Friday 4 July 2008

Page 21

A week or so went by, I had just finished my shift, it was a monday, as I got off the bus for my mate to take it to the depot my dad was stood there. He came up to me and said he had received a letter this morning from Dublin, I was scared, why would my Dad get a letter from there, he said inside was a photograph of two children and a man, the writer of the letter was asking if the Jackie Mason who had just got engaged to his daughter was the same person as the man in the photograph , of course it was. The letter went on to say that the writer of the letter was Jackie`s wife and the children were his, my Dad was looking at me all puzzled, he said are you not shocked. I said that I already knew, not adding that I had only found out a week ago, I thought my Dad was going to hit me, I was so scared for his and my welfare, if he had hit me he would never have forgiven himself, he said that was it, I must not see Jackie again, reflex action on my part, I said yes I would, my Dad said in that case he was going to the police. I wouldn`t back down, so my dad said to go and pay in my money and meet him at the police staion, I thought he was bluffing but there was a nagging doubt, I knew where Jackie was so I went and found him, he was just about to take his trolley bus to Kimberworth, when I told him what had happened ,he went ashen, he was petrified. I couldn`t understand his reaction, he had no care for me he said he would see me later and got off the bus leaving his mate without a conductor.

I paid in my takings and went to find my dad, I was sure he would be outside the police station waiting for me but he wasn`t. I went inside and he was speaking to a policeman. They came over to me, the policeman asked me some questions ie name and address etc...we were asked to take a seat and a senior officer would be out to see us.
I said that I was sorry to my Dad, that I wouldn`t continue to see Jackie and was he alright, could we stop this now, he said he would speak to the policeman and withdraw the case.

Relief , but was it, the policeman consulted someone else and whoever it was said it was now a criminal case and out of our hands. I was confused because I hadn`t said anything yet about the situation, my Dad couldn`t have said much, unless I had been longer than I thought. It was 2.00pm and we were still waiting to see this senior officer.
Eventually a plain clothes guy and a woman came over to us, introduced themselves and apologised for the delay. The officer asked me to go with them for a chat, my dad was to talk to another officer.

They asked me to start from when I first met Jackie and continue to the present time, which I did, then they seemed really keen to know if I had been sleeping with him, I asked why that was relevant, that it was my business nothing to do with this case, they disagreed and said if I had , then the crime he had committed was procuration, in English meant, he had not told me he was married and had children, he had pretended to care for me, got engaged to lull me into a false sense of security thinking it would be o.k. to sleep with him because we were going to be married, times were so differant then , I had committed a cardinal sin, somehow to this day I do not know how they tricked me into saying that I had slept with him but they did, as soon as that was said things changed, the male officer said "now we have a case" you see before I had admitted it they were bluffing about it being a criminal case.

They left the room, I sat and thought about what I had just said, my Mum and Dad would be devastated, my Dad because I was his little girl, my mum because she would be concerned about her reputation, what would the neighbours say, they thought I was trash anyway.
What would happen to Jackie, I was riddled with guilt but I still thought that Jackie would be there for me. In spite of what the police said I was convinced they were wrong and that Jackie did love me for me.

The interrogation went on for ages, the questions seemed irrelevent to me, about his boxing, how my Mum and Dad got on with him, was I pregnant, I just wanted to go home. They brought me a cup of tea,the first thing I had had to eat or drink since 10.00am that morning. I asked the time as I realised it was dark outside, bearing in mind it was about 12.30pm when we went there. it was now 7.00pm. They asked me where they could find Jackie as they wanted to speak to him, I said I had been there all afternoon and evening, he could be in Dublin for al I knew.

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