1 The Cuckoo's Calling

“You can’t afford this!”
“Yeah, I can,” he said, leaning back against the partition wall, because it was
marginally more comfortable than sitting on the sofa. “Work’s rolling in now.
You’ve been incredible. Your new place is lucky to get you.”
She was frantically mopping her eyes with the sleeves of her shirt. A sob and
some incomprehensible words escaped her. She reached blindly for the tissues
that she had bought from petty cash, in anticipation of more clients like Mrs.
Hook, blew her nose, wiped her eyes and said, with the green dress lying limp
and forgotten across her lap:
“I don’t want to go!”
“I can’t afford you, Robin,” he said flatly.
It was not that he had not thought about it; the night before, he had lain awake
on the camp bed, running calculations through his mind, trying to come up with
an offer that might not seem insulting beside the salary offered by the media
consultancy. It was not possible. He could no longer defer payment on the largest
of his loans; he was facing an increase in rent and he needed to find somewhere
to live other than his office. While his short-term prospects were immeasurably
improved, the outlook remained uncertain.
“I wouldn’t expect you to match what they’d give me,” Robin said thickly.
“I couldn’t come close,” said Strike.
(But she knew the state of Strike’s finances almost as well as he did and had
already guessed at the most she could expect. The previous evening, when
Matthew had found her in tears at the prospect of leaving, she had told him her
estimate of Strike’s best offer.
“But he hasn’t offered you anything at all,” Matthew had said. “Has he?”
“No, but if he did…”
“Well, it would be up to you,” Matthew had said stiffly. “It’d be your choice.
You’d have to decide.”
She knew that Matthew did not want her to stay. He had sat for hours in
Casualty while they stitched Strike up, waiting to take Robin home. He had told
her, rather formally, that she had done very well, showing such initiative, but he
had been distant and faintly disapproving ever since, especially when their
friends clamored for the inside details on everything that had appeared in the
press.
But surely Matthew would like Strike, if only he met him? And Matthew
himself had said that it was up to her what she did…)