Page 310 of The Running Grave

Robin looked up at him.

‘I know why you’re saying this, Stri—’

‘It’s the truth. This is the job, as well as the other thing.’

But Robin drew little comfort from his words. It would take more than the unexpected escape of Will Edensor to erase her mental image of Carrie’s two little girls crying for their mother.

They returned to the office. Both Will and Qing were devouring slices of pizza, Will ravenously, Qing looking as though she was experiencing nirvana.

‘So how did you do it, Will?’ Robin asked, sitting down again. ‘How did you get out?’

Will swallowed a large mouthful of pizza and said,

‘Stole twenty pounds from Mazu’s office. Went to the classroom when Shawna was in charge. Said Qing had to see Dr Zhou. Shawna believed me. Ran across the field. Climbed out at the blind spot, like you did. Flagged down a car. Woman took us to Norwich.’

Robin, who fully appreciated how difficult every single part of this plan would have been to execute, said,

‘That’s incredible. And then you hitched to London?’

‘Yeah,’ said Will.

‘But how on earth did you find our office?’

Will pushed the plastic bag at his feet towards Robin with his toe, rather than dislodge the child on his lap. Robin bent to pick it up and extracted the plastic rock.

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘It was you who moved it… but it was empty. There weren’t any letters in it.’

‘I know,’ said Will, his mouth full of pizza, ‘but I worked it out. After what – after the Retreat Room –’ he dropped his gaze to the floor again – ‘I sneaked out at night to see if there was anything on the edge of the woods, because Lin had seen you with the torch, and I thought you must be an investigator. I found the rock and looked inside, and there were imprints on the paper, from what you’d written on the sheets on top, so I could tell I was right, and you’d been writing about what was going on at Chapman Farm. After you left, Vivienne was telling everyone you’d answered to “Robin” in Norwich, and Taio said there was a big guy waiting for you at the blind spot when you escaped. So I looked up “Robin” and “detective” in a library in Norwich – got a lift to London – and—’

‘Bloody hell,’ said Strike, ‘we’ve been told you’re bright, but this is impressive.’

Will neither looked at Strike nor acknowledged his words, except by a slight frown. Robin suspected this was because Will knew it must have been Sir Colin who’d told the two detectives his son was clever.

‘Water,’ said Pat, as Qing began to cough, because she’d stuffed so much pizza into her mouth.

Robin joined Pat at the sink to help her fill glasses.

‘Could you distract Qing,’ Robin whispered to the office manager, the sound of running water drowning her voice, ‘while Strike and I talk to Will in our office? He might not want to talk openly in front of her.’

‘No problem,’ said Pat, in the growl that was her whisper. ‘Say the name again?’

‘Qing.’

‘Kind of name’s that?’

‘Chinese.’

‘Huh… mind you, my great-granddaughter’s called Tanisha. Sanskrit,’ said Pat, with a slight eye roll.

When Pat and Robin had handed out glasses of water, Pat said gruffly,

‘Qing, look at these.’

She’d taken a block of bright orange Post-it notes out of her desk.

‘They come off, look,’ said Pat. ‘And they stick to things.’

Fascinated, the little girl slid off Will’s lap, but still clung to his knee. Having seen the other children at Chapman Farm, Robin was glad of this sign that Qing knew her father was a place of safety.