“You do, and if you don’t start talking right now, I am going to drag you out of this house in cuffs. In front of your boys, in front of your neighbors—”
“Why are you doing this to us? Why are you making—”
“Because I think Ella killed your husband.”
Eileen blinked back at Helen twice, then slowly collapsed onto the sofa. In that moment Helen knew that whatever else she’d concealed, Eileen had never even considered that her daughter might be involved in Alan’s murder.
“I didn’t... is she even in Southampton?” Eileen said eventually.
“We believe she’s living in the Portswood area.”
Eileen nodded, though how much she was taking in was hard to say. A long, heavy silence followed, which was suddenly and inopportunely broken by the sound of Helen’s mobile ringing. Harwood. Helen rejected the call, then turned her phone off and seated herself on the sofa next to Eileen.
“Tell me what happened.”
Eileen said nothing, still in shock.
“We can’t bring Alan back. But we can stop others dying. You can do that, Eileen, if you talk to me now.”
“She was always the bad seed.”
Helen flinched at the phrase but said nothing.
“She was a sweet girl when she was young, but when she was a teenager, she changed. She wouldn’t listen. Not to me. Not even to her father. She was rebellious, destructive, violent.”
“Violent to whom?”
“To her sister, her brothers, kids who were smaller than her.”
“So what did you do about it?”
Silence.
“What happened to her after these incidents?” Helen continued.
“She was disciplined.”
“By whom?”
“By Alan, of course,” she replied, as if confused by the question.
“Why not you?”
“Because he’s my husband. The head of the family. I am his helpmeet and I support him in any way I can, but it’s his duty to correct us when we require it.”
“‘Us’? He disciplined you too?”
“Of course.”
“Of course?”
“Yes, of course,” Eileen replied defiantly. “I know the modern world frowns on physical punishment, but we and the other members of our church have always believed that beatings are necessary if people are to learn—”
“And is that what Ella received—beatings?”
“To begin with. But shewouldn’tlearn. When she was a teenager she would get into fights, go with boys, take drink—”
“And what happened to her then?”
