Page 110 of The Hallmarked Man (Cormoran Strike #8)

‘I’ve also looked into the car crash that killed Anne-Marie Morgan and Hugo Whitehead,’ said Robin.

‘It really does look like Hugo just lost control of the car in the storm. The Mazda’s anti-lock braking system failed and it skidded into the back of an articulated lorry, the airbags failed to deploy and the car went up in flames.

I assume people in Ironbridge latched onto the anti-lock brakes failing, but in those conditions it was likely, especially if Hugo was driving too fast.’

‘So we don’t think Powell fled Ironbridge because he had a guilty conscience?’

‘He might not’ve caused the crash,’ said Robin, ‘but I’d still like to hear what that other girl, Zeta, who had a bad experience with him has to say.’

Strike’s beer arrived, served by a waiter asking if they were ready to order food.

Strike ordered beef, Robin chicken, and the waiter retreated again.

Mrs Two-Times’ group erupted into shrieks of laughter; Robin glanced over to their table to see Mrs Two-Times flicking her expertly coloured hair out of her eyes, talking to a very handsome, dark-eyed waiter.

‘I’d imagine it’s occurred to you that we’ve got an unusual number of sex offenders congregating around this crime?’ Strike asked Robin. ‘McGee felt up a workmate on a previous job, Todd’s a rapist and trafficker, Oz appears to groom young women—’

‘You probably won’t like my answer to that,’ said Robin.

‘Which is?’

‘That men perennially underestimate how many of their fellow men are perverts and predators. You know what they say: “all women know a rape victim, no man knows a rapist”.’

Strike decided to retreat to slightly safer territory.

‘This feels like a pro job, not a first kill. There aren’t many people cold-blooded enough to spend a couple of hours with a fresh corpse, carving it up and dissecting it, late at night in an underground vault. That took strong nerves.’

‘You think Oz is Shanker’s hired hitman?’

‘If it was a hit, Oz must be the guy, yeah, but I’ve still got questions.

If I was hiring an assassin,’ Strike said, lowering his voice, ‘I wouldn’t go anywhere near a sex offender.

Look at Todd. He’s on the sex offenders’ register, he knows what he’s risking if he gets arrested, and he still can’t control himself.

A man whose life’s dominated by impulses like that can’t be trusted to keep his mind on the job, and the few mistakes Oz made during the commission of this crime are all sex- and woman-related. ’

‘Using the same persona twice, you mean?’

‘For starters, yeah, that was sloppy. I imagine he took the view it worked great on Medina and he’d got clean away with it, so why not use “Oz” again, as he’d put work into it.

But it was bloody over-optimistic thinking fourteen-year-old Sapphire Neagle’s going to keep her mouth shut about a bloke showering her in rubies. ’

‘She never told anyone his name, though,’ said Robin.

‘She still blabbed that she’d met an exciting older man who’d promised she was going to be a backing singer.

And that’s not the only reckless thing he’s done.

Why visit Medina at home? I think he likes the risk, the thrill, the getting as close to them as he can.

It was the height of bloody stupidity to press for pictures of Gretchen and Medina together.

He might’ve thought that’d give him a hold over Gretchen, but it was always just as likely to make her keener to see him arrested.

Biggest mistake of all: using Medina in the burglary when she was clearly a blabbermouth.

Why use her , specifically? If you need a woman for the job, why not pick someone steady and reliable who’d keep their mouth shut? ’

‘Maybe he didn’t know any other women who’d be happy to drive a getaway car?’ said Robin.

‘Or maybe he couldn’t resist using a girl he knew he was going to end up raping and murdering. Medina was a cherry on top of the cake. A self-awarded bonus. That’s where Oz’s self-control fails: girls.’

There was another silence, during which both partners followed their own trains of thought, until Strike said,

‘There are still anomalies, though. Shanker told me the hitman was a “mouthy nutter”, but barring the sex stuff, Oz seems efficient and controlled. Clearly an arch-manipulator. A good actor. Even if he got careless around Medina, when all’s said and done, we’re still no closer to finding out who owns the curly hair and sunglasses than we were when we first heard about them. ’

‘I think that curly hair’s a wig,’ said Robin, ‘chosen to mimic the real Osgood.’

‘Think you could well be right about that,’ said Strike.

‘But Mandy’s denying she ever saw the curly haired man and the girl with long black hair,’ said Robin, who’d read Strike’s note in the file.

‘Yeah, and the trouble is, without a sighting of a girl matching Medina’s description and a bloke matching Oz’s in Wright’s house, the working assumption that Oz is the killer falls apart.’

‘There’s still the email sent to Osgood from Ramsay Silver,’ said Robin, ‘and there’s Gretchen’s testimony that Sofia was dating an older man called Oz, and the total strangers who emailed the real Osgood about a van for sale, and a problem, and a prank involving a girl.’

‘You don’t need to convince me, I’m already convinced,’ said Strike.

‘I’m certain Oz and Medina emptied Wright’s room and I’m certain they were the couple in the getaway car, but the murder investigation team are taking the line that Mandy cooked up her story on the spot because I’d paid them for an interview and she wanted to give value for money. ’

Their food arrived. As Strike picked up his knife and fork he said,

‘Kim told me the girl Albie Simpson-White met in the pub wasn’t Tish Benton. Her name’s Clarissa and all she talked about was her upcoming holiday to Sicily. One funny thing, though: the girl’s living in Pembridge Gardens, almost opposite a lodge for female Freemasons.’

‘Did Kim put a note in the file?’ said Robin, who hadn’t had a chance to check. ‘Or did she just call you with this news?’

‘She called me, I don’t know about the file,’ said Strike. ‘Why?’

‘Because it seems to be my line of enquiry when she wants to bitch about it, but your line of enquiry when she’s got news,’ said Robin acidly, and immediately regretted it.

She went on in a less combative tone: ‘I’m going to try and talk to Cosima Longcaster this week.

Find out why Rupert crashed that birthday party. ’

‘Great,’ said Strike. ‘That’d help, because Decima’s agitating for another update.’

There was yet another silence, both partners now thinking of Bar Italia, and their row about their responsibilities to Decima, but naturally, neither gave any sign of this.

‘The new Land Rover’s great,’ said Robin.

‘Good,’ said Strike. ‘How’s the house hunting going?’

‘We’ve found one we like. Our offer’s been accepted.’

‘Ah,’ said Strike, with the same old feeling of being punched in the solar plexus. ‘Congratulations.’

‘Thanks,’ said Robin, her eyes on her food.