Page 264 of The Running Grave

‘That’s the joke! I haven’t told them a tenth of it! I had to say I didn’t get enough food, because that’s obvious, and they know I’m not sleeping very well –’ Robin wasn’t about to admit she’d woken herself up the previous evening by yelping loudly in her sleep ‘– but given what I could have said – and I think Ryan’s been winding them up, telling them how worried he was, all the time I was in there. He’s trying to get an earlier flight home from Spain, but honestly, the last thing I need is for him and my mother to get together… oh, and they’ve put up a huge poster of Jonathan Wace on the side of a building just up the road.’

‘Advertising his Super Service at Olympia? Yeah, it’s everywhere.’

‘I feel like I can’t get away from… sorry, I know I’m ranting,’ said Robin, exhaling as she leaned up against a convenient wall and watched the passing traffic. At least she couldn’t see Wace’s face from here. ‘Tell me about Colin Edensor. How did he take it all?’

‘About as well as could be expected,’ said Strike. ‘Full of praise for you and all the leads you got. He’s approved funds to try and find Lin and get Emily out, but he’s far less enthused by the idea of debunking Daiyu’s myth. Can’t say that was a surprise. I know full well it’s a long shot.’

‘The police still haven’t got back to me about Jacob.’

‘Well, getting warrants take time,’ said Strike, ‘although I’d have thought they’d have been in touch by now, given it’s a dying child.’

‘Well, exactly. Listen, Strike, I really think I could—’

‘You’re taking this week off,’ said Strike. ‘You need to catch up on sleep and get some food into you. A doctor would probably say it should be longer.’

‘Listen, you know how Jiang said he’d recognised someone who’d been at Chapman Farm a long time ago? Did I tell you that, I can’t remember?’

‘You did,’ said Strike, who considered it a bad sign that Robin’s conversation was jumping around so much, ‘yes.’

‘OK, so I’ve been trying to find out who that could be, and I think—’

‘Robin—’

‘—it must be either Marion Huxley or Walter Fernsby. Jiang made it sound like they’d just come back, and they were the only ones of the recent intake who’re old enough to have been there years ago. So I’ve been trying to trace—’

‘This can wait,’ said Strike loudly, talking over her. ‘This can all wait.’

‘For God’s sake, you sound like my mother! She keeps interrupting me when I’m trying to look things up, like I’m some – some geriatric convalescent.’

‘I don’t think you’re a geriatric convalescent,’ said Strike patiently, ‘I just think you need a break. If either Walter or Marion were there before, we can look into it when you’re—’

‘Don’t say “better”, I’m not ill. Strike, I want to get that bloody church, I want to find something on them, I want—’

‘I know what you want, and I want the same thing, but I don’t want my partner having a breakdown.’

‘I’m not—’

‘Get some rest, eat some food and calm the fuck down. Listen,’ he added, before she could respond. ‘I’m going to drive to Thornbury on Monday to try and interview Cherie Gittins – or Carrie Curtis Woods, as she is now. She’ll be back from her holidays, her husband should be at work, and I think she’ll be home with her kids, because there’s no indication of her having a job on her Facebook page. D’you fancy coming with me to interview her?’

‘Oh God, yes,’ said Robin fervently. ‘That’ll give me an excuse to get rid of my parents, telling them I’m going back to work. Much more of this will tip me over the edge. What are you up to for the rest of the day?’

‘On the Franks this evening,’ said Strike. ‘Everything’s in place for them to make their big move and they still haven’t bloody done it. Wish they’d hurry up.’

‘You want them to try and abduct Tasha Mayo?’

‘Honestly, yes. Then we can get the bastards arrested. Did I tell you one of them’s been done for stalking and the other one for flashing? And that they’re using a different surname to the one they used to have? A good reminder to all of us that oddballs aren’t necessarily harmless.’

‘I’ve been thinking about that constantly since I got out of Chapman Farm,’ said Robin. ‘Thinking about how the church has got so big, and how they’ve got away with it, all this time. People have just let them get on with it… a bit weird, but harmless…’

‘If you’d met my mother,’ said Strike, who was now waiting to cross Charing Cross Road, ‘you’d have seen the purest example of that mindset I’ve ever come across. It was a point of pride with her to like anyone who was a bit off. In fact, the more off, the better, which is how I ended up with Shanker as a stepbrother – speaking of whom, he rang me last night to say Jordan Reaney’s back in the nick, but they’re keeping him on suicide watch.’

‘Are you thinking of interviewing him again?’

‘Don’t think there’s any point. I think he’ll keep shtum even if Shanker’s mates beat the shit out of him again. That’s a very frightened man.’

‘Frightened of the Drowned Prophet?’ said Robin, to whom Strike had related the story of his encounter with Reaney on their drive back to London from Felbrigg Lodge.

‘There wasn’t a Drowned Prophet when Reaney was in the church, Daiyu was still alive for most of his time there. No, the more I think about it, the more I think what’s scaring Reaney is a gate arrest.’