Page 316 of The Running Grave

‘Then perhaps, if I give you some extra money, you could pass that on, too, so he can buy some clothing, without saying where the money came from? I hate to think of him wandering around in that UHC tracksuit.’

‘Fine,’ said Strike.

‘You said you had more to tell me, in person.’

‘That’s right,’ said Strike.

He proceeded to give the Edensors full details of their interview the previous day with Will. When Strike had finished, there was a short silence. Then Ed said,

‘So basically, he wants you to find this Lin girl, then turn himself in to the police?’

‘Exactly,’ said Strike.

‘But you don’t know what he’s done, to warrant arrest?’

‘It could just be sleeping with Lin when she was underage,’ said Robin.

‘Well, I’ve spoken to my lawyers,’ said Sir Colin, ‘and their view is that if Will’s worried about the statutory rape charge – and we’ve currently got no reason to suppose he’s done worse than that – immunity from prosecution could be arranged, if he’s prepared to give evidence against the church, and Lin doesn’t want to press charges. Extenuating circumstances, coercion and so on – Rentons think he’d have a good chance of immunity.’

‘It’s not quite as simple as that,’ Robin said. ‘As Cormoran’s said, Will believes the Drowned Prophet will come for him if he—’

‘But he’s prepared to talk, right?’ said Ed, ‘Once this girl Lin’s found?’

‘Yes, but only because—’

‘Then we get him some psychotherapy, explain to him clearly that there’s no need for him to go to jail if immunity’s arranged—’

Robin, who’d liked Ed on their first meeting, found herself frustrated and angered by the slight trace of patronage in his voice. He seemed to think she was making difficulties about matters that, to him, were completely straightforward. While Robin had no intention of pressing charges against Will for assaulting her, the memory of him advancing on her, naked, penis in hand, in the Retreat Room was among the memories of Chapman Farm that would take a long time to fade. The Edensors were not only operating in ignorance of what Will had endured, they were also failing to comprehend the full scope of what he’d done to others; compassionate though Robin felt towards Will, she remained most worried about Lin.

‘The problem is,’ she said, ‘Will wants to go to jail. He’s institutionalised and riddled with guilt. If you offer him psychotherapy, he’ll refuse.’

‘That’s quite a presumption,’ said Ed, raising his eyebrows. ‘It hasn’t been offered yet. And you’re contradicting yourself: you just said he’s scared of the Drowned Prophet coming for him, if he talks. How’s he going to serve a prison term, if he’s – what does the Drowned Prophet do, exactly? Put curses on people? Kill them?’

‘You’re asking Robin to explain the irrational,’ said Strike, who allowed all the impatience into his voice that his partner was carefully repressing. ‘Will’s on a kind of kamikaze mission. Make sure Qing’s safely with her mother, then ’fess up to everything he’s done wrong, and either get sent down, or let the Prophet take him out.’

‘And you’re suggesting we allow him to implement this plan?’

‘Not at all,’ said Robin, before Strike could speak. ‘We’re simply saying Will needs very careful handling right now. He’s got to feel safe, and that he’s in control, and if he knows we’ve told his family he’s out, he might take off again. If we can just find Lin—’

‘What d’you mean, “if”?’ said James, from over beside the coffee machine. ‘Dad told us you know where she is.’

‘We think she’s at Zhou’s Borehamwood clinic,’ said Strike, ‘and we’ve just put someone in there undercover – but we can’t know she’s there until we’re inside.’

‘So we’re going to mollycoddle Will, and let him have it all his own way as usual, are we?’ said James. ‘If I were you,’ he said to the back of his father’s head, ‘I’d go straight over to this Pat woman’s house and tell him he’s caused enough bloody trouble and it’s time he got a grip.’

He now turned the coffee machine back on. Raising his voice over the loud grinding noise, Strike said,

‘If your father did that, the risk to Will might be bigger than you realise, and I’m not just talking about his mental health. On Monday, a masked figure holding a gun tried to break into our office, possibly to get their hands on the UHC case file,’ said Strike. Shock now registered on all three Edensors’ faces. ‘The church now knows they’ve had a private investigator undercover with them for sixteen weeks. Will had direct, one-on-one contact with Robin before he escaped, which means the UHC might assume he’s now told her everything he’s feeling so guilty about.

‘Will’s also taken off with Wace’s granddaughter. Wace doesn’t seem particularly attached to either Lin or Qing, but he values his own bloodline enough to keep all the children related to him at the farm, so I doubt he’s going to be happy Qing’s disappeared. Meanwhile, if we can get word to Lin that Qing’s out, it makes it very likely she’ll want to leave. Lin grew up in the church and is likely to know a damn sight more than Will does about what goes on in there.

‘In short, Will’s got his finger in the ring pull of a large can of worms which, incidentally, also incriminates a well-known novelist, who appears to be going to Chapman Farm to sleep with young girls, and an actress who’s been pouring money into a dangerous and abusive organisation. As far as we know, the church has no idea yet where Will is, but if family members start visiting him, or if he starts visiting family lawyers, that could change. We think we were followed here this morning—’

‘We aren’t sure,’ said Robin, in response to the increasing alarm on Sir Colin’s face.

‘—by a red Vauxhall Corsa,’ said Strike, as though there’d been no interruption. ‘I’d advise you to keep an eye out for it. It’s possible the UHC is keeping tabs on us, and on you.’

There was a brief, appalled silence.