Page 103 of The Hallmarked Man (Cormoran Strike #8)

‘You can’t keep me out of it, I’m up to my fucking neck in it now, Craig’s gonna fucking kill me !’

A suspicion now crossed Robin’s mind, a suspicion she knew better than to voice at this early stage of the interview.

‘Do you know Dick de Lion?’ she asked.

‘His name’s Danny,’ said Fiona, her plump lips quivering. ‘Yeah, I know him. I’ve worked with him.’ She burst out, ‘I warned him not to get involved, I warned him!’

‘Involved in what?’ asked Robin.

Fiona snatched her cigarettes off the island top, crossed to the French windows, opened them and lit up. She took a deep drag and exhaled towards the garden, which was paved, with plants in pots, and a bright pink table and chairs.

‘What’s Danny’s surname?’ asked Robin.

‘Same. De Lion’s his real one.’

‘What was it you didn’t think he should get involved in, Fiona?’

Fiona took another drag on the cigarette and again exhaled towards the garden, waving her free hand to try and keep the smoke out. Robin decided to back off a little.

‘Where’s Danny from? London?’

‘No,’ said Fiona, ‘he comes from this, like, weird place – there aren’t any cars. I thought he was joking but it was for real. There was no cars there, just, like, horse-drawn carts and tractors. I think it’s an island. I thought he was bullshitting, but he wasn’t. He showed me pictures.’

‘What was the place called, can you remember?’

Fiona shook her head.

‘How old is Danny, d’you know?’

‘Twenty-five.’

‘Has he been in the adult industry long?’

‘Long as me, probably,’ said Fiona. ‘Two, three years.’

She threw a desperate glance at Robin.

‘I don’t know what the guy’s name is, the rich guy. Craig’s never told me. Just that he’s on the telly sometimes.’

Fiona was shivering slightly in the cold, but her craving for nicotine overrode her desire for warmth, because she took yet another deep drag on her cigarette and blew the smoke garden-wards.

‘How did Danny meet this man?’ said Robin, feeling her way. ‘Did Craig introduce them?’

Fiona nodded, not looking at Robin.

‘And Danny and the rich man entered a relationship?’

‘ No, ’ said Fiona, with a scornful laugh.

‘From what we already know,’ said Robin, taking a chance, ‘it sounds as though Danny was blackmail—’

‘No, he wasn’t,’ said Fiona quickly, turning back to Robin again, ‘he never black – it was a joke! Craig told me Danny and the rich guy had a row, and that the guy had, like, contacts and stuff… said he knew rough people, had the police in his pocket… and then Danny disappeared.’

‘When?’

‘I dunno… end of May last year?’

‘How does Craig know the rich man?’ asked Robin.

‘From when he was a kid,’ said Fiona. ‘I dunno exactly how.’

Robin’s phone buzzed. She took it out to see a text from Barclay.

Wheaton food shopping. I’ll alert when he gets back in the car.

Robin slid the still-recording phone back into her bag and said,

‘So Craig told you Danny was the body in the safe?’

‘Yeah,’ said Fiona, starting to cry. ‘He told me to… to stop bloody asking people where Danny was… unless I wanted to go the same way…’

‘Is Danny the only young man Craig’s introduced to the rich man?’

Fiona shook her head, still crying.

‘There are others?’

‘Yeah… girls as well… the rich guy’s bi. Craig told me he’s married to a woman, but he likes both.’

Fiona took another drag on her cigarette and wiped her eyes on the back of her hand.

‘How did you know we’re investigating that body, Fiona?’

‘’Cause I heard Craig on the phone to the rich guy… he always speaks different when he’s talking to him… an’ I heard him say “Cameron Strike” and that he hadn’t seen him around or anything… Craig sounded scared. So I Googled Strike and I saw he was a private detective.’

Fiona padded out into the garden in her bare feet, stubbed out her cigarette on a paving slab, flicked the stub into next door’s garden, closed the French windows and walked, still crying, to the kitchen island, where she sat down, supporting her forehead on her hand.

Robin’s phone buzzed again, and within seconds, Fiona’s pinged. Both reached for the mobiles, and Robin read,

Wheaton back in car with food shopping but stationary and texting.

‘It’s Craig,’ whispered Fiona, texting her partner back.

‘Is he coming home?’ asked Robin, trying to sound casual.

‘Not yet… wants to know what we need from the offie…’

Robin slipped her own phone back into her bag.

‘I thought,’ said Fiona, getting up again, and taking air freshener out of a drawer in the island, ‘I could tip this Strike off, with a note – ’cause Craig reads my emails and texts and everything…’

She sprayed the freshener liberally around the kitchen, then hid her cigarettes behind a mixer in a wall-mounted cupboard.

‘Danny just wanted a bit of money,’ she said croakily, returning to her seat. ‘That’s not a crime. He’d never had much. He thought he was on to a good thing with that rich guy, but he was pushing his luck. I warned him.’

