And then the view was obliterated by something large and pink.
It receded from the lens and resolved itself into the rear view of a fat girl in a black skirt and, despite the rain, a short-sleeved pink blouse. And next to her an even larger woman in a black raincoat and leggings. They were swaying up the path to the door.
‘Who’s that?’
The bell chimed.
Flora opened the door to two unsmiling, fleshy faces blinking at her.
‘You’re Flora, aye? You’re wee Beckie’s new maw?’
Oh God.
She wanted to slam the door on them, but Caroline put a hand on her arm and said, ‘And you are…?’
‘I’m Lorraine Johnson. You’ll have heard of me, aye? Beckie’s gran? This’s my daughter Carly.’ She had a voice like a foghorn.
Flora couldn’t help it – she took a step back. The woman was a formidable presence – a solid chunk of flesh, twenty stones at least, with rolls of fat under a determined, jutting chin. And clever little eyes that seemed to see right into Flora’s heart.
The daughter blinked at Flora with a sad face, the rain glistening on her curly hair and round rosy cheeks and making dark splotches on her blouse. She was very pretty, with a sweetness to her expression that reminded Flora, horribly, just a little, of Beckie.
‘We didnae mean to get your husband in trouble, aye?’ Lorraine Johnson shouted. ‘We didnae want him charged or nothing, we just wanted to make sure he didnae come back and hurt Carly again. She could’ve lost the wean. She’s seven months pregnant, right? She’s no in any condition to be getting assaulted and that. But we thought they’d just give him a caution.’
In the sudden silence, footsteps on gravel in Ailish’s garden could be heard just the other side of the hedge.
Oh God.
‘Now hold on just a minute,’ said Caroline. ‘It’s you who’ve been harassing Neil and Flora. Neil only wanted to talk to you. He never meant to hurt anyone.’
‘He didn’t assault her,’ said Flora.
‘We’ve got it on camera, hen.’
‘He just pushed her to get past – he didn’t mean her any harm –’
‘We know he was angry, aye,’ Lorraine Johnson bellowed, tears now in her eyes, ‘but he shouldnae have taken it out on a pregnant lassie, eh? We dinnae want no trouble. We’re no here to see Beckie. We know we’re no allowed. You’ve taken her off of us and that’s broke our hearts, but it’ll finish us, so it will, if anything happens to this wee one.’
And she placed her hand on Carly’s massive stomach.
‘Please!’ she wailed. ‘Just leave us alone!’
Flora opened her mouth.
‘Oh for God’s sake,’ said Caroline.
‘I’m that sorry about the other day, eh?’ the ghastly woman continued, chins wobbling with emotion. ‘Jed’s in bits about Beckie, all he wanted was to get a wee deek at her, a wee glimpse, but when he saw you slapping her, he lost it…’
‘Slapping her?’ said Caroline.
‘We know we’ve no say in how Beckie is disciplined now. Only – please, Flora. Dinnae hit the bairn.’
‘But – I’ve never hit Beckie! I don’t know what he thought he saw…’ She turned, desperately, to Caroline, her mouth so dry she could hardly get the words out. ‘You were there, in the street, when they… I didn’t hit Beckie, did I?’
‘Flora would never hit Beckie,’ Caroline said at once.
‘But you were there – you know I didn’t!’
But of course Caroline didn’t know any such thing. She’d only arrived on the scene after Jed Johnson had started shouting.
Caroline, though, was nodding. ‘I was there,’ she agreed. ‘Flora was hugging Beckie while your husband and sons were threatening her. She wasn’t hitting her.’
Rage filled Flora.
‘How dare you come here accusing me of God knows what on the say-so of that man? A convicted killer! Your husband is a convicted killer, and thank God Beckie doesn’t have to live with him any more, or any of your nightmare of a family! You’re not the victims here!’
‘And you know what? You’re in breach of the court order just by being on this property,’ Caroline added.
‘So just fuck off!’ Flora flung out a hand to point past them to the gate. ‘Fuck off!’
The girl took a tottering step back, and Lorraine Johnson put an exaggeratedly protective arm round her. ‘No need for that, eh?’
‘I think you’d better leave,’ said Caroline calmly, reaching past Flora to shut the door.
‘She’s got a gob on her, right enough,’ goes Carly.
‘Aye,’ I goes. ‘The brass neck of her. Giving it “You’re not the victims here.” It’s our wee lassie’s been taken off of us for no reason and we’re no the fucking victims?’
Jed shuffles his arse in the La-Z-Boy, and he doesnae open his eyes, but random sounds come out his gob. He’s fleein’ so he is. There’s a damp bit of piss on his joggers. Good job that La-Z-Boy’s wipe clean.
Travis goes, ‘Aye Da, my thoughts exactly’ and the kids are all ‘Aye, Father Jack,’ the cheeky wee buggers.
The dug grabs a bit pizza off of Jordaine’s plate, and she grabs it back and shoves it in her gob, and Mackenzie’s like that: ‘You wee minger!’ and I’m biting my tongue but Carly doesnae hold back, she’s ‘Dinnae you call your wean a minger, that’s gonnae undermine her confidence’ and Mackenzie’s: ‘Go and take your face for a shite Carly, and maybe come back when you’ve popped that wean and ken what the fuck you’re on about.’
I goes, ‘Shut it yous. When Bekki’s back I dinnae want none of this shite this and fuck that, aye? That wee lassie’s gonnae show all yous up so she is.’
Mackenzie makes a face, and Corrigan goes, ‘Aye, cos Bekki’s a fucking wee angel.’
‘Corrigan!’ I yell. That boy hasnae quit giving me grief since he took his first fucking breath, wickit wee red face yowling and looking at me like he was: Aye Lorraine, here’s me, another fucking mad Johnson bastard.
I’m needing outta here. I get my arse in the kitchen with the wee pay-as-you-go I bought yesterday. I put in the number for Social Services at Glasgow City Council.
‘Oh, hello,’ I goes when I’m through to the right fucker. ‘This is Lydia Ross from Police Scotland – I’m calling in connection with the Saskia Mair investigation?’
‘Oh. Right…’ And you can hear the bint thinking: Christ, am I in the shit here? What are they wanting to speak to me for?
‘I’m not sure if it was you or your colleague I spoke to yesterday?’
‘That must have been Teresa.’
‘Okay, well, no matter. We’ve just been to interview Saskia Mair again, but it seems she’s no longer at the same address, or at least that was the story – could you just check and see if the address at Bielside Road is her current one, please? We’re outside the property now, so if you could do that now, that would be great.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Relieved it’s no her arse in the shit. ‘Could you just hold on one second while I call up the file?’
Candy from a bairn.
‘When’s Bekki gonnae be here?’ says wee Kai when I get back in the lounge. He cannae wait. God love him, he asked me the other day if Jordaine was gonnae get swapped for Bekki, like he was hoping.