Tani wanted to believe that. It did make sense. His father’s first appearance in Chelsea hadn’t gone well, so why would he want to make another? The answer to that, however, was one he knew already, without needing to consider various possibilities. Abeo knew that Tani had taken the passports from Lark. And there were also scores to settle regarding Tani’s shoving his father’s pregnant mistress to the ground.
He tied the laces of his trainers and got to his feet. Downstairs on the ground floor of the house, he found Deborah St. James in the study. She was sitting in one of the leather chairs. She was listening to someone on her mobile phone. She was saying, “But that’s so difficult to believe . . . Why . . .” She listened for a bit once again. “Do you think that’s the best idea? . . . Can you control things? I mean, obviously, you’ve already shown that you can, but that was before—” She caught sight of Tani standing in the doorway. She nodded at him and held up a finger, which told him he should remain there and wait. “Dad’s not here, nor Simon. He’s not due back till later this evening . . . Southampton, for a meeting with Andrew and David and then to see his mum . . . Yes, yes . . . And, Winston, did having the sculpture help at all? . . . Well, at least that’s good news, isn’t it?” Soon after that, she ended the call.
She stood and came across the room to Tani. She put her hand lightly on his shoulder and said, “You’re not to worry,” and he was about to demand to know what was going on because it was clear to him that something was happening when she went on with, “That was Winston. DS Nkata. Tani, you’re not to be concerned with this, but he’s going to the Belgravia Police Station to speak with your father when he’s released.”
BELGRAVIA
CENTRAL LONDON
It took very little time to discover that Monifa Bankole had not put in an appearance at the Belgravia station to file a charge of assault against her husband. That being the case and because they were very close to the hour at which the man would be released anyway, it was a matter of conversation and paperwork to put Nkata in the company of Abeo Bankole. There was no surprise in the fact that Bankole was not happy to see that the person awaiting him was the same one who’d rung the coppers to remove him from Chelsea on the previous day.
He was the worse for wear after his night in custody. His clothing was crumpled and his face was unshaven. He smelled rank, as if several days had passed since his arrest instead of only one. He clocked Nkata and said, “You,” with an expression of disgust on his face.
Nkata said, “We need to have a talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“Happens I don’ think tha’s true. I’ve a car jus’ outside.”
“I will go nowhere with you.”
Nkata paused. They were on the pavement. He’d left his Fiesta a short distance away in Ebury Square, but Abeo was under no obligation to follow him there. From this point forward, he needed the man’s cooperation, and he had limited means to gain it. He said, “I’ll take you where you choose, Mister Bankole, long ’s you talk to me on the way. Now, I can’t make you do that, and we both know it. But Simisola’s gone missing, her mum’s taken her, and since their passports’re missing as well, I got some concerns where they might’ve gone.”
Abeo’s face went completely still for a moment. Then a pulse began beating in his temple. He said, “Tani and that whore girl of his—”
“This i’n’t about them. They di’n’t have a thing to do with it. I’m the one, Mister Bankole. Me. You got that?”
“You.”
“Me. So you an’ me, we can go at it just here, in this spot if tha’s wha’ you want. It’ll take some time, an’ you’ll be the worse for it—which I expect you know—or you c’n come with me and help sort this out, cos I’d like to take you back to Chelsea. Lemme say, though, that Tani’s still there an’ if you put a hand on him, you come back here straightaway. You got that, Mister Bankole?”
A muscle moved in Abeo’s jaw. He breathed in deeply. He jerked his head to indicate acceptance. Nkata said, “Right then,” and directed Abeo towards the corner of Semley Place and Buckingham Palace Road and from there along the pavement and the side of the police station till they reached Ebury Square, where enormous London planes provided some welcoming shade for the benches that surrounded a fountain.
They didn’t speak. Nkata reckoned that a spark in the tension between them could have set his car in flames as they made their way to the Thames. It was no great distance, for which he was grateful, as time was spinning away from them. They got caught briefly behind a number 44 bus, but Nkata managed to zoom past it—illegally—at an intersection and got them onto the Embankment, where soon enough they were in sight of Albert Bridge. He rang Deborah St. James to prepare Tani for his father’s arrival.