1 The Cuckoo's Calling

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“You were taking a lot of drugs at the time, were you?” “Yeah.” “And Lula didn’t like it?” “Well, people round her were telling her she didn’t like it, you know?” “Like who?” “Like her family, like fucking Guy Somé. That little pansy twat.” “When you say that she didn’t trust anybody because of the press, what do you mean by that?” “Fuck, innit obvious? Don’t you know all this, from your old man?” “I know jack shit about my father,” said Strike coolly. “Well, they were tapping her fucking phone, man, and that gives you a weird fucking feeling; haven’t you got any imagination? She started getting paranoid about people selling stuff on her. Trying to work out what she’d said on the phone, and what she hadn’t, and who mighta given stuff to the papers and that. It fucked with her head.” “Was she accusing you of selling stories?” “No,” snapped Duffield, and then, just as vehemently, “Yeah, sometimes. How did they know we were coming here, how did they know I said that to you, yadda yadda yadda…I said to her, it’s all part and fucking parcel of fame, innit, but she thought she could have her cake and eat it.” “But you didn’t ever sell stories about her to the press?” He heard Ciara’s hissing intake of breath. “No I fucking didn’t,” said Duffield quietly, holding Strike’s gaze without blinking. “No I fucking did not. All right?” “And you split up for how long?” “Two months, give or take.” “But you got back together, what, a week before she died?” “Yeah. At Mo Innes’s party.” “And you had this commitment ceremony forty-eight hours later? At Carbury’s house in the Cotswolds?” “Yeah.”
“And who knew that was going to happen?” “It was a spontaneous thing. I bought the bangles and we just did it. It was beautiful, man.” “It really was,” echoed Ciara sadly. “So, for the press to have found out so quickly, someone who was there must have told them?” “Yeah, I s’pose so.” “Because your phones weren’t being tapped then, were they? You’d changed your numbers.” “I don’t fucking know if they were being tapped. Ask the shits at the rags who do it.” “Did she talk to you at all about trying to trace her father?” “He was dead…what, you mean the real one? Yeah, she was interested, but it was no go, wannit? Her mother didn’t know who he was.” “She never told you whether she’d managed to find out anything about him?” “She tried, but she didn’t get anywhere, so she decided that she was gonna to do a course in African studies. That was gonna be Daddy, the whole fucking continent of Africa. Fucking Somé was behind that, shit-stirring as usual.” “In what way?” “Anything that took her away from me was good. Anything that bracketed them together. He was one possessive bastard where she was concerned. He was in love with her. I know he’s a poof,” Duffield added impatiently, as Ciara began to protest, “but he’s not the first one I’ve known who’s gone funny over a girlfriend. He’ll fuck anything, man-wise, but he didn’t want to let her out of his sight. He threw hissy fits if she didn’t see him, he didn’t like her working for anyone else. “He hates my fucking guts. Right back atcha, you little shit. Egging Lu on with Deeby Macc. He’d’ve got a real kick out of her fucking him. Doing me over. Hearing all the fucking details. Getting her to introduce him, get his fucking clothes photographed on a gangster. He’s no fucking fool, Somé. He used her for his business all the time. Tried to get her cheap and for free, and she was dumb enough to let him.” “Did Somé give you these?” asked Strike, pointing at the black leather gloves on the coffee table. He had recognized the tiny gold GS logo on the cuff. “You what?”
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A 1 E=mc 2 This eBook is downloaded
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Contents Cover Title Page Welcome D
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Prologue Is demum miser est, cuius
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The story forced news of politics,
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of happiness at the thought that sh
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2 STRIKE ABSORBED THE IMPACT, HEARD
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madness when he had plunged after h
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3 FIVE MINUTES LATER THERE WAS a kn
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“It’s—um—actually, I wonder
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watching my father carrying her up
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He unfolded the note against his kn
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“John…I’m going to be honest
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Matthew, who was staying for the we
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“Understand what?” “Well…an
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“Yes, exactly. So—so Lula arriv
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5 STRIKE TURNED TO ROBIN, WHO had s
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the street at the foot of Center Po
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Strike tweaked a tourist leaflet fr
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6 ROBIN HAD WAITED TEN MINUTES, to
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7 STRIKE HAD SPENT THE EARLY aftern
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walking in the direction of Landry
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“Don’t you dare fucking investi
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“Get on with it,” said Strike.
