‘What can you tell me about Garry Solomon? Let’s start with his family background.’
‘His father I met just the once. I could see where Garry had got his manner from.’
‘A charmer?’
‘Father and son alike.’
‘And the mother?’
‘No idea about her, other than she supposedly had money. Not that I saw any of it.’
‘Life was tough?’ Wendy asked.
‘Not really. We were happy on our return from India, and Garry soon charmed himself into a good job before he set up his own business. I found out later the first job came about after he had screwed the female owner.’
‘Like the father,’ Wendy commented.
‘Precisely.’
‘Anyway, apart from his inability to keep it in his trousers, Garry was a good provider and a good father.’
‘What happened?’
‘Started running with the wrong crowd. He liked to socialise, and with a few too many drinks his behaviour would become erratic. Even hit me on a couple of occasions.’
‘His mother died.’
‘Sorry to hear that.’ Emma Hampshire appeared to be genuine in her comment. ‘It can be hard to have a child and never see them.’
‘Is that the same with you?’ Wendy asked.
‘With Garry, it was alcohol; with Kevin, it’s drugs.’
‘You never see him?’
‘Not for a couple of years.’
‘Upsets you?’
‘Of course, but what can I do? It’s worse when I see what he has become. He had his father’s charm, and then he gets himself addicted. I caught him shooting up in here once, threw him out on the street.’
‘Can we come back to Garry? He changed his name to Solly Michaels. Was there any reason?’
‘With me, he was Garry. With his criminal friends, he was Solly. No idea why.’
‘Tell me about the criminal activities.’
‘Not a lot to tell. He was running a motor repair business, good quality cars. Business was good, and apart from the drinking and the womanising, everything was fine.’
‘You accepted the womanising?’
‘It used to upset me, but as I said, he was a good father and a good provider.’
‘Not such a good husband.’
‘Not at all. He was a good husband at first. It was later that he changed.’
‘Tell me about it.’
‘All of a sudden, he’s flush with a lot of cash, enough to pay off our house. I asked him about it. He told me just to be thankful and not ask questions.’
‘What did you think?’
‘What anyone would think.’
‘Drugs.’
‘He said it was gambling.’
‘What was your reaction?’
‘I told him that dealing with drugs was unacceptable and that it was either me and his son or the money.’
‘His reaction?’
‘He said okay for the first couple of times, but then there’s a fancy car outside, and a tart sitting in the passenger’s seat. I threw a scene, and he threw me out.’
‘Literally?’
‘He put us into a two-bedroom flat, ensured all the bills were paid, and that I had money to spend.’
‘And then?’
‘He was caught, spent two years in jail, and the money dried up. I’m out on the street with nowhere to go.’
‘After that?’
‘I was desperate for money. I had a baby in one arm and nowhere to live.’
‘Your parents?’
‘I was no longer in communication with them after I took off to India with Garry. They were very religious and could never accept free love, living on a commune, and meditating on a mountain top. They had told me before I left not to come back. Both dead now, car accident some years back. They had cut me out of their will, so I never bothered to visit their grave.’
‘You’re out on the street, so what did you do?’
‘I found a women’s refuge, worked two jobs a day, slowly recovered my life, and then I met Bob.’
‘Bob Hampshire? How long were you with him?’
‘Twenty-five years until he died of a heart attack.’
‘Tell me about him?’
‘He was older than me by a few years, but we were a great couple, and he ensured that Kevin went to the best schools. Even offered to marry me, but there was still the marriage with Garry, and besides, the church’s blessing meant nothing to me. And when Bob died, he left money to his previous wife and their children, this house and enough money to me.’
Chapter 13
Larry’s day had been spent finding out what he could about Garry Solomon. His criminal record indicated periods of incarceration starting with a two-year stretch in 1978. The date aligned with the information that Solomon’s widow had stated.
It was clear that he was then using the name of Solly Michaels, initially reported at his arrest, although shown as Garry Solomon at his court case. From there on, there had been two periods of incarceration interspersed with periods of freedom. The records indicated several addresses over the years, each one progressively less salubrious than the other. Why he had not contacted Grenfell, the family lawyer, and his ex-wife, at least, from about 1981 was still unanswered. The litany of crimes, some minor, some major, indicated an unsavoury character with few moral restraints.
The last known address, 62 Bakewell Street, Greenwich, close to the Royal Observatory and the site of the Greenwich meridian line, was not what Larry had expected. It had been thirty years since Garry Solomon’s death, but the almost derelict building could not have looked much better then. It was clearly uninhabited and had been that way for some years. Larry phoned Bridget for her to do some checks.
The information that Bridget had managed to put together had shown addresses firstly in Paddington then slowly moving eastwards and downwards in quality and suburb. Judging by the condition of the house in Greenwich, this
