The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike, #2)(92)

‘I grew up there,’ said Strike.

But Chard was more interested in talking about Alfred Wallis. He mentioned again that the artist had only found his true métier late in life and embarked on an exposition of the artist’s works. Strike’s total lack of interest in the subject went unnoticed. Chard was not fond of eye contact. The publisher’s eyes slid from the painting to spots around the large brick interior, seeming to glance at Strike only incidentally.

‘You’re just back from New York, aren’t you?’ asked Strike when Chard drew breath.

‘A three-day conference, yes,’ said Chard and the flare of enthusiasm faded. He gave the impression of repeating stock phrases as he said, ‘Challenging times. The arrival of electronic reading devices has been a game-changer. Do you read?’ he asked Strike, point-blank.

‘Sometimes,’ said Strike. There was a battered James Ellroy in his flat that he had been intending to finish for four weeks, but most nights he was too tired to focus. His favourite book lay in one of the unpacked boxes of possessions on the landing; it was twenty years old and he had not opened it for a long time.

‘We need readers,’ muttered Daniel Chard. ‘More readers. Fewer writers.’

Strike suppressed the urge to retort, Well, you’ve got rid of one of them, at least.

Manny reappeared bearing a clear perspex tray on legs, which he set down in front of his employer. Chard leaned forward to pour the tea into tall white porcelain mugs. His leather furniture, Strike noted, did not emit the irritating sounds his own office sofa did, but then, it had probably cost ten times as much. The backs of Chard’s hands were as raw and painful-looking as they had been at the company party, and in the clear overhead lighting set into the underside of the hanging first floor he looked older than he had at a distance; sixty, perhaps, yet the dark, deep-set eyes, the hawkish nose and the thin mouth were handsome still in their severity.

‘He’s forgotten the milk,’ said Chard, scrutinising the tray. ‘Do you take milk?’

‘Yeah,’ said Strike.

Chard sighed, but instead of pressing the brass plate on the floor he struggled back onto his one sound foot and his crutches, and swung off towards the kitchen, leaving Strike staring thoughtfully after him.

Those who worked with him found Daniel Chard peculiar, although Nina had described him as shrewd. His uncontrolled rages about Bombyx Mori had sounded to Strike like the reaction of an over-sensitive man of questionable judgement. He remembered the slight sense of embarrassment emanating from the crowd as Chard mumbled his speech at the anniversary party. An odd man, hard to read…

Strike’s eyes drifted upwards. Snow was falling gently onto the clear roof high above the marble angel. The glass must be heated in some way, to prevent the snow settling, Strike concluded. And the memory of Quine, eviscerated and trussed, burned and rotting beneath a great vaulted window returned to him. Like Robin, he suddenly found the high glass ceiling of Tithebarn House unpleasantly reminiscent.

Chard re-emerged from the kitchen and swung back across the floor on his crutches, a small jug of milk held precariously in his hand.

‘You’ll be wondering why I asked you to come here,’ said Chard finally, when he had sat back down and each of them held his tea at last. Strike arranged his features to look receptive.

‘I need somebody I can trust,’ said Chard without waiting for Strike’s answer. ‘Someone outside the company.’

One darting glance at Strike and he fixed his eyes safely on his Alfred Wallis again.

‘I think,’ said Chard, ‘I may be the only person who’s realised that Owen Quine did not work alone. He had an accomplice.’

‘An accomplice?’ Strike repeated at last, as Chard seemed to expect a response.

‘Yes,’ said Chard fervently. ‘Oh yes. You see, the style of Bombyx Mori is Owen’s, but somebody else was in on it. Someone helped him.’

Chard’s sallow skin had flushed. He gripped and fondled the handle of one of the crutches beside him.

‘The police will be interested, I think, if this can be proven?’ said Chard, managing to look Strike full in the face. ‘If Owen was murdered because of what was written in Bombyx Mori, wouldn’t an accomplice be culpable?’

‘Culpable?’ repeated Strike. ‘You think this accomplice persuaded Quine to insert material in the book in the hope that a third party would retaliate murderously?’

‘I… well, I’m not sure,’ said Chard, frowning. ‘He might not have expected that to happen, precisely – but he certainly intended to wreak havoc.’

His knuckles were whitening as they tightened on the handle of his crutch.

‘What makes you think Quine had help?’ asked Strike.

‘Owen couldn’t have known some of the things that are insinuated in Bombyx Mori unless he’d been fed information,’ said Chard, now staring at the side of his stone angel.

‘I think the police’s main interest in an accomplice,’ said Strike slowly, ‘would be because he or she might have a lead on the killer.’

It was the truth, but it was also a way of reminding Chard that a man had died in grotesque circumstances. The identity of the murderer did not seem of pressing interest to Chard.

‘Do you think so?’ asked Chard with a faint frown.