1 The Cuckoo's Calling

Strike followed the speculative train of his own thoughts over the rough terrain
of news sites and blogs. Here and there he stumbled upon pockets of feverish
speculation, of theories about Landry’s death that mentioned clues the police had
failed to follow up, and which seemed to have fed Bristow’s own conviction that
there had been a murderer. LulaMyInspirationForeva had a long list of
Unanswered Questions, which included, at number five, “Who called off the paps
before she fell?”; at number nine, “Why did the men with the covered faces
runnin away from her flat at 2 a.m. never come forward? Where are they and
who wer they?”; and at number thirteen, “Why was luLa wearing a different
outfit to the one she came home in when she fell off the balcony?”
Midnight found Strike drinking a can of lager and reading about the
posthumous controversy that Bristow had mentioned, of which he had been
vaguely aware while it unfolded, without being very interested. A furor had
sprung up, a week after the inquest had returned a verdict of suicide, around the
advertising shot for the wares of designer Guy Somé. It featured two models
posing in a dirty alleyway, naked except for strategically placed handbags,
scarves and jewels. Landry was perched on a dustbin, Ciara Porter sprawled on
the ground. Both wore huge curving angel’s wings: Porter’s a swan-like white;
Landry’s a greenish black fading to glossy bronze.
Strike stared at the picture for minutes, trying to analyze precisely why the
dead girl’s face drew the eye so irresistibly, how she managed to dominate the
picture. Somehow she made the incongruity, the staginess of it, believable; she
really did look as though she had been slung from heaven because she was too
venal, because she so coveted the accessories she was clutching to herself. Ciara
Porter, in all her alabaster beauty, became nothing but a counterpoint; in her
pallor and her passivity, she looked like a statue.
The designer, Guy Somé, had drawn much criticism upon himself, some of it
vicious, for choosing to use the picture. Many people felt that he was capitalizing
on Landry’s recent death, and sneered at the professions of deep affection for
Landry that Somé’s spokesman made on his behalf. LulaMyInspirationForeva,
however, asserted that Lula would have wanted the picture to be used; that she
and Guy Somé had been bosom friends: Lula loved guy like a brother and would
want him to pay this final tribute to her work and her beauty. This is an iconic
shot that will live forever and will continue to keep Lula alive in the memories of
we who loved her.
Strike drank the last of his lager and contemplated the final four words of this
sentence. He had never been able to understand the assumption of intimacy fans
felt with those they had never met. People had sometimes referred to his father as
“Old Jonny” in his presence, beaming, as if they were talking about a mutual
friend, repeating well-worn press stories and anecdotes as though they had been