Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3)(165)

“Nice one,” said Strike. “Press love a pedophile. I’d lead with that when you talk to them.”

Neither officer smiled. Strike bade them good morning and left, wondering whether he had any money on him for a taxi, smoking left-handed because the local anesthetic was wearing off in his right hand, his broken nose stinging in the cool morning air.


“Fuckin’ Yorkshire?” Shanker said over the phone when he called to tell Strike he had a car and the detective had told him where he wanted to go. “Yorkshire?”

“Masham,” Strike had replied. “Look, I’ve already told you: I’ll pay you anything you like when I get the money. It’s a wedding and I don’t want to miss it. Time’s going to be tight as it is—anything you like, Shanker, you’ve got my word on it, and I’ll pay you when I can.”

“’Oo’s gettin’ married?”

“Robin,” said Strike.

“Ah,” said Shanker. He had sounded pleased. “Yeah, well, in that case, Bunsen, I’ll drive ya. I toldja you shouldn’t’ve—”

“—yeah—”

“—Alyssa toldja—”

“Yeah, she did, bloody loudly too.”

Strike had a strong suspicion that Shanker was now sleeping with Alyssa. He could think of few other explanations for the speed with which he had suggested her when Strike had explained the need for a woman to play a safe but essential part in the entrapment of Donald Laing. She had demanded a hundred pounds for doing the job and had assured Strike that it would have been considerably more had she not considered herself deep in his partner’s debt.

“Shanker, we can talk about all this on the way. I need food and a shower. We’re going to be bloody lucky to make it.”

So here they were, speeding north in the Mercedes Shanker had borrowed; from where, Strike did not inquire. The detective, who had had barely any sleep in the previous couple of nights, dozed for the first sixty miles, waking with a snort only when his mobile buzzed in his suit pocket.

“Strike,” he said sleepily.

“Bloody good job, mate,” said Wardle.

His tone did not match his words. After all, Wardle had been in charge of the investigation when Ray Williams had been cleared of all suspicion in relation to Kelsey’s death.

“Cheers,” said Strike. “You realize you’re now the only copper in London still prepared to talk to me.”

“Ah well,” said Wardle, rallying slightly. “Quality over quantity. I thought you’d like to know: they’ve already found Richard and he’s sung like a canary.”

“Richard…” mumbled Strike.

He felt as though his exhausted brain had been purged of the details that had obsessed him for months. Trees poured soothingly past the passenger window in a rush of summer greenery. He felt as though he could sleep for days.

“Ritchie—Dickie—motorbike,” said Wardle.

“Oh yeah,” said Strike, absentmindedly scratching his stitched ear, then swearing. “Shit, that hurt—sorry—he’s talked already, has he?”

“He’s not what you’d call a bright boy,” said Wardle. “We found a bunch of stolen gear at his place as well.”

“I thought that might be how Donnie was funding himself. He’s always been a handy thief.”

“There was a little gang of them. Nothing major, just a lot of petty pilfering. Ritchie was the only one who knew Laing had a double identity; he thought he was working a benefits scam. Laing asked three of them to back him up and pretend their camping trip to Shoreham-by-Sea had been the weekend he killed Kelsey. Apparently he told them he had another bird somewhere and Hazel wasn’t to know.”

“He could always get people on side, Laing,” said Strike, remembering the investigating officer in Cyprus who had been so ready to clear him of rape.

“How did you realize they weren’t there that weekend?” asked Wardle curiously. “They had photos and everything… how did you know they weren’t on the stag the weekend she died?”

“Oh,” said Strike. “Sea holly.”

“What?”

“Sea holly,” repeated Strike. “Sea holly isn’t in bloom in April. Summer and autumn—I spent half my childhood in Cornwall. The picture of Laing and Ritchie on the beach… there was sea holly. I should’ve realized then… but I kept getting sidetracked.”

After Wardle had hung up, Strike stared through the windscreen at the passing fields and trees, thinking back over the past three months. He doubted that Laing had ever known about Brittany Brockbank, but he had probably dug around enough to know the story of Whittaker’s trial, the quoting of “Mistress of the Salmon Salt” from the dock. Strike felt as though Laing had laid drag trails for him, without any idea how successful they would be.

Shanker turned on the radio. Strike, who would have preferred to go back to sleep, did not complain, but wound down the window and smoked out of it. In the steadily brightening sunshine he realized that the Italian suit he had pulled on automatically was flecked with small amounts of gravy and red wine. He rubbed off the worst of the dried-on stains, until reminded suddenly of something else.

“Oh, f*ck.”

“Whassamatter?”