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learned that he was a newly qualifi
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“Here’s a bit of film on YouTub
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2 THE CAMERAS LOOKED LIKE MALEVOLEN
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“The balcony she fell from was on
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she run downstairs and tell the sec
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Robin felt as though her own worth
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the empty flat under the eyes of he
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“I’m temporary,” said Robin.
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Rokeby has been married three times
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And yet he was close to feeling abo
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mirrored walls reflecting tables of
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“How did you get on with Lula Lan
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“Suicidal pissed off?” “No,
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“The police came,” Strike said,
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“He’s told you that, has he?”
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“How long were you away from the
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7 A MAN IN HIS MID-TWENTIES was edg
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“Why not?” “ ’Cause she lik
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“Nothing came of it?” “They d
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“I’m gonna be late.” Wilson r
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Weighed down, young, by a mortgage,
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would be able to persuade her to ta
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Strike followed the speculative tra
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9 ON SUNDAY MORNING, WHICH WAS fine
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“Lula made this girl travel all t
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“Rochelle, have you seen her?”
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10 ROBIN STOOD SWAYING WITH THE RES
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“Fire away,” said Strike, as he
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peroxide hair, in their tiny, tight
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camera at the end of Bellamy Road a
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“But while we were proving she wa
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Wardle snorted. “Heard about that
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“You got forensics to check out h
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statement agreeing that Duffield ha
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11 “EVAN DUFFIELD’S AGENT SAYS
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Strike had never moved in the kinds
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He guessed that it would needle her
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“Isn’t he a quarter Malay?” a
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“What were you saying?” she ask
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The thought of Alison’s doomed in
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“He must have moved quickly.”
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“God knows what Lula was doing wi
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Strike had met countless liars; he
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“Thought you might like to know y
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weekend with Dickie, who is a conte
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ecovery. Perhaps the blunt, unnuanc
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Geegee, will you pleeeeeze make Roc
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that gorgeous Charlotte? Not split
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companion, and although its name wa
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3 STRIKE WAS WOKEN EARLY ON Sunday
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4 You think i wont fucking hurt you
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Their pale reflections were swaying
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She recalled the excitement she had
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“Not that much, by your standards
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“You’d think Lula Landry would
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5 STRIKE AND ROBIN PARTED AT New Bo
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“For many reasons, all of them go
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“Feel free.” “…your collusi
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there,” said Landry, stonily. “
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6 “JOHN,” SAID STRIKE, AS HIS c
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“She was—sometimes—a bit like
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mind me telling Tansy who your fath
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“Why?” “Because we’d had so
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“Has your mother made a will?”
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unrolled the gel liner from the stu
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“Bummer,” said Spanner, and the
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e the first to make deep, dark hole
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8 WHEN ROBIN ARRIVED NEXT MORNING,
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“Robin, I need you to check somet
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So that was where they went. Strike
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“Di’n’t her brother tell ya?
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“Did she tell you why?” “Ther
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“One of the shop assistants overh
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“We usedta listen to Deeby Macc i
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He thought that she was going to te
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“That all?” she asked aggressiv
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“Robin says you’ve been out det
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He had a fleeting vision of the all
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Robin selected two bags of salt and
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“I called the Law Society about t
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Lycra. Somé’s snug gray jeans bo
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a life. Get out of the closet. Have
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“They said that a neighbor had ov
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knew what she was going to say, and
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“Freebies, dear,” drawled Somé
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was all getting too much. She wante
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“Big fucking deal,” said Somé,
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“No,” said Somé, with a ghost
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her work, which involved a small cl
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“Seventeenth of March,” said St
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3 THE HEAVY BLACK-PAINTED FRONT doo
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then ascended the stairs, her bucke
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“Were Bestigui’s roses on somet
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“You heard her say,” he repeate
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and stepped outside. Robin did not
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“I—I’ll try.” Bristow sound
Page 241 and 242: 4 THE WEEKEND STRETCHED AHEAD, WARM
Page 243 and 244: ecause it had once been home to the
Page 245 and 246: “Met him, did you?” “No, but
Page 247 and 248: “Could it have been Agyeman?”
