‘My wife died.’ His voice sounded distant. ‘She was young, she was beautiful, she was clever, and I loved her. We wanted to have a family; our children would have been the light of our lives, because we wanted more of each other. She died of a brain tumour. One moment, she was laughing, so full of life and energy, then it had all gone; she had gone. I could never believe it could be over; that she wouldn’t walk back into my life.’
‘But you have buried it; you have never released her light.’
‘There was no light after she died.’
Esme touched his hand. ‘You have to let her go. You need the light now. You need it, because you are moving downwards.’
‘Well, maybe I’ll be with her. You think I’m going to die?’
‘No, no. She is the light — she is forever a light. I feel her and know she is a vibrant force that you must embrace. There is no guilt, there should be no remorse, and you could have done nothing to save her. Let her go, or you will never get well.’
‘I’m doing okay,’ he muttered, angry with himself. No one knew what anguish he had lived with when he lost his beloved, and he didn’t understand why this tragic part of his life was being opened up now.
‘I can’t deal with this now,’ he said quietly.
‘I understand, but you must one day. Don’t leave it too late.’
She gave him some water to take the painkillers. He joked again that she was feeding him Jimson weed. She gave a soft laugh, but neither was amused.
‘Come and see me when this case is over,’ she said, packing up her packets and bottles.
‘Right, will do.’ He had no intention of keeping in contact and wished he’d kept his mouth shut. He stood beside her as she checked her medical case.
‘What does this Jimson weed look like?’ he asked curiously.
Esme touched a bottle with a red cross on the label. ‘This is the tincture, and these are the tablets; they can be crushed into a powder. My husband brought them to show you. Usually both are kept in a locked cabinet; it’s obvious why.’ She turned as Mike Lewis walked in with the fresh pot of coffee.
‘Just to let you know, the firearm section guys outside are getting impatient and want to know when we’ll be through.’
‘When I say so,’ Langton rapped out. He gestured to Mike that they should go and see how Anna was doing. He was keen now to get out and away from Esme.
Esme opened the viewing blind. Her husband had removed all the equipment from Eamon and packed it away. He was now washing the body down.
Esme closed her eyes in prayer. She then locked her medical case and placed it on the floor beside her chair. She sat with her hands folded in her lap, watching Elmore finish washing Eamon and then reverently place a sheet over the dead boy’s body.
Anna had taken it very slowly with Idris. He was in a state of shock and grief. While he believed that his brother was still alive and that there was some hope, he was also terrified that he, too, had been poisoned. He constantly drank water, his mouth dry, and repeatedly asked Anna if the doctor could help him and Eamon. Anna had repeated just as often that she was certain he could. Calming him had taken over ten minutes; now she knew she would have to put the pressure on.
‘I am going to tape our interview,’ she said.
‘Okay, okay, but what about me being returned to Wakefield? I mean, if this gets out that I’ve been talking — I mean, this bastard that did the tattoo, will he be taken care of?’
‘Yes, and we will arrange for you to serve out your sentence in another prison.’ She could not be sure they would get permission, but it was now imperative they get some answers.
She had only just switched on the tape when Idris blurted out, ‘He loved her.’
Anna looked up, unsure that she had heard correctly. ‘I’m sorry — what did you say?’
‘My brother — he loved her. He was crazy about her. I mean, he was supposed to just be sort of looking out for her — you know, like a bodyguard.’
‘Can you just explain to me who—’
He interrupted her. ‘Carly Ann — my brother and her. He loved her.’
Anna sat back. This didn’t make sense. ‘I don’t understand. If you knew that, then why were you found with her body?’
‘It was set up.’
‘What was set up?’
Idris sighed. He slumped, clenching his hands tightly. ‘He found out — found out they were going to run off together — so he punished Eamon. He said anyone who ever crossed him would live to regret it. He was acting crazy, all dressed up in this white robe with crosses and shit, and they held Eamon down while he ranted and raved at him. That’s when he must have injected him.’
‘Who was this?’
Idris looked at her as if she was stupid. ‘Camorra — who the fuck do you think I’m talking about?’
Anna swallowed. She then said that she did know but, for the benefit of the tape, she had to hear him say the name.
‘Carly Ann was Camorra’s meat. He’d seen her on the street, liked the look of her and got two of his guys to pick her up and bring her to him. He had her washed — and I’m not kiddin’—in milk. He then got all this gear for her, clothes and shit, and said she was his woman. She had these blue eyes, man, like clear sea; yet she was black. It was a sign to him that she was special. He then got my brother to be her sort of keeper, to make sure she didn’t get back on the junk. It was Eamon’s job to take her out, when she went shopping and stuff. She was buying gold bracelets and necklaces, ’cos Camorra gave her all this money. Eamon was with her round the clock. Camorra had to go do his business, so they was alone a lot together.’
Idris lowered his head. ‘He fucked her.’ Idris wiped his eyes. He said his kid brother was dumb; he didn’t know the place had hidden cameras. It was all on film, so it wasn’t difficult for Camorra to find out.
‘Where was this?’
‘He had a big house in Peckham, but he’s got places all over London. The guy has so much money, all cash.’
‘Did he own a white Range Rover?’
‘Yeah, he’s got a lot of cars. He’s got BMWs, Mercedes — you name it — even a Ferrari.’
‘Where does he keep these cars?’
‘I dunno, different places.’
‘Do you know any other addresses?’
Idris sighed impatiently. ‘No, but what happened with Carly Ann went down in the Peckham house.’
‘What did go down?’
‘She had run off with Eamon; Camorra had all his henchmen searching for them. She got to some woman in a care place, who was looking after her. I dunno if she really cared that much about my brother, but he was on the loose. I was scared to help him, you know, even though he was my brother, but I met up with him once and gave him some money. He said they were gonna go maybe to Manchester. He didn’t have no passport, so he couldn’t leave the country.’
Idris opened a bottle of water, gulping it down. He said that a couple of Camorra’s henchmen had found Carly Ann and taken her back to the house. She told Camorra where his brother was and they got him too.
‘He tied her up, like on this altar thing he had, and he brought in Eamon.’ He started to cry.
Anna waited. He drank more water and then managed to go on.
‘He raped her. Then he made me do the same. All the while, my brother was forced to watch. Camorra said no one ever crossed him and, as he’d got us both into the UK, he would have us arrested or deported, but I knew that was a lie. I knew he’d kill us if we didn’t do what he wanted.’
‘What did you do?’
Idris began to shake his head from side to side. ‘I didn’t kill her, he did. I didn’t kill her. I carried her body out into the car.’
‘The Range Rover?’
‘Yeah. Rashid Burry helped, and there was another guy. Camorra said he wanted us to bring back her head. We had to cut off her hands so no one would know who she was.’