Page 139 of The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
Amanda Bailey
Gordonstoun? That’s posher than posh.
Minnie Davis
Princes Charles, Andrew and Edward, Balthazar Getty … Establishment of choice for the aristocracy and anyone who has the money and the inclination to join them.
Amanda Bailey
Did you find out why she left and when?
Minnie Davis
She was there from September 2001 to May 2003. It states ‘relocation’. I’d say that’s a polite term for ‘parents can’t afford the fees’.
Amanda Bailey
So Rowley is taken out of her exclusive public school in Scotland and sent to a private day school in London, right at the end of summer term.
Minnie Davis
Parents not penniless. Just down to their last few million.
Amanda Bailey
She had a traumatic home life and then a new school to navigate. It must’ve been the final straw.
Minnie Davis
Want to know an interesting thing? Rowley Wild appears in inverted commas throughout the documentation. ‘Rowley Wild’. I’ve got a couple of avenues I can try. Let’s see
An email out of the blue from former prison inmate Ross Tate, 1 August 2021:
TO:Amanda Bailey
DATE:1 August 2021
SUBJECT:Wandsworth
FROM:Ross Tate
Dear Mrs Bailey,
I been asked to write to you by a fella called David Polneath. Only I can’t get an answer off him now, so not sure what else to do. Here goes anyway.
He wants me to tell you about my time inside with Gabriel Angelis, just like I told him when he came round. I was in Wandsworth in 2002. Did eight months for money laundering but I was stitched up by my boss. Us white-collar prisoners stick together inside, so I knew Gabriel pretty well for a good six months of the time I was there.
Have you met him? He’s different. There’s something I can’t describe to you. It’s not a bad thing either. It’s in his eyes. When he talks to you, the world stops turning. He listens like hewantsto hear what you got to say. You feel he knows everything about you. And he gives advice like it’s from his heart.
I’m not gay. Not even prison bent, but I wanted to spend as much time as I could with Gabriel. I weren’t the only one. Soon as our doors opened for association, we’d all troop out of our cells into his. We’d listen to him talk like he was our messiah. I’m not religious either but can’t describe it any other way. I admit there could be a bit of competition to be close to him. Only natural, isn’t it? When men are together there’s always competition, right?
Suddenly Gabriel isn’t as available as he was. His cell door is shut and he don’t come out much. Later, I find out two new fellas have got right in with him. They’re both done for diverting computer supplies from the PC World warehouse into their own lock-up and selling them on. They meet Gabriel and suddenly the rest of us aren’t welcome no more. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but it is what it is, yeah? The three of them were as thick as thieves. Them two fellas were Dominic Jones and Alan Morgan. The two angels who died in Alperton. I look back and think, that time must’ve been the start of the whole thing.
Me and the other lads couldn’t tell if Gabriel had seen something in them and wanted to cut the rest of us out, or if they’d seen somethingin him and wanted him for themselves. It’s a mystery. David called it a dynamic, between Gabriel and these two guys.
What I can say is that Gabriel only told certain people they were angels. I can hear you laughing now, Mrs Bailey, because there are no angels inside, are there? I never really wondered why some were singled out like that. David says it’s the vulnerable ones. Gabriel has an instinct for who’s likely to fall under his spell.
All I know is he never told me I was an angel. But if he had, I’d have believed him. I’d believe anything that man said.
