Lethal White

Strike’s thoughts drifted to Robin as he sat down at her computer. He had never asked her what her ultimate ambition for the agency was, assuming, perhaps arrogantly, that it was the same as his: build up a sufficient bank balance to ensure them both a decent income while they took the work that was most interesting, without fear of losing everything the moment they lost a client. But perhaps Robin was waiting for him to initiate a talk along the lines that Greg had suggested? He tried to imagine her reaction, if he invited her to sit down on the farting sofa while he subjected her to a PowerPoint display setting out long-term objectives and suggestions for branding.

As he set to work, thoughts of Robin metamorphosed into memories of Charlotte. He remembered how it had been on days like this while they had been together, when he had required uninterrupted hours alone at a computer. Sometimes Charlotte had taken herself out, often making an unnecessary mystery about where she was going, or invented reasons to interrupt him, or pick a fight that kept him pinned down while the precious hours trickled away. And he knew that he was reminding himself how difficult and exhausting that behavior had been, because ever since he had seen her at Lancaster House, Charlotte had slid in and out of his disengaged mind like a stray cat.

A little under eight hours, seven cups of tea, three bathroom breaks, four cheese sandwiches, three bags of crisps, an apple and twenty-two cigarettes later, Strike had repaid all his subcontractors’ expenses, ensured that the accountant had the firm’s latest receipts, read Hutchins’ updated report on Dodgy Doc and tracked several Aamir Malliks across cyberspace in search of the one he wanted to interview. By five o’clock he thought he had him, but the photograph was so far from “handsome,” which was how Mallik had been described in the blind item online, that he thought it best to email Robin a copy of the pictures he had found on Google Images, to confirm that this was the Mallik he sought.

Strike stretched, yawning, listening to a drum solo that a prospective purchaser was banging out in a shop below in Denmark Street. Looking forward to getting back upstairs and watching the day’s Olympic highlights, which would include Usain Bolt running the hundred meters, he was on the point of shutting off his computer when a small “ping” alerted him to the arrival of an email from [email protected], the subject line reading simply: “You and me.”

Strike rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms, as though the sight of the new email had been some temporary aberration of sight. However, there it sat at the top of his inbox when he raised his head and opened his eyes again.

“Oh, shit,” he muttered. Deciding that he might as well know the worst, he clicked on it.

The email ran to nearly a thousand words and gave the impression of having been carefully crafted. It was a methodical dissection of Strike’s character, which read like the case notes for a psychiatric case that, while not hopeless, required urgent intervention. By Lorelei’s analysis, Cormoran Strike was a fundamentally damaged and dysfunctional creature standing in the way of his own happiness. He caused pain to others due to the essential dishonesty of his emotional dealings. Never having experienced a healthy relationship, he ran from it when it was given to him. He took those who cared about him for granted and would probably only realize this when he hit rock bottom, alone, unloved and tortured by regrets.

This prediction was followed by a description of the soul-searching and doubts that had preceded Lorelei’s decision to send the email, rather than simply tell Strike that their no-strings arrangement was at an end. She concluded that she thought it fairest to him to explain in writing why she, and by implication every other woman in the world, would find him unacceptable unless he changed his behavior. She asked him to read and think about what she had said “understanding that this doesn’t come from a place of anger, but of sadness,” and requested a further meeting so that they could “decide whether you want this relationship enough to try a different way.”

After reaching the bottom of the email, Strike remained where he was, staring at the screen, not because he was contemplating a response, but because he was gathering himself for the physical pain he was anticipating upon standing up. At last he pushed himself up into a vertical position, flinching as he lowered his weight onto the prosthesis, then closed down his computer and locked up the office.

Why can’t we can’t end it by phone? he thought, heaving himself up the stairs by using the handrail. It’s obvious it’s fucking dead, isn’t it? Why do we have to have a post-mortem?

Back in the flat, he lit another cigarette, dropped down onto a kitchen chair and called Robin, who answered almost immediately.

“Hi,” she said quietly. “Just a moment.”

He heard a door close, footsteps, and another door closing.

“Did you get my email? Just sent you a couple of pictures.”

“No,” said Robin, keeping her voice low. “Pictures of what?”

“I think I’ve found Mallik living in Battersea. Pudgy bloke with a monobrow.”

“That’s not him. He’s tall and thin with glasses.”

“So I’ve just wasted an hour,” said Strike, frustrated. “Didn’t he ever let slip where he was living? What he liked to do at the weekends? National Insurance number?”

“No,” said Robin, “we barely spoke. I’ve already told you this.”

“How’s the disguise coming along?”

Robin had already told Strike by text that she had an interview on Thursday with the “mad Wiccan” who ran the jewelry shop in Camden.

“Not bad,” said Robin. “I’ve been experimenting with—”

There was a muffled shout in the background.

“Sorry, I’m going to have to go,” Robin said hastily.

“Everything OK?”

“It’s fine, speak tomorrow.”

