“Right. Your mum-and-daughter luncheon. Got it.”
“Good,” Rosie said, and she began to head up the slope that would put her on the route back to New End Square.
Barbara attended her, like an unwanted bridesmaid crashing a wedding. She said, “I see how that all would have worked. Unless, of course, Teo did tell you. Unless, of course, that was what the overheard argument was about because, let’s face it, if she went for the surgery, there was every chance that she and Ross would be together again. Which, of course, makes the future darker for you and your couplehood.”
Rosie stopped walking and swung to face her. “Stop saying that. Our ‘couplehood.’ We were a couple. We are a couple. We’re lovers and we’re having a baby together. D’you really think Ross would’ve done it with me if he didn’t want to be with me? He knew the risks. I knew the risks. We wanted this.”
“Right. Got it. Would that be why you had him call you Teo while you and he were rolling round his bed? Would that be why you told him you were taking precautions?”
“Stop it! You don’t know how things were. You don’t know how things are. You’re just some pongy piece of week-old fish. You couldn’t pull a man if you and he were the only survivors of a nuclear holocaust. You’re jealous, is what you are. We’re finished here. You can tag along to New End Square if you fancy that, but I’m not saying another word.”
Barbara reckoned Rosie would hold to that promise, so she let her storm off in the direction of Hampstead. She herself turned back towards Highgate and her car. She was on the path leading out of the Heath when her mobile rang. She pulled it out of her bag and saw that the caller was Ross Carver.
She answered it with, “I’ve just had words with your lady love. Is it me or does Rosie play fast and loose with the truth when the mood strikes her? I’ve got to ask that because Rosie’s stories have turned into something of a moving target.”
His response was, “She said sod all to me about blessing anything.”
“And yet Teo did ask you to toddle on over to the flat for a chinwag, right?”
“Right. That’s unchanged. That’s what happened. She texted me, she asked to see me, I went there. I’m there now, by the way. That’s why I’m ringing. Your forensic people have returned the sculptures.”
“Generally, they’re good about that kind of thing. They may need them again at some point, so best leave them be till we get everything sorted.”
“It’s too late for that,” he told her. “I’ve already unpacked them. They’re back in place now. But one of them is missing.”
MAYVILLE ESTATE
DALSTON
NORTH-EAST LONDON
Sophie had wanted to come with him, but Tani wasn’t about to let her. There was no way of knowing what he’d find when he arrived at his family’s flat. He hoped it would be his mum with her suitcase packed, but if she was still reluctant to make a move, he wanted her to know that Simi was safe, that Abeo would never be able to find her, and that she did not need to remain there for the sake of either of her children. As for Abeo, Tani reckoned his father wouldn’t be at the flat, having long since returned to Lark.
He was about to open the flat’s door when Mrs. Delfino called out to him quietly from several floors above, her ragazzo, ragazzo telling Tani who was speaking before he stepped back and saw her gesturing at him. It was an unmistakable come here movement of her right arm that was impossible to ignore. He went to the lift and rode it up. When its door opened, there she was.
He comes for his mama, yes? she said, and when he nodded she informed him, “She leaves Mayville Estate with a Black man very tall.” Mrs. Delfino was returning from Ridley Road Market when she’d seen them, she told Tani. They weren’t coming from the Bankoles’ flat, however. Mrs. Delfino thought they were coming from one of the other buildings on the estate.
She seem very bad, Mrs. Delfino told him, and then after a moment, she corrected herself with, “She look very bad, yes? She look like someone hitted her and the Black man help her to walk. She lean on him, on his braccio”—here she pointed to her arm—“and he has a car and he carries her away.”
“What’d he look like, this bloke?” Tani asked her.
She repeated, “Very tall. Black. He wears a suit. And his face . . . I remember . . . his face is bad with this . . . this mark down one side. Someone with a knife . . .”
Tani needed no further details. It was the copper who’d been there already. He thanked Mrs. Delfino and she patted his cheek, telling him, “You are a good boy, love your mama. All is good when you love your mama.”