1 The Cuckoo's Calling

“Right…”
“…she asked me to do them for her at home. The paps were all over her, all
the time, even if she was going to the salon. It was insane. So I helped her out.”
She had a habit of tossing back her head to flick her overlong fringe out of her
eyes, and a slightly breathy manner. Now she threw her hair over to one side,
raked it with her fingers and peered at him through her fringe.
“I got there about three. She and Ciara were all excited about Deeby Macc
arriving. Girlie gossip, you know. I’d never have guessed what was coming.
Never.”
“Lula was excited, was she?”
“Oh God, yeah, what d’you think? How would you feel if someone had
written songs about…Well,” she said, with a breathy little laugh, “maybe it’s a
girl thing. He’s so charismatic. Ciara and I were having a laugh about it while I
did Lula’s eyebrows. Then Ciara asked me to do her nails. I ended up making
them both up, as well, so I was there for, must’ve been three hours. Yeah, I left
about six.”
“So you’d describe Lula’s mood as excited, would you?”
“Yeah. Well, you know, she was a bit distracted; she kept checking her phone;
it was lying in her lap while I was doing her eyebrows. I knew what that meant:
Evan was messing her around again.”
“Did she say that?”
“No, but I knew she was really pissed off at him. Why do you think she said
that to Ciara about her brother? About leaving him everything?”
This seemed a stretch to Strike.
“Did you hear her say that too?”
“What? No, but I heard about it. I mean, afterwards. Ciara told us all. I think I
was in the loo when she actually said it. Anyway, I totally believe it. Totally.”
“Why’s that?”
She looked confused.
“Well—she really loved her brother, didn’t she? God, that was always
obvious. He was probably the only person she could really rely on. Months
before, around the time she and Evan split up the first time, I was making her up
for the Stella show, and she was telling everyone her brother was really pissing
her off, going on and on about what a freeloader Evan was. And you know, Evan
was jacking her around again, that last afternoon, so she was thinking that