1 The Cuckoo's Calling

shit. He pissed us around from start to finish. He went straight into rehab the day
after she died.”
“I saw. Where?”
“Priory, where else? Fucking rest cure.”
“So when did you interview him?”
“Next day, but we had to find him first; his people were being as obstructive as
possible. Same story as Bestigui, wasn’t it? They didn’t want us to know what
he’d really been doing. My missus,” said Wardle, scowling even harder, “thinks
he’s sexy. You married?”
“No,” said Strike.
“Anstis told me you left the army to get married to some woman who looks
like a supermodel.”
“What was Duffield’s story, once you got to him?”
“They’d had a big bust-up in the club, Uzi. Plenty of witnesses to that. She
left, and his story was that he followed her, about five minutes later, wearing this
fucking wolf mask. It covers the whole head. Lifelike, hairy thing. He told us
he’d got it from a fashion shoot.”
Wardle’s expression was eloquent of contempt.
“He liked putting this thing on to get in and out of places, to piss off the
paparazzi. So, after Landry left Uzi, he got in his car—he had a driver outside,
waiting for him—and went to Kentigern Gardens. Driver confirmed all that.
Yeah, all right,” Wardle corrected himself impatiently, “he confirmed that he
drove a man in a wolf’s head, who he assumed was Duffield as he was of
Duffield’s height and build, and wearing what looked like Duffield’s clothes, and
speaking in Duffield’s voice, to Kentigern Gardens.”
“But he didn’t take the wolf head off on the journey?”
“It’s only about fifteen minutes to her flat from Uzi. No, he didn’t take it off.
He’s a childish little prick.
“So then, by Duffield’s own account, he saw the paps outside her flat and
decided not to go in after all. He told the driver to take him off to Soho, where he
let him out. Duffield walked round the corner to his dealer’s flat in d’Arblay
Street, where he shot up.”
“Still wearing the wolf’s head?”
“No, he took it off there,” said Wardle. “The dealer, name of Whycliff, is an
ex-public schoolboy with a habit way worse than Duffield’s. He gave a full