‘When did she first contact you?’
‘Around the middle of September. She said she was in the area, but she didn’t tell me why or where she was living.’
‘It seems she was staying with Jenny Weston at Totley during that time.’
‘Yes, I found that out later. These animal rights groups have networks they communicate through. And when Ros arrived with nowhere to live, Jenny Weston offered to help. She had a spare bedroom in her house.’
‘You know a bit about Jenny Weston, after all,’ said Cooper, recalling the efforts Diane Fry said she had made to bring Jenny alive in Maggie’s mind.
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But Maggie ignored the comment. ‘Ros came on a mission - a mission against dogfighting. She was following a link from the area she came from, somewhere in Cheshire. When one dogfighting ring was closed down, some of the men began to travel to Derbyshire, to Ringham Edge Farm. Of course, the dogfighting was much more important to Ros than finding her mother. I was just a side interest.’
‘That’s not what she told her adopted parents,’ said Tailby.
Maggie shook her head. ‘I expect she resented them, too. No - she came with a purpose in mind; I was merely a useful accessory.’
‘But Jenny didn’t agree with what Ros wanted to do, did she?’
‘Apparently not. Ros was much more radical in her views than Jenny. She believed in direct action. In fact, she believed in violence.’
‘And that’s what led her into trouble in the end,’ said Tailby.
Maggie dropped her head. ‘I suppose it has to be my fault.’
‘Does it? Why?’
‘Because there’s no doubt she would have been raised differently if I had kept her with me when she was a child. Well, that’s obvious,’ said Maggie. ‘She would never have reached that stage if I had brought her up myself.’
‘There’s no reason to believe that,’ said Cooper. Maggie just stared at them and didn’t trouble to discuss it. ‘Ros had an argument with Jenny Weston when
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she found out what Ros intended to do. There were angry words. And Ros walked out and came to me.’ ‘How did you feel about that?’
‘At first I thought it was the moment I’d always dreamed of,’ said Maggie. ‘My daughter had come back to me. But it wasn’t like that at all.’ She looked from Tailby to Cooper. ‘Nothing ever is how you hope it will be, is it? It’s best not to expect anything. It’s best not to hope for too much. Because the worst thing of all is when you have your hopes raised and then dashed again. That is very painful. That can be devastating.’
They gave her a moment to recover, while the tapes recorded the silence.
‘What did Ros want exactly?’ asked Tailby.
‘My daughter saw that she might be able to make use of me.’
‘But in what way?’
‘She needed somewhere to stay, a handy base. That was the way she put it. And my home was much nearer to where she needed to be. Much nearer to Ringham Moor.’
‘Did she tell you what she planned to do?’ ‘Oh, yes.’
‘And what was your reaction to that?’
‘Ironically, I think I probably reacted the same way that Jenny Weston did, but more so. I told Ros she was mad, that what she planned to do was criminal and dangerous. We argued terribly. Of course, I said all the wrong things. A lot of stupid things. I expect it’s because I’ve never known how a mother is supposed to behave. I’ve never learned by my mistakes how to
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deal with a daughter - so I made all the mistakes at once, in one blazing row. I told her I wouldn’t allow her to do it.’
‘I expect she didn’t like you telling her what to do.’ Maggie smiled. ‘That’s rather an understatement. It was obvious she was going to go to Ringham Moor, whatever I said. It became very personal, and all her bitterness poured out. Mine as well, I suppose. But Ros believed that I owed her a great deal. And I found I couldn’t argue with her any more. Because she was right, you see. I owed her more than I could say, for having let her down.’
‘So you allowed yourself to be persuaded…’
‘Yes, from that moment, I was lost. I should have stuck to my guns, locked her in the flat … anything. I can see that now. But she told me that if I was a real mother I would understand what she was trying to do, that I would support her in the one thing that was most important in her life. That if I was a real mother, I would go with her. She said I was the only one who could help to keep her out of danger. That it was what a mother would do.’
‘And so what did you do?’
‘What could I do?’ Maggie shrugged. ‘I went with her, of course.’
Cooper looked at Tailby, but the DCI just nodded. He was a father himself. Cooper could only imagine how difficult it was to stand by and watch your child walk away from you into danger, when all your instincts were urging you to keep them by you and protect them. How much stronger must the feeling have
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been in Maggie, who had only just discovered it? She had finally found her child, only to face the prospect of losing her again. There was no way that she could have stood by and watched Ros walk off alone.
‘Yes, I drove her up to Ringham,’ said Maggie. ‘We were both so angry that we didn’t speak a word to each other in the car. I had driven right through Matlock before I even remembered to put the headlights on. When we got to Ringham, we parked above the village and walked up to the tower. Ros told me it was the meeting point, where I had to wait until she came back from the farm. I didn’t want to just sit and wait. Waiting was the worst thing. On the other hand…’
