1 The Cuckoo's Calling

“How did you get that policeman to talk to you?” Robin said, unable to hold
back her curiosity on this point. She was desperate to learn more about the
process and progress of the investigation.
“We’ve got a mutual friend,” said Strike. “Bloke I knew in Afghanistan; Met
officer in the TA.”
“You were in Afghanistan?”
“Yeah.” Strike was pulling on his overcoat, the folded article on Freddie
Bestigui and the invitation to Jack’s party between his teeth.
“What were you doing in Afghanistan?”
“Investigating a Killed In Action,” said Strike. “Military police.”
“Oh,” said Robin.
Military police did not tally with Matthew’s impression of a charlatan, or a
waster.
“Why did you leave?”
“Injured,” said Strike.
He had described that injury to Wilson in the starkest of terms, but he was
wary of being equally frank with Robin. He could imagine her shocked
expression, and he stood in no need of her sympathy.
“Don’t forget to call Peter Gillespie,” Robin reminded him, as he headed out
of the door.
Strike read the photocopied article as he rode the Tube to Bond Street. Freddie
Bestigui had inherited his first fortune from a father who had made a great deal of
money in haulage; he had made his second by producing highly commercial
films that serious critics treated with derision. The producer was currently going
to court to refute claims, by two newspapers, that he had behaved with gross
impropriety towards a young female employee, whose silence he had
subsequently bought. The accusations, carefully hedged around with many
“alleged”s and “reported”s, included aggressive sexual advances and a degree of
physical bullying. They had been made “by a source close to the alleged victim,”
the girl herself having refused either to press charges or to speak to the press. The
fact that Freddie was currently divorcing his latest wife, Tansy, was mentioned in
the concluding paragraph, which ended with a reminder that the unhappy couple
had been in the building on the night that Lula Landry took her own life. The
reader was left with the odd impression that the Bestiguis’ mutual unhappiness
might have influenced Landry in her decision to jump.