1 The Cuckoo's Calling

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Nihil est ab omni Parte beatum. Nothing is an unmixed blessing. Epilogue Horace, Odes, Book 2
Ten Days Later THE BRITISH ARMY REQUIRES OF its soldiers a subjugation of individual needs and ties that is almost incomprehensible to the civilian mind. It recognizes virtually no claims higher than its own; and the unpredictable crises of human life—births and deaths, weddings, divorces and illness—generally cause no more deviation to the military’s plans than pebbles pinging on the underbelly of a tank. Nevertheless, there are exceptional circumstances, and it was due to one such circumstance that Lieutenant Jonah Agyeman’s second tour of duty in Afghanistan was cut short. His presence in Britain was urgently required by the Metropolitan Police, and while the army does not generally rate the claims of the Met higher than its own, in this case it was prepared to be helpful. The circumstances surrounding the death of Agyeman’s sister were garnering international attention, and a media storm around a hitherto obscure Sapper was deemed unhelpful both to the individual and the army he served. And so Jonah was put on a plane back to Britain, where the army did its impressive best to shield him from the ravenous press. It was assumed by considerable numbers of the news-reading public that Lieutenant Agyeman would be delighted, firstly to be home from combat, and secondly to have returned in the expectation of wealth beyond his wildest imaginings. However, the young soldier that Cormoran Strike met in the Tottenham pub one lunchtime, ten days after the arrest of his sister’s murderer, was almost truculent, and seemed still to be in a state of shock. The two men had, for different periods of time, lived the same life, and risked the same death. It was a bond that no civilian could understand, and for half an hour they talked about nothing but the army. “You were a Suit, yeah?” Agyeman said. “Trust a Suit to fuck up my whole life.” Strike smiled. He saw no ingratitude in Agyeman, even though the stitches in his arm pulled painfully every time he raised his pint. “My mother wants me to come out,” said the soldier. “She keeps saying, that’ll be one good thing to come out of this mess.” It was the first, oblique reference to the reason they were here, and that Jonah was not where he belonged, with his regiment, in the life he had chosen. Then, quite suddenly, he began to talk, as though he had been waiting for Strike for months. “She never knew my dad had another kid. He never told her. He was never even sure that Marlene woman was telling the truth about being pregnant. Right
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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
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4 THE WEEKEND STRETCHED AHEAD, WARM
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ecause it had once been home to the
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“Met him, did you?” “No, but
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“Could it have been Agyeman?”
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Marlene for two months before she d
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“Yes, that would be good.” “J
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Jago Ross had been married once alr
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“You need to go outside to do tha
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Robin felt equally inclined to laug
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He sat quite still on his camp bed
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aiment suitable for her fiancé; he
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fireplace. The displaced onlookers,
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James—is it James?—had had him
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“In what way?” “Just one of t
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“Oh, it was, like—you know that
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ottles on top of everything he’d
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joke. And she said, like, really se
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8 STRIKE, FOREWARNED, WAS NOWHERE N
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yelping with excitement; and then t
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“I’m not joking, Ciara. You’l
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with Ciara, whom Kolovas-Jones had
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“Yeah?” said Strike, sitting do
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without leaving me a note. I keep w
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“ ‘Bitch you ain’t all that
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“Restrain her?” “You grabbed
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“I’m out of fags. Can I have an
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“And who knew that was going to h
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Duffield puffed and jiggled. “I d
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“We’ll go to mine, then, shall
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She might well be the only person w
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“Yeah, there is. I can’t rememb
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“Royal Engineers,” said Strike.
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miles, stay overnight in this plush
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“You mean…in general?” she sa
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10 IT WAS THE FIRST TAXI that Strik
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“It was stuck in with her Oyster
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Carver’s blunt, wide face was cle
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“She didn’t want to let the gir
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“You’re telling me Deeby Macc k
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“I’m going to be on my way to P
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sole support of Uncle Ted, he had v
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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
Page 343 and 344: “And the man who came in, when di
Page 345 and 346: “He’s Lieutenant Jonah Francis
Page 347 and 348: Her voice was thin and cracked, her
Page 349 and 350: There was a pause, in which Strike
Page 351 and 352: “No, of course not. He was a most
Page 353 and 354: “What other man was that?” “T
Page 355 and 356: lifted up the board and saw, beneat
Page 357 and 358: Part Five Felix qui potuit rerum co
Page 359 and 360: From the depths of his agony he gri
Page 361 and 362: “Don’t worry about me.” When
Page 363 and 364: Bristow threw himself into the seat
Page 365 and 366: “Coming from a virtual down-and-o
Page 367 and 368: your mother’s room in the small h
Page 369 and 370: “Alison isn’t very bright,” s
Page 371 and 372: He saw the pale teeth, bared as Bri
Page 373 and 374: ut pretty well—and you carried th
Page 375: A rustle, the blur of a pale hand,
Page 379 and 380: problems, and I remembered how upse
Page 381 and 382: “Three prospective clients phoned
Page 383 and 384: Robin drew herself up a little, ble
Page 385 and 386: About the Author ROBERT GALBRAITH s
Page 387 and 388: The characters and events in this b
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