He paused and took a deep breath, clearly distraught at recounting what happened, and he continued to look down at the floor.
‘I heated up some soup for her. Her nose was running and she was shaking, her face was gaunt and her body so thin she was hardly recognizable as my daughter. And the clothes she was wearing were awful. I was glad her mother wasn’t here to see her.’
Bradfield was taking notes, but thought Mr Collins was being evasive and considered putting pressure on him to reveal exactly what he did do to his daughter. Realizing it could make him clam up Bradfield thought better of it and flicked through his notes before tapping a page with his pen.
‘So this was roughly about two weeks or so before her body was found?’
Mr Collins nodded and replied that it was a Thursday.
‘When she first called you, what exactly did she say?’
‘I just told you, she wanted money and—’
‘Sorry, yes, you said that, but did she call you “Father” or use any familiar term?’
Mr Collins looked perplexed and shrugged his shoulders.
‘She shouted and was very abusive and I believe she said, “Daddy, you have to help me.”’
Bradfield flicked a page of his notebook and Jane saw him underline something.
‘So what happened when you both got back here?’
Collins straightened up and leaned forwards in the wing chair. ‘On previous occasions when she had turned up unannounced she would make promises, but then steal from her mother’s purse, or take the housekeeping money, not to mention anything else of value that she could sell for drugs, then she’d disappear again. This time I was not going to be hoodwinked by her, so I said she could sleep in the box room. I wanted to make sure she couldn’t leave so I took my screwdriver and put a clasp and padlock on the door. All the while she was making promises: if I helped her she would straighten out and get her life back together. She promised to go back to school and sit her A levels — something I had heard many times before. She agreed to be locked in the box room for her own good, but only if I helped her.’
Bradfield doubted Julie Ann would have agreed to be locked up.
‘Why the box room, and what did she want from you?’
‘There was less in there for her to smash up as she came off the heroin and mostly she wanted money. She told me she had been raped, was now pregnant and had been to see someone in Brixton who would give her an abortion for a hundred pounds. It was hard to believe she was telling me the truth because she looked so wasted and undernourished. However, she said I could go with her so I would know she wasn’t lying.’
He paused and took a deep breath, still leaning forwards staring at the carpet with his hands held in front of him.
‘Go on, Mr Collins,’ Bradfield said, encouraging him to continue.
‘Well, I was shocked, but still wondered if she was telling the truth or after money. I told her that an abortion was wrong and if she had the baby then her mother and I would stand by her and help raise the child.’
His voice cracked as he continued and slowly explained how Julie held his hand, kissing it and promising to be everything he had ever wanted. Tears trickled down the side of his nose. He described how he had sat with her in the box room until she had fallen asleep exhausted. He had then padlocked her in the room before going downstairs.
‘About an hour later I went to see how she was and ask her if she wanted something to eat. I removed the padlock, went in and realized what a fool I’d been.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘I should have checked the rucksack she had with her, but with all the stress I didn’t think to. She was lying on the bed and I saw the syringe on the floor. She must have heard me coming, but it was as if she didn’t care she was so high. I couldn’t believe it. I felt sick and angry with myself for trusting her again.’
He became agitated, wringing his hands as he described how he got a glass of water and threw it in her face before shaking her shoulders to rouse her.
‘What happened next?’
‘I told her how disgusted I was and said that if she really was pregnant what she was doing was appalling and that her baby would be born a heroin addict just like her. She spat at me, screaming that she didn’t care as she didn’t want the baby. Then she said that it was a black bastard who had raped her.’
Jane could see that Mr Collins was becoming highly emotional, but there was also anger in his eyes as he recounted what happened. He said that he had been afraid that he would lose control, so he had grabbed her rucksack and the syringe and then locked the door.
‘She started kicking and screaming to be let out, but I had to keep her in there. I waited for what seemed like ages until she stopped and then I unlocked the door. She came at me in a fury, lashing out and hitting me. In a panic I ran down the stairs to call the police and picked up the phone, but she ripped the line from the socket and went for me again. It was hard for me to believe that she could be so violent, so terribly angry.’ He searched in his trouser pocket, brought out a handkerchief, blew his nose and started crying.
‘Why didn’t you run outside and call for help?’
‘I don’t know. On impulse I followed her into the kitchen where she started pulling all the drawers out looking for the housekeeping money. I was worried she’d find it so I tried to drag her away, but she pushed me backwards kicking out at me with such terrible anger and hatred it really frightened me. I stumbled backwards and she pulled open another drawer, found an envelope, took it out and opened it. I shouted at her to put it back and leave the house but—’
Bradfield put up his hand to stop him. ‘It can’t have been that much if it was just housekeeping, so why didn’t you let her take it and leave? Then you could have called the police without being scared.’
‘No, no, you don’t understand. It was my staff’s weekly wages. I couldn’t just let her take it.’ He began to cry even more.
‘Why on earth do you keep such a large sum of money in the house?’ Bradfield asked in surprise. Mr Collins told him that he always got the cash from the bank on a Thursday and made up the pay packets on the Friday morning at work, but he usually took the money back to the office and locked it in the safe.
Bradfield asked why he hadn’t done so this particular Thursday and Collins seemed exasperated, explaining that he’d been to the bank before he went to the golf club and had come from the bank to change into his golf clothes and collect his clubs.
‘I tucked it away in the kitchen drawer and hadn’t thought any more about it because after her call I had been in a hurry to collect her.’
‘Did Julie Ann know you always went to the bank on a Thursday? I mean could she have called you at your office that day because she knew you’d have money?’
Collins’ body sagged as he lifted his hands and shrugged.
‘Yes, she could very well have remembered, but she had not been to the office more than a couple of times and a good few years ago.’
‘So you say she attacked you and then you ran down the stairs?’
‘Yes, then she was in the kitchen pulling out the drawers, and I honestly had not thought about it until I saw her find the envelope. She tried to leave with the money, but I couldn’t let her take it as my staff would have nothing to live on for the week. I tried to stop her leaving but she pushed past me into the hallway.’ He started to sob and looked up at Bradfield. ‘I didn’t mean to do it, I swear I didn’t, they were just there.’
‘What was there?’ Bradfield asked.
‘My golf clubs. They were still in the hallway where I’d left them earlier. I can’t even really remember exactly how it happened — I was so angry with her. She tried to open the front door so I just grabbed a club from the bag and hit her.’