79

‘SORRY TO KEEP YOU,’ THE WOMAN FROM SOCIAL SERVICES said to us from the doorway. ‘Normally, we can’t give out details without a court order.’ Mrs Rita Jenkins reclaimed her seat in the small interview room in one of Cardiff’s municipal buildings. She’d come into work on a Saturday specially to meet us. Joesbury stepped away from the window and sat down beside me.

‘But confidentiality expires if the person in question is dead?’ he asked.

‘Well, yes, it does,’ Mrs Jenkins agreed. ‘There’s a note on file about Catherine’s death,’ she went on. ‘Ten years ago, does that sound right?’

I nodded.

Mrs Jenkins frowned. ‘As far as Victoria’s concerned, the director’s happy for me to tell you what I can,’ she said.

‘We’re hoping to find someone who knew the girls,’ said Joesbury.

Jenkins pursed her lips. ‘Eleven years is a long time,’ she said. ‘Social work has a high staff turnover. And back then, adoption and fostering came under South Glamorgan County Council. That was abolished a few years ago and the department transferred to Cardiff. People got moved around in the restructuring. I can try and track some down for you. It’ll take a while though.’

‘I appreciate that,’ said Joesbury, who was starting to run out of steam.

Jenkins was flicking through one of the files. ‘It doesn’t often go that badly wrong,’ she said. ‘A young girl dead. And pregnant at fourteen. Bloody mess, I must say.’

The man at my side was paying attention again.

‘Excuse me?’ he said. ‘Cathy was pregnant?’

Jenkins nodded her head sadly. ‘Yes, it was confirmed a few weeks after the incident in Bute Park.’

Joesbury looked at me. ‘Hang on a minute,’ he said. ‘The boys used condoms.’

‘Condoms aren’t bulletproof,’ I said. ‘Isn’t there something like a 3 per cent failure rate?’

Joesbury raised both hands in a surrender gesture. ‘Flint, I bow to your greater—’

‘Don’t even go there,’ I snapped.

Joesbury turned back to Jenkins. ‘So what happened to her?’ he asked. ‘Did she have the baby?’

Jenkins shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘The pregnancy was terminated at eleven weeks. The trouble was, that wasn’t the end of the matter.’

‘How so?’ asked Joesbury.

‘She got a form of postnatal depression that we see a lot in young girls who’ve had terminations,’ Jenkins said. ‘She was prescribed antidepressants and was allowed to get addicted. She was suspected of taking other things as well. Then she contracted an infection as a direct result of the operation. There was irreparable damage done to her insides. Things just went from bad to worse after that. Her school-work plummeted, there were all sorts of behavioural issues, but she wouldn’t see any of the counsellors we suggested. She became a very sick girl.’

‘And then she ran away?’ said Joesbury.

‘Yes,’ agreed Jenkins. ‘Then we lost her.’