ruth. ‘By the way, is it her idea to use her full name, or is that something you prefer to call her?’
‘It’s Christina’s decision. She wants to change, and using her full name is one way she can remind herself of that. Also, she says she thinks it sounds more grown up.’ McCluskey stood up. ‘You can visit her in her room. I’ll get Brenda to show you where it is.’
***
‘Hey, kiddo, how’re you doing?’
‘Ruth!’ Tina jumped up from the seat she occupied at the little desk in her room and hugged Ruth.
So, Christina,’ said Ruth, hugging her back, ‘I hear you’ve got yourself a job in the hairdressing salon.’
‘Yes, it means I can keep my hand in. It was Mary’s suggestion. I told her how I’d been working for Vanessa in her salon before I came here.’
‘Vanessa’s been to see you?’
‘Yes, she has. She’s going to try to come every few weeks.’
‘Good,’ said Ruth, and meant it. Vanessa seemed like a good influence, and Tina couldn’t have too many of those in her life.
‘She still thinks I can go and work for her when I get out of here. And since Mr Cotter hasn’t died, there might not be too long to wait.’
‘That’s one of the things I came to tell you,’ Ruth said. ‘He’s going to make a full recovery.’
‘I never thought I’d feel this way, but I’m actually relieved.’ Tina sat back down. ‘I still hate him for what he did, but it makes no sense for me to throw my life away over him.’
Ruth wondered if she was hearing Mary McCluskey’s words coming out of Tina’s mouth. Whoever had got Tina thinking like this, she was grateful to them. The kid sounded more positive, more hopeful, than Ruth could ever remember hearing.