‘Oh, fine, fine,’ he says. He hates being fussed over, so I take him at his word.
‘Not too bored?’
‘I’ve got a nice view from the window.’
The view is of a grey tower block and a major London artery road. Still, he can see sky, which right now is clear and blue.
‘Has Mark been in to visit?’
He nods. ‘I’m not sure that boy ever sleeps.’
‘Can I ask you a question – about Mark?’
‘Of course.’
‘He said something last night about not being able to repay you for what you did. What did he mean? It couldn’t be because you taught him how to shave.’
‘Will you get me some water, Nellamou?’
I reach for the jug next to his bed and fill up his plastic beaker.
‘Here you go, Dad.’
He takes slow, careful sips, then passes the cup back to me so I can put it down.
‘This is going back twenty years plus.’
‘It obviously still means a lot to him.’
I wait for him to explain. He looks strangely emotional.
‘Mark’s dad was a bad man.’
I nod. ‘Yes, I remember him. And Anthi’s black eyes.’
‘I kept telling your mother we needed to call the police. But Anthi would beg us not to – what could the police do? A slap on the wrist, then the next time he’d hit her twice as hard. Mark, too.’ He pauses, a determined look on his face. ‘So, I came up with a different solution.
‘Giovanni drank, but he also gambled, and he’d racked up a lot of debt. And whoever he owed it to was threatening to break his legs. So, I found a way to use that to my advantage. I told him I would pay what he owed plus a little extra, as long as he left. And not just London – I wanted him out of the country.’
‘How much are we talking about?’
‘A little over twenty thousand pounds.’
‘Bloody hell, Dad.’
The man in the bed opposite looks up from his crossword.
‘No swearing, Nellamou. Although, I think that was your mum’s reaction, too.’
This wasn’t the sort of sum my parents would have had lying around.
‘Where did you find the money?’
‘I had a parcel of land in Cyprus that I owned with my brother. I persuaded him to sell it so we could split the money.’
His brother – Niki’s dad. Is that why she remembered something about a Sicilian that had caused problems between the brothers?
‘I take it he didn’t want to sell the land?’