She hung up. Strike remained with the mobile at his ear. He deduced that he had called during a difficult moment for Robin, possibly even a row, and lowered the mobile with faint disappointment at not having had a longer chat. For a moment or two, he contemplated the mobile in his hand. Lorelei would be expecting him to call as soon as he had read her email. Deciding that he could credibly claim not to have seen it yet, Strike put down his phone and reached instead for the TV remote control.

46

… I should have handled the affair more judiciously.

Henrik Ibsen, Rosmersholm

Four days later, at lunchtime, Strike was to be found leaning up against a counter in a tiny takeaway pizza restaurant, which was most conveniently situated for watching a house directly across the street. One of a pair of brown brick semi-detached houses, the name “Ivy Cottages” was engraved in stone over the twin doors, which seemed to Strike more fitting for humbler dwellings than these houses, which had graceful arched windows and corniced keystones.

Chewing on a slice of pizza, Strike felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He checked to see who was calling before answering, because he had already had one fraught conversation with Lorelei today. Seeing that it was Robin, he answered.

“I’m in,” said Robin. She sounded excited. “Just had my interview. The owner’s dreadful, I’m not surprised nobody wants to work for her. It’s a zero-hours contract. Basically, she wants a couple of people to fill in whenever she fancies not working.”

“Flick still there?”

“Yes, she was manning the counter while I was talking to the shop owner. The woman wants to give me a trial tomorrow.”

“You weren’t followed?”

“No, I think that journalist has given up. He wasn’t here yesterday either. Mind you, he probably wouldn’t have recognized me even if he’d seen me. You should see my hair.”

“Why, what have you done with it?”

“Chalk.”

“What?”

“Hair chalk,” said Robin. “Temporary color. It’s black and blue. And I’m wearing a lot of eye makeup and some temporary tattoos.”

“Send us a selfie, I could do with some light relief.”

/>

“Make your own. What’s going on your end?”

“Bugger all. Mallik came out of Della’s house with her this morning—”

“God, are they living together?”

“No idea. They went out somewhere in a taxi with the guide dog. They came back an hour ago and I’m waiting to see what happens next. One interesting thing, though: I’ve seen Mallik before. Recognized him the moment I saw him this morning.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, he was at Jimmy’s CORE meeting. The one I went to, to try and find Billy.”

“How weird… D’you think he was acting as a go-between for Geraint?”

“Maybe,” said Strike, “but I can’t see why the phone wouldn’t have done if they wanted to keep in touch. You know, there’s something funny about Mallik generally.”

“He’s all right,” said Robin quickly. “He didn’t like me, but that was because he was suspicious. That just means he’s sharper than most of the rest of them.”

“You don’t fancy him as a killer?”

“Is this because of what Kinvara said?”

“‘My husband provoked somebody, somebody I warned him he shouldn’t upset,’” Strike quoted.

“And why should anyone be particularly worried about upsetting Aamir? Because he’s brown? I felt sorry for him, actually, having to work with—”

“Hang on,” said Strike, letting his last piece of pizza fall back onto the plate.

The front door of Della’s house had opened again.

“We’re off,” said Strike, as Mallik came out of the house alone, closed the door behind him, walked briskly down the garden path, and set off down the road. Strike headed out of the pizzeria in pursuit.

“Got a spring in his step now. He looks happy to be away from her…”

“How’s your leg?”

“It’s been worse. Hang on, he’s turning left… Robin, I’m going to go, need to speed up a bit.”

“Good luck.”

“Cheers.”

Strike crossed Southwark Park Road as quickly as his leg permitted, then turned into Alma Grove, a long residential street with plane trees planted at regular intervals, and Victorian terraced houses on both sides. To Strike’s surprise, Mallik stopped at a house on the right, with a turquoise door, and let himself inside. The distance between his place of residence and that of the Winns’ was five minutes’ walk at most.

The houses in Alma Grove were narrow and Strike could well imagine loud noises traveling easily through the walls. Giving Mallik what he judged to be sufficient time to remove his jacket and shoes, Strike approached the turquoise door and knocked.

After a few seconds’ wait, Aamir opened up. His expression changed from pleasant inquiry to shock. Aamir evidently knew exactly who Strike was.

“Aamir Mallik?”

The younger man did not speak at first, but stood frozen with one hand on the door, the other on the hall wall, looking at Strike with dark eyes shrunken by the thickness of the lenses in his glasses.

“What do you want?”

“A chat,” said Strike.

“Why? What for?”

“Jasper Chiswell’s family have hired me. They aren’t sure he committed suicide.”

Appearing temporarily paralyzed, Aamir neither moved nor spoke. Finally, he stood back from the door.

“All right, come in.”

In Aamir’s position, Strike too would have wanted to know what the detective knew or suspected, rather than wondering through fretful nights why he had called. Strike entered and wiped his feet on the doormat.