Page 249 and 250: Marlene for two months before she d
Page 251 and 252: “Yes, that would be good.” “J
Page 253 and 254: Jago Ross had been married once alr
Page 255 and 256: “You need to go outside to do tha
Page 257 and 258: Robin felt equally inclined to laug
Page 259 and 260: He sat quite still on his camp bed
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Page 263 and 264: fireplace. The displaced onlookers,
Page 265 and 266: James—is it James?—had had him
Page 267 and 268: “In what way?” “Just one of t
Page 269 and 270: “Oh, it was, like—you know that
Page 271 and 272: ottles on top of everything he’d
Page 273 and 274: joke. And she said, like, really se
Page 275 and 276: 8 STRIKE, FOREWARNED, WAS NOWHERE N
Page 277 and 278: yelping with excitement; and then t
Page 279 and 280: “I’m not joking, Ciara. You’l
Page 281 and 282: with Ciara, whom Kolovas-Jones had
Page 283 and 284: “Yeah?” said Strike, sitting do
Page 285 and 286: without leaving me a note. I keep w
Page 287 and 288: “ ‘Bitch you ain’t all that
Page 289 and 290: “Restrain her?” “You grabbed
Page 291: “I’m out of fags. Can I have an
Page 295 and 296: Duffield puffed and jiggled. “I d
Page 297 and 298: “We’ll go to mine, then, shall
Page 299 and 300: She might well be the only person w
Page 301 and 302: “Yeah, there is. I can’t rememb
Page 303 and 304: “Royal Engineers,” said Strike.
Page 305 and 306: miles, stay overnight in this plush
Page 307 and 308: “You mean…in general?” she sa
Page 309 and 310: 10 IT WAS THE FIRST TAXI that Strik
Page 311 and 312: “It was stuck in with her Oyster
Page 313 and 314: Carver’s blunt, wide face was cle
Page 315 and 316: “She didn’t want to let the gir
Page 317 and 318: “You’re telling me Deeby Macc k
Page 319 and 320: “I’m going to be on my way to P
Page 321 and 322: sole support of Uncle Ted, he had v
Page 323 and 324: He was inside Bestigui’s office b
Page 325 and 326: weren’t you? But you can’t go b
Page 327 and 328: show of conscience might keep her o
Page 329 and 330: “He wasn’t angry, then, when he
Page 331 and 332: Bestigui did not answer. Strike cou
Page 333 and 334: “She had an aunt, remember?” sa
Page 335 and 336: Strike thought might turn out to be
Page 337 and 338: “Yet romance blossomed across sec
Page 339 and 340: She did not answer. “Did you call
Page 341 and 342: When he saw Robin and Alison come t
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“And the man who came in, when di
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“He’s Lieutenant Jonah Francis
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Her voice was thin and cracked, her
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There was a pause, in which Strike
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“No, of course not. He was a most
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“What other man was that?” “T
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lifted up the board and saw, beneat
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Part Five Felix qui potuit rerum co
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From the depths of his agony he gri
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“Don’t worry about me.” When
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Bristow threw himself into the seat
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“Coming from a virtual down-and-o
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your mother’s room in the small h
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“Alison isn’t very bright,” s
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He saw the pale teeth, bared as Bri
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ut pretty well—and you carried th
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A rustle, the blur of a pale hand,
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Ten Days Later THE BRITISH ARMY REQ
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problems, and I remembered how upse
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“Three prospective clients phoned
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Robin drew herself up a little, ble
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About the Author ROBERT GALBRAITH s
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The characters and events in this b
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