For a moment, Tani entertained the thought that his father—sleepless in the night—intended to do some work inside Into Africa or the butcher’s shop. There seemed to be no other reason why he’d be setting this course. There was nothing else in the area. Everything was closed and locked, and in the dim light from the streetlamps the day’s rubbish waited for someone to sweep it away. They were hours from this happening, though. The street sweepers would come with the dawn, as with the dawn would come the market traders.
Abeo made no stop in Ridley Road. Instead, his pace increased. There was now something of a furtiveness to his movements as he darted into Chester Crescent and from there into Dalston Lane. Up ahead in the distance Tani could dimly see the viaduct that carried the railway tracks across the lane, and for a crazy moment he thought his father was going somewhere via rail, despite the hour, which was one when no London train would be travelling anywhere.
Tani felt a quickening of excitement as he acknowledged the brilliance of Sophie’s idea. His father did indeed have something to hide, and if it was good enough to use against him, Simi was free from whatever their parents had in mind for her. Tani had never before thought much about his father leaving the family on the nights he chose to do so. He’d just considered it part and parcel of what married men did when they wanted the company of other married men. But this—what he was witnessing now in Abeo’s night-time stroll—this had nothing to do with wanting the company of other married men. He was up to something, and Tani reckoned he had it all put together by the time he’d trailed his father past Hackney Downs station and then Amhurst Road, to follow him into The Narrow Way.
There were pawnshops here, which told Tani that some kind of exchange was about to occur and that exchange ultimately would result in money. There would be contraband involved, and either Abeo was in this place to receive it for selling from the butcher’s shop or from Into Africa or he was here to hand over part of the profits. One thing was certain, though: no matter what was happening at this time of night, whatever the exchange was, it was probably illegal. But by the time Tani had worked through this scenario, his father had reached the top of the street. He crossed over, where on the corner stood his apparent destination.
This turned out to be Pembury Estate, an enormous collection of red-brick blocks of flats. The estate sat at the junction of Dalston Lane and Clarence Road, conveniently close to a Paddy Power betting shop for any hopeful punters who happened to occupy one of the hundreds of flats on the estate itself.
Tani paused at the corner as his father entered the grounds of the housing estate. It looked larger even than Mayville Estate, and because Abeo’s route involved no hesitation and required no studying of the estate plan posted just beyond the entrance, Tani understood that his father had been there before.
He shortened the distance between them, keeping to the edge of the paths Abeo took so that he could leap into the shadows on the chance that Abeo would turn round and look for followers here. But Abeo didn’t turn. He merely paced through the warren of buildings till he came to the one he sought. He strode to a panel on the lift shaft. There were buzzers on it, but it seemed that none were necessary, for Abeo removed something from his pocket that gave him access to the lift. It came, he stepped inside, and up he went.
Tani retreated in an effort to see where his father left the lift. Soon enough he was rewarded. On the third floor, he saw Abeo stride along the outdoor corridor. He went in the direction of a door that opened. In the doorway Tani saw the woman, and from where he was, he could hear her voice.
“You’re very late tonight,” was what she said.
For Tani, this was quite enough.
1 AUGUST
PEMBURY ESTATE
HACKNEY
NORTH-EAST LONDON
Tani spent the rest of the night just there, on Pembury Estate, thinking about his choices. He waited within sight of the lift that had taken his father to the third floor of the block of flats. When he’d followed Abeo here from Mayville Estate, he’d reckoned something useful could come out of it, but he’d not had the least idea that he’d be handed such an opportunity as the one that lay before him now.
Several people came out of the lift at 5:30. Several more at 5:45. It was just after 6:00 when Abeo appeared on the third floor’s outdoor corridor. He went to the lift and used it. He walked jauntily towards Tani as if expecting him to be there. He carried a large manila envelope. Once he stood in front of Tani, Abeo used this to gesture with as he spoke.
“I thought it was you who followed,” he said. “You were careful, yes, but not careful enough.”