Page 44 of Winter With You

This was serious. Something had happened. Luca’s body language couldn’t have been giving off more concern.

‘I’m coming over,’ Luca said. And then he ended the call.

‘What is it?’ Gabriella asked.

‘Errol’s been at the hospital. I gotta go.’

‘Well, is he OK?’

‘I mean he was talking; that’s got to be a good sign, right?’

‘Go,’ Gabriella ordered.

‘OK, I will get to the bottom of this and I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight,’ she answered.

And, with that, she watched him head up the corridor towards the elevators.

27

ERROL’S APARTMENT, ABOVE ERROL’S EMPORIUM

‘Oh my God! What are you still doing here? You almost gave a brother a heart attack!’

It was the following morning and Errol clutched at his chest as he hobbled into his kitchen very gingerly. He was wearing leopard print pyjamas and a pink durag over his orange hair but all of his usual flamboyant nature had been dialled down a good few notches.

‘I told you I was staying,’ Luca said, pouring coffee into mugs.

‘I know but I didn’t think you meant it. I told you I was fine. It’s New York, I’m alive, it’s one of those things. Some guy with no money needing a solid before Christmas and, instead of asking for it, he felt he needed to just take it. Bad luck for him I never go out with much cash.’ Errol pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and very gently lowered himself down onto it.

‘So he took money? You didn’t say that last night.’ Luca put a full coffee cup down in front of Errol then picked up his own.

‘I don’t really remember what I said last night. I had a concussion.’

‘You didn’t tell me that either!’ Luca exclaimed. ‘The hospital should have insisted you have someone stay the night.’

‘Well, you did and I’m alive, so after this coffee and a restorative cigarette I can get ready to go open up the store. Where are my cigarettes?’

‘You don’t need a cigarette, Errol. We need to find out why this happened. This neighbourhood isn’t that sketchy.’

‘No? Last week someone stripped off all their clothes right across the street and showered themselves with a hosepipe. It’s the beginning of December!’

‘Yeah, well, there’s something else. I didn’t want to tell you last night but, I don’t know, maybe it’s connected.’

‘What?’ Errol asked.

‘The outfit we made for Gabriella⁠—’

‘Oh my God!’ Errol gasped. ‘I saw the interview. She looked stunning and she is such a speaker. It’s like she comes to life under those studio lights. I was ready to buy anything she wanted to sell me.’

Luca didn’t disagree, couldn’t. However, he had felt it was very much polished as a performance rather than true authenticity. ‘Yeah, well, all the time she was sat on Zeeta Friedmann’s sofa, there was a razor-sharp piece of metal in the bodice that was cutting into her rib cage.’

Errol’s eyes almost popped out of his head. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Yeah, I’m serious.’ He sighed. ‘She wouldn’t go to the hospital so I had to pull it out of her in a janitor’s closet.’

‘Well, is she OK?’ Errol pushed himself off the chair, limping across the kitchen floor. ‘I feel responsible. I am responsible. My outfit, made with things from my place; she must want to impale me or something. Where are my cigarettes?’ He began opening drawers and cupboards.