1 The Cuckoo's Calling

“Yeah? How far beyond?”
“Nah, nothing like that,” said Kolovas-Jones, with a grin. “Nothing like that.”
But Strike saw that the driver was not at all displeased that the idea had been
mooted, that it had been thought plausible.
“I’d been driving her for a year. We talked a lot, y’know. Had a lot in
common. Similar backgrounds, y’know?”
“In what way?”
“Mixed race,” said Kolovas-Jones. “And things were a bit dysfunctional in my
family, right, so I knew where she was coming from. She didn’t know that many
people like her, not once she got famous. Not to talk to properly.”
“Being mixed race was an issue for her, was it?”
“Growing up black in a white family, what d’you think?”
“And you had a similar childhood?”
“Me father’s half West Indian, half Welsh; me mother’s half Scouse, half
Greek. Lula usedta say she envied me,” he said, sitting up a little straighter. “She
said, ‘You know where you come from, even if it is bloody everywhere.’ And on
my birthday, right,” he added, as though he had not yet sufficiently impressed
upon Strike something which he felt was important, “she give me this Guy Somé
jacket that was worth, like, nine hundred quid.”
Evidently expected to show a reaction, Strike nodded, wondering whether
Kolovas-Jones had come along simply to tell somebody how close he had been to
Lula Landry. Satisfied, the driver went on:
“So, right, the day she died—day before, I should say—I drove her to her
mum’s in the morning, right? And she was not happy. She never liked going to
see her mother.”
“Why not?”
“Because that woman’s fucking weird,” said Kolovas-Jones. “I drove them
both out for a day, once, I think it was the mother’s birthday. She’s fucking
creepy, Lady Yvette. Darling, my darling to Lula, every other word. She used to
hang off her. Just fucking strange and possessive and over the top, right?
“Anyway, that day, right, her mum had just got out of hospital, so that wasn’t
gonna be fun, was it? Lula wasn’t looking forward to seeing her. She was uptight
like I hadn’t seen her before.
“And then I told her I couldn’t drive her that night, because I was booked for
Deeby Macc, and she wasn’t happy about that, neither.”