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Strike froze, listening, panicking He had not returned Charlotte’s call He tried to make out her tone and inflection; it would be like her to come in person and overwhelm his temp with charm, to make of his ally a friend, to saturate his own staff with Charlotte’s version of the truth The two voices ain, and he could not tell whose they were

“Hi, Stick,” said a cheery voice as he pushed open the glass door

His sister, Lucy, was sitting on the sagging sofa, with her hands around a s from Marks and Spencer and John Lewis heaped all around her

Strike’s first surge of relief that she was not Charlotte was nevertheless tainted with a lesser dread of what she and Robin had been talking about, and how much each of the, he noticed that Robin had, again, closed the inner door on the ca

“Robin says you’ve been out detecting” Lucy seeh spirits, as she so often hen she was out alone, unencu and the boys

“Yeah, we do that so?”

“Yes, Sherlock, I have”

“D’you want to go out for a coffee?”

“I’ve already got one, Stick,” she said, holding up thea bit?”

“Not that I’ve noticed”

“Have you seen Mr Chakrabati recently?”

“Fairly recently,” lied Strike

“If it’s all right,” said Robin, as putting on her trench coat, “I’ll take lunch, Mr Strike I haven’t had any yet”

The resolution of o, to treat her with professional froideur, now seemed not only unnecessary but unkind She had more tact than any woman he had ever met

“That’s fine, Robin, yeah,” he said

“Nice to meet you, Lucy,” Robin said, and with a wave she disappeared, closing the glass door behind her

“I really like her,” said Lucy enthusiastically, as Robin’s footsteps clanged away “She’s great You should try and get her to stay on permanently”

“Yeah, she’s good,” said Strike “What were you two having such a laugh about?”

“Oh, her fiancé—he sounds a bit like Greg Robin says you’ve got an iht She was very discreet She says it’s a suspicious suicide That can’t be very nice”

She gave hiful look he chose not to understand

“It’s not the first time I had a couple of those in the army, too”

But he doubted that Lucy was listening She had taken a deep breath He kneas co

“Stick, have you and Charlotte split up?”

Better get it over with

“Yeah, we have”

“Stick!”

“It’s fine, Luce I’m fine”

But her good huush of fury and disappointment Strike waited patiently, exhausted and sore, while she raged: she had known all along, known that Charlotte would do it all over again; she had lured him away from Tracey, and from his fantastic army career, rendered him as insecure as possible, persuaded him to move in, only to dump him—

“I ended it, Luce,” he said, “and Tracey and I were over before…” but he ht as well have commanded lava to flow backwards: why hadn’t he realized that Charlotte would never change, that she had only returned to him for the drama of the situation, attracted by his injury and his ot bored; she was dangerous and wicked;in the pain she inflicted…

“I left her, it was my choice…”

“Where have you been living? When did this happen? That absolute bloody bitch—no, I’ to pretend anyh—oh God, Stick, why didn’t you marry Tracey?”

“Luce, let’s not do this, please”

He s, full, he saw, of small pants and socks for her sons, and sat down heavily on the sofa He knew he looked grubby and scruffy Lucy seee of tears; her day out in toas ruined

“I suppose you haven’t told

“It ht’ve been a consideration”

“All right, I’ with tears “But that bitch, Stick Oh God, tell o back to her Please just tell me that”

“I’ back to her”

“Where are you staying—Nick and Ilsa’s?”

“No I’ve got a little place in Hammersmith” (the first place that occurred to him, associated, noith homelessness) “Bedsit”

“Oh Stick…come and stay with us!”

He had a fleeting vision of the all-blue spare roo’s forced smile

“Luce, I’et on ork and be on my own for a bit”

It took hiuilty that she had lost her teized, then atteered another diatribe about Charlotte When she finally decided to leave, he helped her downstairs with her bags, successfully distracting her from the boxes full of his possessions that still stood on the landing, and finally depositing her into a black cab at the end of Denmark Street

Her round, mascara-streaked face looked back at hirin and a wave before lighting another cigarette, and reflecting that Lucy’s idea of syation techniques they had used at Guantanamo

10

ROBIN HAD FALLEN INTO THE habit of buying Strike a pack of sandwiches with her own, if he happened to be in the office over lunchti herself from petty cash

Today, however, she did not hurry back She had noticed, though Lucy had seemed oblivious, how unhappy Strike had been to find them in conversation His expression, when he had entered the office, had been every bit as grim as the first time they had met

Robin hoped that she had not said anything to Lucy that Strike would not like Lucy had not exactly pried, but she had asked questions to which it was difficult to know the answer

“Have you met Charlotte yet?”

Robin guessed that this was the stunning ex-wife or girlfriend whose exit she had witnessed on her first , however, so she answered:

“No, I haven’t”

“Funny” Lucy had given a disingenuous little sht she’d have wanted to meet you”

For some reason, Robin had felt prompted to reply:

“I’m only temporary”

“Still,” said Lucy, who seemed to understand the answer better than Robin did herself