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"I'd better see to her."
As Wesley joined his mother, Gemma took the opportunity to look round the room, curious as to its use. On closer inspection, she saw that there were rolls of wire framing interspersed among the bolts of fabric.
"She'll be all right," Wesley said softly as he returned from the kitchen. "It's just the shock. She's making us some coffee." Apparently having noticed Gemma's interest in his mother's materials, he added, "My mother makes costumes for Carnival, did I tell you that? She started back in the seventies when Carnival was a steel band going round the streets with a few kiddies following behind. Now it's big business- she works on the costumes all year."
Mrs. Howard returned with a tray holding mugs of milky coffee, her eyes red but dry. "I just can't believe it," she said as she handed round their drinks. "I thought I would have felt it if something happened to her- especially something so terrible."
"Wesley said you were best friends," prompted Gemma.
"Next-door neighbors. We moved into this building in 1959, straight off the boat from Trinidad. It was mostly Polish around here then and we weren't welcomed, except by Angel. Her parents were furious with her, but after a while they got used to us, and so did everyone else. She made a difference- There were other black families, immigrants like us, who had bottles thrown at their doors, and worse. But Angel told off the crowd that very first day, and after that we never had any serious trouble.
"Then when school began that autumn, we were in the same class, and after that we were like twins…"
"Why did you say she was cursed?" asked Kincaid.
Mrs. Howard shook her head. "So much death, no one should have to bear, both her parents gone by the time she was seventeen. She nursed her mother through a terrible cancer, right to the end. After Mrs. Wolowski passed, I remember Angel asking my mother if she could live with us. But my mother said no, Angel had to look after her father.
"When her father died a year later, Mama tried to take her in, but Angel refused. She was so stubborn, and her pride had been hurt. And there was Ro
"Oh, he was cruel to her in those days. It was only later I understood it was because he loved her and he didn't dare admit it to himself, much less anyone else. Angel was only seventeen, and Ron was twenty- a great gap at that age. And she was white."
Intrigued by the story, Gemma asked, "How did they end up married, then?"
"Ah, that was a good few years later, after Angel had left us… or I should say, we let her go. She met a man- a boy, really, but to us at that age he seemed terribly sophisticated. What was his name? Hans… Kurt? Something like that. We only met him the once, but Ro
"Karl? Was it Karl?" said Wesley, beating Gemma to it.
"You know, I think it was. But she would never talk about him, even after. That's not the man you were telling me was killed, Wesley?"
"We don't know," Gemma told her. "Please go on, Mrs. Howard."
"Well, as I said, she disappeared with this Karl, and we thought we would never see her again. Then one day five or six years later, she turns up at our door. She was in a bad way, so sick. I'd never seen anybody that sick. She'd left him, and she had nothing, nowhere to go, no one to help her."
"What was wrong with her?"
Mrs. Howard looked away as if she was ashamed. "It was the drug. He got her started on it."
"Heroin?" Wesley sounded as if the idea of anyone his parents' age using heroin astonished him.
"She was so desperate. We took her in- or Ro
"Ro
"And then Ro
"It was December of that year, a miserable night with a cold, blowing rain. He'd worked a wedding, over in Notting Dale, and was on his way home." Mrs. Howard stopped, folding her hands in her lap.
"It was a hit-and-run," supplied Wesley, who Gemma was sure knew the story by heart. "He was wearing a dark overcoat, and the police said the driver must not have seen him. They never found the driver."
"No. And Angel left us," continued his mother, "and took that poor baby with her. She said- Oh, it's all mixed up in my mind now, it's been so long- but there was something about friends who had died in prison- their name was Byatt, I do remember that, oddly enough, because we'd had a friend at school called Byatt- and Angel feeling it was her fault, that she had let it happen when she might have prevented it. They'd had a son, and she felt responsible for him. Then she said that she was terrified for us, that no one was safe around her, and that we must never try to find her."
CHAPTER NINETEEN
In North Kensington in the nineteenth century, it was left to the Church and charities to help those who fell on hard times and needed more assistance than family or neighbors could provide. As the population grew, a number of religious and philanthropic bodies became established around Portobello Road. Their aim was to help those who were sick, old or suffering the effects of poverty.
– Whetlor and Bartlett,
from Portobello
Now we have a co
"Karl Arrowood," agreed Gemma. "I don't think there can be any doubt. But that still doesn't tell us why three murders were committed, or by whom."
"If Karl were still alive, we could assume he was after any woman who'd ever crossed him, and put a guard on his ex-wife."
"And what about Ro
Kincaid watched as a motorcyclist roared by them, his face rendered blank and anonymous by his helmet. "You know how hard those sort of cases are to solve. They would naturally assume it was manslaughter rather than homicide, given no other evidence. Gemma, are you all right?"
The cramp had caught her by surprise, but she kept her voice even as she replied, "Fine. I just need to get off my feet for a few minutes. And I've got to get back to the station, anyway. I've a meeting with the super, though I've no idea what I should tell him at this point."
"Let me go back to the Yard and see what I can find out about the couple who went to prison. We've got a name, we can assume that the offense was drug-related, and we have an approximate date- sixty-nine or thereabouts. I'll put Cullen on it. His research skills almost make up for his lack of bedside ma