‘What about her?’ Denise asked.
‘You told me yesterday that she had been in bother, messing with drugs.’
‘That’s right, and Sean, he put her up to it.’
‘Did he? Why do you say that?’
‘She wasn’t doing so bad till she started going with him. It’s his fault,’ Denise said.
‘What’s his fault?’ Janet said.
‘That this… that she…’ It wasn’t unusual for those left behind to blame whoever was at hand. ‘I told her to get shot of him. He’s a junkie,’ Denise said. ‘He dragged her down in the muck with him. They was offering her rehab, but she wouldn’t listen… If she can just…’ She ground to a halt. Janet saw it almost like a truck hitting a wall. The impact striking the woman again, the reality. Lisa. Dead.
‘How would you describe their relationship?’
‘A bloody disaster,’ Denise said. She cast about, found her cigarettes and lit one. Janet waited.
‘Mrs Finn, do you have any reason to think Sean had some involvement in Lisa’s death?’
‘He hit her,’ Denise said angrily, fanning the flames. ‘I seen her black and blue. He’s a right nasty piece of work.’
‘Did you have a lot of contact with her?’
‘She’s my daughter,’ Denise replied.
‘How often did you see her?’ Janet rephrased the question, aware that Denise had sidestepped it.
Denise gave a bitter laugh. ‘More before he came on the scene. And then he sends her up here to scrounge. Expecting me to give them drug money.’ She shook her head.
‘Lisa was in Ryelands House until this April?’
‘I couldn’t manage. I tried…’ Janet sensed the woman’s shame at her inadequacy. ‘My sister took Nathan, but she couldn’t cope with the baby as well.’
‘When did Lisa first go into care?’ Janet said.
‘Four months.’
An infant. ‘Was she in care all her life?’
‘No,’ Denise tapped the ash off her cigarette. ‘Only till I sorted myself out. I got her back when she was six, then… the end of primary and she just went wild. Running away, going missing, drinking.’ Taisie’s age, thought Janet. At least we’ve not had any of that to deal with. ‘I tried everything, but I couldn’t handle her. I’d school attendance on my back and your lot every five minutes. I thought it was for the best, but Ryelands – there’s more drugs in there than there is on the streets. Same as prison. Paedos hanging round an’ all,’ she said. ‘Some of the kids in there’ll do anything for twenty quid.’
Janet knew Rachel would follow up on this when she spoke to Lisa’s personal advisor. Get details, help them sort out fact from fiction. But from what Denise said, it sounded as though Lisa had been experimenting with drugs before she hooked up with Sean. Janet brought the question round to recent contact again.
