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“What? No No, I didn’t see anything like that Why, as it?”
“I don’t know,” said Strike “That’s what I’d like to find out”
“No, I didn’t see it Blue, did you say? No”
“Did you see any paper at all with her writing on it?”
“No, I can’t remember any papers No” She shook her hair out of her face “Iaround, but I wouldn’t have necessarily noticed it”
The rooed color, but he had not invented the way she twisted her right foot up on to her knee and exa that was not there
“Lula’s driver, Kieran Kolovas-Jones…”
“Oh, that really, really cute guy?” said Bryony “We used to tease her about Kieran; he had such a gigantic crush on her I think Ciara uses hile “She’s got a bit of a rep as a good-ti her, but…”
“Kolovas-Jones says that Lula riting so on blue paper in the back of his car, when she left her mother’s that day…”
“Have you talked to Lula’s mother yet? She’s a bit weird”
“…and I’d like to find out what it was”
Bryony flicked her cigarette stub out of the open door and shifted restlessly on the desk
“It could have been anything” He waited for the inevitable suggestion, and was not disappointed “A shopping list or so”
“Yeah, it could’ve been; but if, for the sake of argument, it was a suicide note…”
“But it wasn’t—I mean, that’s silly—how could it’ve been? Who’d write a suicide note that far in advance, and then get their face done and go out dancing? That doesn’t make any sense at all!”
“It doesn’t seeood to find out what it was”
“Maybe it had nothing to do with her dying Why couldn’t it have been a letter to Evan or so him how hacked off she was?”
“She doesn’t seem to have become hacked off with him until later that day Anyould she write a letter, when she had his telephone nuht?”
“I don’t know,” said Bryony restlessly “I’ that doesn’t make any difference”
“And you’re quite sure you didn’t see it?”
“Yes, I’htened “I was there to do a job, not go snooping around her stuff Is that everything, then?”
“Yeah, I think that’s all I’ve got to ask about that afternoon,” said Strike, “but youelse Do you know Tansy Bestigui?”
“No,” said Bryony “Only her sister, Ursula She’s hiredparties She’s awful”
“In ay?”
“Just one of those spoiled rich women—well,” said Bryony, with a twist to her mouth, “she isn’t nearly as rich as she’d like to be Both those Chillingha ht she’d hit the jackpot when she h for her She’s knocking forty now; the opportunities aren’t there the way they used to be I suppose that’s why she hasn’t been able to trade up”
Then, evidently feeling that her tone needed some explanation, she continued:
“I’ to her bloody voicees” Theat Strike “I mean, please She chucked me her mobile and told me to call her a cab, without so much as a bloody please or thank you I’ I know, she’s screa her bloody head off at me”
“Why do you think she was so upset?”
“Because I heard ain a hotel roo down on her, I expect,” said Bryony, coolly
“So sheup after all?” asked Strike
“That’s not up,” said Bryony; but then she added hastily, “I et back out there, or Guy will be going ballistic”
He let her go After she had left, he es of notes Bryony Radford had shown herself a highly unreliable witness, suggestible and mendacious, but she had told him much more than she knew
7
THE SHOOT LASTED FOR ANOTHER three hours Strike waited in the garden, s more bottled water, while dusk fell Fro to check on progress, which seeli instructions at the photographer or one of the black-clad minions who flitted between clothes racks Finally, at nearly nine o’clock, after Strike had consumed a few slices of the pizza that had been ordered by the morose and exhausted stylist’s assistant, Ciara Porter descended the stairs where she had been posing with her two colleagues, and joined Strike in thebare
Ciara was still wearing the stiff silver minidress in which she had posed for the last pictures Attenuated and angular, with milk-white skin, hair almost as fair, and pale blue eyes set very wide apart, she stretched out her endless legs, in platfor silver threads up her calves, and lit a Marlboro Light
“God, I can’t believe you’re Rokers’ son!” she said breathlessly, her chrysoberyl eyes and full lips both wide “Just beyond weird! I know him; he invited Looly and me to the Greatest Hits launch last year! And I know your brothers, Al and Eddie! They toldbrother in the army! God Mad Is that you done, Bryony?” Ciara added pointedly
The athering up the tools of her trade Now she sped up perceptibly, while Ciara smoked and watched her in silence
“Yep, that’sa heavy box over her shoulder and picking up more cases in each hand “See you, Ciara Goodbye,” she added to Strike, and left
“She is so bloody nosy, and such a gossip,” Ciara told Strike She threw back her long white hair, rearranged her coltish legs and asked:
“D’you see a lot of Al and Eddie?”
“No,” said Strike
“And yoursmoke out of the corner of her end You kno Baz Carroupie,’ and it was like, Bebe Buell and your mum were the whole inspiration? Maxi skirts and buttonless shirts and boots?”
“I didn’t,” said Strike
“Oh, it was, like—you know that great quote about Ossie Clark dresses, how men liked them because they could just, like, open theirls? That’s, like, your mum’s whole era”
She shook her hair out of her eyes again and gazed at hi and offensive appraisal of Tansy Bestigui, but in what seemed to be frank and open wonder It was difficult for hi her own character; her beauty got in the way, like a thick cobweb through which it was difficult to see her clearly
“So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you about Lula”
“God, yeah Yeah No, I really want to help When I heard soood At last”
“Really?”
“God, yeah The whole thing was so fucking shocking I just couldn’t believe it She’s still on my phone, look at this”
She ru a white iPhone Scrolling down the contact list, she leaned into hi him the name “Looly” Her perfume eet and peppery
“I keep expecting her to callthe phone back into her bag “I can’t delete her; I keep going to do it, and then just, like, bottling it, you know?”
She raised herself restlessly, twisted one of the long legs underneath her, sat back down and smoked in silence for a few seconds
“You ith her most of her last day, weren’t you?” Strike asked
“Don’t fucking re her eyes “I’ve only been over it, like, a o from, like, completely bloody happy to dead in, like, hours”
“She was completely happy?”