The house was larger inside than it had appeared outside. Aamir led Strike through a door on the left into a sitting room. The décor was, very obviously, the taste of a person far older than Aamir. A thick, patterned carpet of swirling pinks and greens, a number of chintz-covered chairs, a wooden coffee table with a lace cloth laid over it and an ornamental edged mirror over the mantelpiece all spoke of geriatric occupants, while an ugly electric heater had been installed in the wrought iron fireplace. Shelves were bare, surfaces denuded of ornaments or other objects. A Stieg Larsson paperback lay on the arm of a chair.

Aamir turned to face Strike, hands in the pockets of his jeans.

“You’re Cormoran Strike,” he said.

“That’s right.”

“It was your partner who was pretending to be Venetia, at the Commons.”

“Right again.”

“What d’you want?” Aamir asked, for the second time.

“To ask you a few questions.”

“About what?”

“OK if I sit down?” asked Strike, doing so without waiting for permission. He noticed Aamir’s eyes drop to his leg, and stretched out the prosthesis ostentatiously, so that a glint of the metal ankle could be seen above his sock. To a man so considerate of Della’s disability, this might be sufficient reason not to ask Strike to get up again. “As I said, the family doesn’t think Jasper Chiswell killed himself.”

“You think I had something to do with his death?” asked Aamir, trying for incredulity and succeeding only in sounding scared.

“No,” said Strike, “but if you want to blurt out a confession, feel free. It’ll save me a lot of work.”

Aamir didn’t smile.

“The only thing I know about you, Aamir,” said Strike, “is that you were helping Geraint Winn blackmail Chiswell.”

“I wasn’t,” said Aamir at once.

It was the automatic, ill-considered denial of a panicked man.

“You weren’t trying to get hold of incriminating photographs to use against him?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The press are trying to break your bosses’ super-injunction. Once the blackmail’s out in the public domain, your part in it won’t remain hidden for long. You and your friend Christopher—”

“He’s not my friend!”

Aamir’s vehemence interested Strike.

“D’you own this house, Aamir?”

“What?”

“Just seems a big place for a twenty-four-year-old on what can’t be a big salary—”

“It’s none of your business who owns this—”

“I don’t care, personally,” said Strike, leaning forwards, “but the papers will. You’ll look beholden to the owners if you aren’t paying a fair rent. It could seem like you owed them something, like you’re in their pocket. The tax office will also consider it a benefit in kind if it’s owned by your employers, which could cause problems for both—”

“How did you know where to find me?” Aamir demanded.

“Well, it wasn’t easy,” Strike admitted. “You don’t have much of an online life, do you? But in the end,” he said, reaching for a sheaf of folded paper in the inside pocket of his jacket, and unfolding them, “I found your sister’s Facebook page. That is your sister, right?”

He laid the piece of paper, on which he had printed the Facebook post, on the coffee table. A plumply pretty woman in a hijab beamed up out of the poor reproduction of her photograph, surrounded by four young children. Taking Aamir’s silence for assent, Strike said:

“I went back through a few years’ worth of posts. That’s you,” he said, laying a second printed page on top of the first. A younger Aamir stood smiling in academic robes, flanked by his parents. “You took a first in politics and economics at LSE. Very impressive…

“And you got onto a graduate training program at the Foreign Office,” Strike continued, placing a third sheet down on top of the first two. This showed an official, posed photograph of a small group of smartly dressed young men and women, all black or from other ethnic minorities, standing around a balding, florid-faced man. “There you are,” said Strike, “with senior civil servant Sir Christopher Barrowclough-Burns, who at that time was running a diversity recruitment drive.”

Aamir’s eye twitched.

“And here you are again,” said Strike, laying down the last of his four printe

d Facebook pages, “just a month ago, with your sister in that pizza place right opposite Della’s house. Once I identified where it was and realized how close it was to the Winns’ place, I thought it might be worth coming to Bermondsey to see whether I could spot you in the vicinity.”

Aamir stared down at the picture of himself and his sister. She had taken the selfie. Southwark Park Road was clearly visible behind them, through the window.

“Where were you at 6 a.m. on the thirteenth of July?” Strike asked Aamir.

“Here.”

“Could anyone corroborate that?”

“Yes. Geraint Winn.”

“Had he stayed the night?”

Aamir advanced a few steps, fists raised. It could not have been plainer that he had never boxed, but nevertheless, Strike tensed. Aamir looked close to breaking point.

“All I’m saying,” said Strike, holding up his hands pacifically, “is that 6 a.m. is an odd time for Geraint Winn to be at your house.”

Aamir slowly lowered his fists, then, as though he did not know what else to do with himself, he backed away to sit down on the edge of the seat of the nearest armchair.

“Geraint came round to tell me Della had had a fall.”

“Couldn’t he have phoned?”

“I suppose so, but he didn’t,” said Aamir. “He wanted me to help him persuade Della to go to casualty. She’d slipped down the last few stairs and her wrist was swelling up. I went round there—they only live round the corner—but I couldn’t persuade her. She’s stubborn. Anyway, it turned out to be only a sprain, not a break. She was fine.”