‘How was he pushing his luck?’ asked Robin.

‘Well – like – the rich guy paid for Danny to get veneers done, right, because Danny had really bad teeth. And Danny added a bit – a little bit – to the bill. He kept doing stuff like that. Trying to squeeze a bit more out of the guy, you know? I said to him, “be careful”, but he said he was the guy’s favourite and… ’

‘Is that what they rowed about?’ asked Robin. ‘The rich man realised Danny was trying to take more money than he’d agreed to?’

‘Yeah,’ said Fiona. ‘It was starting to add up. He sort of cornered Danny about it, and that’s when Danny said the – the thing he said – for a joke. It was just a joke. But the guy took it seriously. He told Danny what he’d just said was blackmail.’

‘But Danny and the man weren’t having sex?’

‘No,’ said Fiona.

‘Then what could Danny blackmail him about?’

‘Well… this guy likes secretly watching and filming. He gets off on them not knowing he’s there.’

‘But Danny knew the man was there?’

‘Well, yeah. All the – some of them knew, yeah.’

‘Where did the filming happen?’

‘The guy’s got a flat, with a two-way mirror. He had it all kitted out… Craig fronted for him, with the builders.’

‘Craig pretended it was his flat? That the alterations were for him?’

‘Yeah, exactly.’

‘D’you know where the flat is?’

‘No. I just know that’s where it all happened.’

‘So, the rich man hires adult actors to be in his private films?’

‘Yeah. He doesn’t want to use sex workers. He doesn’t trust them. He’s just making his own films, for private use. It’s all legal. He pays good money,’ said Fiona. ‘ Really good. That’s why Danny kept going back.’

‘But only some of the people filmed know the man’s watching?’

‘Well, yeah,’ said Fiona huskily, looking at her neon pink nails rather than at Robin.

‘The pros all know, but not the… not the amateurs… Craig told me, there’s always someone there who didn’t know they were being filmed.

One time it was a girl who works for the rich guy, she’s, like, an assistant, in his office.

One of the pros chatted her up in a bar and he took her back to the flat, and she thought it belonged to him, and she was wasted and the rich guy watched this guy doing her, and filmed it.

And he did the same thing to two young guys who’re part of some charity thing the rich guy runs.

He got two pro boys to lure them back to the flat, and the rich guy filmed it all and watched.

But the amateurs were all up for it,’ said Fiona quickly.

‘It wasn’t rape. They weren’t drugged or nothing.

Nobody was underage. They were all consenting. ’

But not to being watched and filmed , thought Robin. Even Fiona seemed to know what she’d just described wasn’t entirely innocent, because she added,

‘Craig told me the pros had to persuade the amateurs to take money, at the end. Like, for a taxi or whatever, but, like, more than they needed. So, you know, they were on film taking cash.’

Robin’s mobile buzzed again.

Wheaton back in car, looks like he’s heading home.

‘Does the rich man ever appear on camera himself?’ Robin asked.

‘No, never. He’s behind the mirror.’

‘So what did Danny say to the guy, that sounded like blackmail?’

‘The bloke was having a real go at him about the money, so Danny said, “I bet my indie films’d do well, if I give ’em more publicity.” And the guy went fucking apeshit. Danny was scared. He tried to pretend he wasn’t, but he was.’

‘Craig’s really never told you the man’s name?’

‘No, never. He says it’s more’n his life would be worth, telling people.’

‘Other than that he’s rich, and sometimes on TV, has he mentioned any other personal details about the man at all?’

‘Only that his wife doesn’t know about the flat.’

‘And he’s a Freemason,’ said Robin, as though she already knew beyond doubt that this was the case, and the unsuspecting Fiona nodded.

‘This is my card,’ said Robin, handing one over as she hoisted her bag back over her shoulder. ‘If you remember anything else about that man, please call me. Nobody else is going to know you’ve spoken to me, other than Strike.’

‘So… Danny was the guy in the safe?’ said Fiona tearfully, following Robin back up the hall.

‘I don’t know,’ said Robin. ‘But if you text me your number, I’ll let you know who it was, as soon as we’ve found out.’

Robin passed outside onto the top stone step and then turned to face Fiona again. Strike’s words, ‘we aren’t fucking social workers’, ran through her mind as she said,

‘You don’t have to stay with him. You could do something else.’

‘What?’ said Fiona.

‘I don’t… it doesn’t sound to me as though Craig treats you very well,’ said Robin.

She was ten years older than Fiona, but felt ancient as she said it.

‘Men who read all your emails and texts – I was with a man who listened to my voicemail messages and didn’t pass them on.

It ended badly. But,’ she added, ‘I know it isn’t any of my business. ’

‘No,’ said Fiona, ‘it isn’t.’

Robin heard the front door slam behind her as she reached the pavement. Shortly before she reached the corner, she glanced back. Fiona was watching her from the front window; Robin expected her to raise her middle finger again, but the girl’s expression was simply blank.