Page 97 of The Hallmarked Man (Cormoran Strike #8)

Griffiths swallowed a large mouthful of teacake, then said,

‘He was hounded out. Lynch mob, that’s what it was.’

‘What happened?’ asked Robin.

‘It’s a long story.’

‘We’d like to hear it, if you wouldn’t mind telling us.’

‘Huh,’ said Griffiths. ‘People round here would say you’re asking the wrong person.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Because I’m the only person who’s on Ty’s side, other than his gran… There was a car crash, see… and people blamed Ty for it.’

‘He was driving, was he?’

‘No, that’s what’s so bloody… they just wanted someone to blame.’

Robin waited. Griffiths set down his plate, with its half-eaten teacake, and said,

‘Ty was going out with this girl, Anne-Marie, see. She was a good friend of my Chlo’s, so I knew her. Nice girl. Live wire. Ty was mad about her. Told me he thought she was the one, and all that…

‘But then the bloody Whiteheads moved into a big house up the road, see. Plenty of money. He’s an architect, she’s a yoga teacher. Hot tub out the back, Range Rover in the drive – you know the type. People falling over themselves to get invited to the dinner parties.

‘Well, they had two boys. The younger one, Hugo, was a big mouth, real Flash Harry type. Younger’n Ty, he was twenty or something.

‘Anyway… Anne-Marie fell for Hugo, see. He’s a lovely lad, Ty,’ said Griffiths.

‘He’s never going to set the world alight, brains-wise, but he’s a really nice guy.

Worked in a garage over in Dawley, good with his hands.

I know him well, I gave him guitar lessons.

He talked to me a lot. And he hasn’t had it easy.

His parents… well, I say parents,’ said Griffiths, ‘he was adopted, see, but when he was one, his adoptive mum buggered off. Never wanted anything to do with him after that. No idea where she went. His dad married again, but neither of them really gave a toss about Ty. They both like a drink and a party, and when Ty’s stepmother inherited some money, Gill and Ivor buggered off to Florida.

That’s where they are now. Sod Ty. He was left squatting in the old house until it was sold. ’

‘But it hasn’t sold yet,’ said Robin, glancing through the back window at the Powells’ house.

‘No, because they haven’t had an offer they like, see That’s Ivor. He’s the type who wants to get every penny he can…’

Strike, who was making notes, thought instantly of Greg.

‘Couldn’t Tyler have gone with them to Florida?’ asked Robin.

‘Nah,’ said Griffiths. ‘Ty likes Ironbridge. ’S’all he knows, see.

Anyway, they didn’t want him. As far as they were concerned, he was twenty-five, time he was off on his own.

So, Anne-Marie’s left Ty for Hugo, and he doesn’t know when he’s going to be homeless – Chlo and me wanted to offer him our spare room, but – well, that was before… ’

‘Before?’ Robin prompted him.

‘Argh, it was difficult for Chlo,’ said Griffiths uncomfortably.

‘She an’ Ty were good friends when we first come here, but after what happened happened, people were turning on everyone who stuck up for Ty, so I s’pose…

I mean, you can’t blame her, really. But she changed her mind.

She didn’t want Ty living here, not after the crash…

‘I don’t know the ins and outs of what happened that night, but basically: there was some concert in Birmingham a group of them wanted to go to, but Hugo couldn’t get a lend of Daddy’s Range Rover, so he asked Ty if he and Anne-Marie could get a lift with him, see.

There was nothing in that,’ said Griffiths quickly.

‘Ty’s good-natured, see? He’d do anything for anyone.

But at the last minute, Ty says he’s feeling ill, see, but that Hugo can still borrow his car.

Ty loves cars. He got this one cheap and did it up.

It was his pride and bloody joy, so people are effing deluded thinking…

‘Anyway… Hugo had only just passed his test, and he crashed it. Anne-Marie was killed outright and Hugo was in a coma for three months. Brain dead, but his mother didn’t want to pull the plug.

‘People round here were upset,’ said Griffiths, ‘obviously. Anne-Marie was local, grew up in a flat over a sweet shop on the High Street. Everyone knew her. And Hugo being in the coma, and the Whiteheads being everyone’s flavour of the month…

‘And then the Whiteheads started putting it about that it couldn’t have been Hugo’s driving, see.

There must’ve been something up with Ty’s car – it wasn’t roadworthy, or whatever.

But then people started saying something had been done to the car.

Tampered with. They said Ty fixed the car to crash.

Revenge, see, on Hugo and Anne-Marie. Bullshit,’ said Griffiths fiercely.

‘Pure bullshit. But the rumours just went on, and everyone was looking sideways at Ty. Finally he came to me and said he’d had enough, he just wanted to clear – hang on,’ said Griffiths suddenly, getting to his feet and peering out of the window on to New Road.

‘That’s Dilys, she must’ve been up the church. I’ll get her, shall I?’