The reason DCI Keeble is holding Billy Mitchell accountable for her father’s terrible passing has been revealed by EastEnders.
In a special flashback episode on Monday, it was revealed that Eric Mitchell, the evil father of Phil, Grant, and Sam Mitchell, shot and killed Keeble’s father in 1979.
The terrible incident occurred when Keeble’s father, a security guard at the time, intervened to stop the Mitchells from carrying out a criminal raid at a warehouse.
Keeble informed Phil that she needed him to provide her enough details so that Billy would be imprisoned, but it wasn’t immediately evident why she was blaming the wrong man.
Everything was made evident in Tuesday’s episode when Keeble revealed to Phil that Billy was crucial to the catastrophe.
Billy was described by Phil as “harmless”, Keeble retorted: “Well, he got the gun. According to a witness statement from years ago, Billy Mitchell purchased the handgun. All of it is shown in black and white.”
To get a conviction, Keeble required Phil’s support, but Phil resisted cooperating with the police.
Keeble’s tactics became increasingly brutal, and she threatened to frame Phil’s fiance Kat Slater for drug offenses if he didn’t start working with her.
Phil remained unmoved, and when Keeble’s cunning plot came to fruition, Kat was shortly taken into custody. Kat was assured she could leave when Phil had second thoughts and asked Keeble to scrap her plan.
In yet another difficult conversation, Phil informed Keeble that Eric, not Billy, was to blame for her father’s demise.
This didn’t have the effect Phil had intended for because Keeble swore to keep pursuing Billy.
Your father is deceased, Keeble reasoned. To me, that is not good. Billy is paid because he found the gun.
“You seek out the reality? Billy doesn’t interest me. You and the expression on your face that betrays your own flesh and blood are all that matter to me.”
Despite Phil’s urgent claims that criminals would attack his family as vengeance, Keeble increased her threats by pledging to spread the news that he is a “grass.” This was in spite of his desperate pleadings.
When Phil eventually got home, he told Kat everything. But now that he had revealed how far he would go in his dispute with Keeble, the harsh man from Walford seemed to have his own murderous scheme.
He conceded: “I promised to do it. Yes, I did give her a statement, but I won’t follow through. At the last minute, I’ll change my mind in court.”
Phil cautioned when Kat mentioned that Billy might be demoted: “If it does, she won’t survive. She has passed away.”
