Page 142 of The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
Amanda Bailey
All men, these visionary artists. Not one woman. So much for the Age of Aquarius.
Oliver Menzies
What’s that got to do with it?
Amanda Bailey
The Age of Aquarius is a new era led by female energy. I’ve been reading about this stuff lately. Anyway, none of your alleged ‘prophets’ predicted the Antichrist would escape destruction in a warehouse in Alperton in 2003.
Oliver Menzies
Don’t be ridiculous. It’s symbolic. But you know the most indicative thing? The predictions have stopped. No more music. Music as an art form that grows, changes and influencesgenerations – dead. Writers, artists, no one is predicting the future any more.
Interview with a Mystery Woman in Northala Fields park, 2 August 2021. Transcribed by Ellie Cooper.
AB:Don’t cut anything out of this, Ellie. It’s 5 a.m. and I don’t know who I’m meeting. [Early-morning birdsong and light traffic. EC]
MW:Amanda?
AB:Oh. Right. It’s you. So wehavemet before.
MW:Yes, who gave you my number?
AB:Jonah. I visited him in the monastery.
MW:How did you know to find him there?
AB:I was given his old phone number. Whoever answered told me.
[The woman sighs. EC]
AB:While I was there, I stumbled, he pushed a slip of paper into my hand with your number on it. Nothing else.
MW:Then he trusts you.
AB:I have no idea who you are or how you’re connected to this case – except that two weeks ago you sent me on a wild goose chase while you broke into my flat and waited for me to return. Great party trick, by the way. [OMG, Mand, be careful. EC]
MW:It’s not a game. That didn’t put you off and Ineedyou to know the level of security you’re dealing with.
AB:Friends in high places keep warning me. Contacts with potentially key information have died suddenly, and my colleague, who by his own account is never wrong, has almost convinced me the Antichrist is about to end the world. [You almost make her laugh here. EC]
MW:There’s a lot about this case that’s hard to explain.
AB:What role did you play in it?
MW:I can’t be specific. My work is security based.
AB:There are no true crime books that conduct anything like an in-depth investigation. I’m beginning to understand now there’sa reason for that.
MW:Correct. I will say this. You can write a book about the failure of the care system to protect the children in it. You could examine the power of cults and how difficult it is to break the hold some people have over others. Or you could focus on the religious mystery. Potential supernatural goings-on. Any of those subjects are fine. [Shit, Mand, so none of those are the truth. Who is this creepy woman? EC]
AB:OK … [You’re both quiet for a long time. EC]
AB:Were you there? In the warehouse? The night of The Assembly?
MW:What makes you ask that?
