Page 104 of The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
Research trip to Alperton and the surrounding area, made by Amanda Bailey and Oliver Menzies, 22 July 2021. Transcribed by Ellie Cooper.
OM:This whole place is so … nondescript.
AB:That’s what’s great about it. The traffic intersection is constantly busy. Up there: Middlesex House where Singh’s body was found. It’s a block of short-term accommodation. These buildings: empty for years. The bus garage, behind which was thewarehouse, now those flats. And down here, by the canal, where barges, walkers and joggers pass by. Anything can happen here and no one notices, because they’re all going somewhere else.
OM:And it’s a crossroads.
AB:More a T-junction—
OM:Not if you count the canal as an arm. [You both huff and puff down steps. There’s a long gap in conversation. EC] Got my new angle. I’ve been working on a murder map.
AB:A what? [Rustling as he unfolds something. EC] Holy shit, Ol.
What is that?
OM:This is the local area with every murder from the seventeen years prior to the angels’ massacre marked with a dot. I experimented with connecting them, to see if there’s a pattern.
AB:It’s the most OCD thing I’ve ever seen. Must’ve taken you days.
Why seventeen years?
OM:The year Holly was born.
AB:Why that year?
OM:Let me finish. It’s a mess of lines, sure, but if you start again on a clean map, take each dot and connect it to just one other, you get this. [Triumphant rustling. Followed by a tense silence. EC]
AB:That’s incredible. [I can’t tell whether you’re lost for words because what he’s showing you is revelatory, or not. EC] What does it mean?
OM:One three, one eight. They’re arranged in a spiral, with this dot at the centre.
AB:The central dot is the site of The Assembly. But what’s one three, one eight?
OM:Chapter thirteen, verse eighteen of the Book of Revelation. The exact Bible verse that describes the beast, the Antichrist. [There’s a long pause here. EC]
AB:Wow.
OM:You know me. This is not me, is it? And yet, look. Now, there’s a scientific theory called ‘stone recording’. It says everything that happens imprints energy, positive or negative, on its location. The accumulation of energy in certain hotspots influences how we feel in those places and, potentially, future events there.
Mand, listen. The Alperton Angels thought they were saving mankind by destroying the Antichrist. But they underestimated the strength and determination of the dark forces. Because from 1986, the year Holly – the Antichrist’s earthlymother– was born, the darkness began to ring-fence the site of The Assembly. A place thatwould have beenholy. Murder after murder, each one intensifies negative energy at the centre of the site, until the positive energy that would have aided the destruction of the beast at the time of the alignment was completely overwhelmed. The angels didn’t realise it, but their Assembly had been made asatanicsite. When they tried to destroy the Antichrist it was, in fact,protectedin that place, saved and spirited away. The angels are left reeling at their failure and implode. [You could drive a bus through the silence here. EC]
AB:I don’t know what to say, Ol. [Tell him Bible verses are ancient, man-made scriptures, mistranslated many times and misinterpreted even more. They have nothing to do with murders in west London. EC] You could have something here.
OM:I have. My new angle. That the baby born eighteen years ago reallywasthe Antichrist. And still is. A book on how the Alperton Angels were right all along. [He hates this type of thing, doesn’t he? EC]
AB:I mean, it’s quirky, and if the kid can’t be traced now, there’s no danger of anyone finding them and trying to finish the job, or turn them into a figurehead for the occult … if Craig can impose a link between Dennis Nilsen and HIV, then surely there’s mileage in your idea.
OM:There is. I know there is.
[This recording ends abruptly. I’ve messaged you. EC]
WhatsApp messages between Ellie Cooper and me, 23 July 2021:
Ellie Cooper
I’m worried, Mand. Oliver is usually so sceptical. That murder map … Is he losing perspective?
Amanda Bailey Chill
