course, I’ll help you. There are ways to get back on your feet. I can’t imagine what you’ve been though, but I do know that you are not the first person to find themselves on the street after such a monumental loss. I can make some calls to the Housing Advice Centre. I’ve seen enough cases to understand how easy it is for people who, one minute, are living fairly ordinary lives, to have a knock – not even anywhere near as profound as your loss, and then the next minute find themselves homeless. I can find you somewhere to live. I can help you find employment.’
‘I want justice.’
She looked confused. ‘I read the newspaper articles about the incident, and court records. A woman, the managing agent, was brought to trial for her negligence.’
Toma objected to her word incident. ‘They were murdered.’
The Lexi woman looked uncomfortable. Her research would have told her that Elaine Winterdale was charged with negligence and several breaches of the Gas Safety Regulations but not manslaughter and certainly not murder.
‘The sentence might have seemed inadequate to you, and for what it’s worth, I certainly thought it was but if you think about it, Toma, even if she had been given a custodial sentence, no amount of time could bring them back.’
‘It wasn’t her. She is just the monkey. I want the organ grinder. The bastard landlord that killed my beautiful Reveka and Benke but then wasn’t held accountable.’
‘The landlord was exonerated. Winterdale lied to him about the checks she was doing, and she didn’t forward on the gas-board warnings to the owner. He was ignorant of all wrongdoing.’
Toma shook his head. ‘No. I do not believe this. He has walked away and still doesn’t change his ways, all these years later.’
The woman weighed it up. On one hand, aggrieved people had bias and denied facts. On the other, mistakes were made. ‘What are you saying?’ she asked cautiously.
‘I accepted what the court said. I was too tired, too broken, to question. I thought it was this Winterdale woman. She said she was guilty herself. But later I stayed in another place. I discover same man is the landlord and I discover he is criminal. The laws, they are clear about a landlord’s responsibility, right?’
‘Right. Private-sector landlords are responsible for the safety of the tenants. The Gas Safety Regulations 1998 deal with landlords’ duties to make sure gas appliances, fittings and flues provided for tenants are safe.’ It was clear the woman quoted this law frequently. Bad landlords were not confined to the Victorian era. She probably quoted it every day.
‘But he doesn’t do this.’
She brightened. ‘We can investigate that. We can issue warnings. Have carbon-monoxide alarms fitted by the council if the landlord fails to comply. We can stop this sort of tragedy from happening in another one of his properties. That would be something, wouldn’t it?’ Toma listened to her trying to sanitise the matter. Trying to rectify without rocking the boat.
‘He still lets out slums,’ Toma insisted. His accent becoming thicker as emotion throttled him. ‘Since they died, I have suffered the pain, the grief, the loss, but I managed. Not lived, just existed. Never remarried although everyone says I should. Stayed loyal, stayed focused. Stayed here. How could I move back to Moldova to my sister and my cousins? I couldn’t bear to leave my wife and son here alone. I have no choice but to stay. Then I lose my job, move into a hostel. End up on the streets. Then last year someone takes me in. I work on a building site for a place to stay and food.’
‘No wage?’
‘No. I know this is exploitation. I have no choice. I don’t care. I stay in the place they offer me. It’s better than the streets. But I notice the law is broken in this property. I ask who the landlord is. No one has a name but one day I stay off work. I pretend I am ill because I know that this day is rent collection and I see him, and then I recognise him. It is the same man. My old landlord. He was called into court one day during the trial, so I am sure. I would never forget his face. Then I start to wonder. Did he know after all? Is he responsible?’
‘But why would Elaine Winterdale take the fall?’
‘He pay her.’ Toma could see that the woman didn’t buy into his theory. She was interested in