‘An amusement arcade is an odd place to leave a baby.’
Her neck rears back in bewilderment. ‘Amusement arcade? It wasn’t an amusement arcade then.’
‘What was it?’ I gasp.
‘The Caribbean Social Club.’ She shakes her head. ‘If you ask me the mother of the baby was very clever.’
I look puzzled, so she explains. ‘Wednesday night at the club was dominoes club, for men and women. I bet the mother of that poor wee one was hoping one of the women would find her baby.’
She comes closer still. ‘The baby was definitely black. That mother was trying to make sure that her little one was found by her people.’
I’m back in the car. My mind’s racing.
‘Found by her people.’ I know the woman wasn’t trying to be offensive, it was her way of saying she thought my mother wanted me found by people who were black. Is that what my blood mother was doing? Making sure I was found by those from her ethnic community? By one of the women? What if my mother was in a desperate situation and left me with people she thought would keep me safe?
Safe? The terrifying question on Sugar’s whiteboard slams into me:
Was baby Eva meant to die?
Was my mother trying to save me from being hurt by bringing me here? Who would murder a defenceless little baby?
Suddenly I feel them. The women. Hope, Amina, Sheryl and young Veronica. I don’t need to turn around to know that they’re sitting on the backseat. I don’t need to hear them to know they’re begging me to continue looking for them. I have to find out why my mother left me outside a Caribbean Social Club.
The ringing of my phone breaks the spell. It’s my sister, Miriam.
‘I need you.’
I tense, straightening. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I’ve been arrested.’
CHAPTER 23
‘Spare the rod, spoil the child. That’s been my mistake with you.’
I know that voice. It’s Danny’s. But what’s he doing shouting in the street? And who’s he arguing with? Worried about the father who has only recently come into my life, I hurriedly turn the corner on to the West London high street where the police station is located. Dismay and curiosity crash into each other when I see Danny’s having a blazing row with Miriam. I’m relieved she’s been released but now she appears to be in another type of trouble. What’s going on? Father and daughter are poised like gladiators about to attack. And there’s something about the position of Danny’s arm that suggests he’s a hair’s breadth away from hitting Miriam.
He’s red in the face, lips frothy with fury. ‘You’re nearly forty years old, you stupid idiot! I’d say go and inflict yourself on your mother and leave me in peace, if she wasn’t dead! You’d make a right pair you two, bitchy and bitchier.’
Bitch. My ears ring with disbelief. Did Danny just call his daughter a bitch? I’m stunned. The Danny I now see is the complete opposite of the louche, composed figure who hangs on to my every word over a glass of Pimm’s.
Miriam is giving as good as she gets. ‘I wish I could’ve gone with Mum. I wish she’d taken me with her when she left, but you put a stop to that, didn’t you?’
Danny sends his daughter a contemptuous sneer. ‘You are trouble, Miriam. You always have been, and you will always be. That’s the burden I’ll have to bear till my dying days.’
I hear Miriam’s ragged, distressed panting from here. ‘Well, it takes one to know one. To—’
Her lips sew tight when she spots me. Danny falls silent too. They step back from each other. Miriam looks dreadful, on the edge of collapse. She’s flushed and pale, her thick, black mascara smudged below one eye.
When I notice the livid marks on her cheek I round on Danny. ‘Did you—？’
‘I did not,’ he cuts in with forceful indignation. ‘Getting battered and bruised seems to be your sister’s speciality.’
Miriam doesn’t deny it. Voice quiet and weary, what she says is, ‘Sorry, sis, I shouldn’t have called you. But I didn’t have anyone else. It’s all sorted now.’ She straightens her jacket and hugs her shoulder bag closer to her body. ‘I’ll call you.’ But the energy returns when her gaze falls on her father. She gives him the finger. ‘Sit on that. Hard.’
Right there in full view of the police station she pulls out a joint, lights up and takes off down the high street.
Danny rubs his temples in despair. ‘I’m sorry you had to witness that, Eva. I don’t know what on earth she called you here for. Anyway, it’s all straightened out now.’