Pestle and Mortar
Steven Porter was found dead in an alleyway, during the winter of 2012. He fell from a window of his fourth-floor town house in Kilburn. The fall shattered his skull, leaving a lake of blood. The red lake was covered in a light dusting of snow. The nature of his fall was under investigation. Steven was sixty-five. He lived alone. His mother died over a decade ago, leaving him a lump-sum and the deeds to the house. She taught him the value of sterling, and he’d spent the decade after her death, converting his town house into flats. He took the top floor as his own, because he knew his tenants would put their heating on, long before he had to, and he would get the benefit of their gas bill. He was an only child. He had lived with his mother until she died. His father fled the nest as soon as he was born, but had the decency to leave them the house. His mother never re-married, she worked as a c...