Page 111 of The Hallmarked Man
‘The nef wasn’t – he didn’t – you don’t know what went on,’ said Albie.
‘I’m here to find out what went on,’ said Robin.
Albie took a deep breath, then said in a low voice,
‘Look – Mr Longcaster’s a bully. He hardly likes anyone except his daughter Cosima, and that’s only because she’s thin and blonde and good-looking. Even Valentine’s scared of his father. Mr Longcaster was a shit to Decima, even though she came to help him out at the club, and she’s talented, she really is, she’s a good chef. But it’s all surface with Mr Longcaster, you’ve got to look right, it’s all about being beautiful and stylish – being a bit plump or whatever, or not knowing how to dress, that’s, like, I dunno, a – a sin. And Decima and Rupe, they don’t look the way Mr Longcaster wants people in his club and his family to look. You think I’m exaggerating, but that’s how he lives, everything’s got to be perfect, the way the napkins are folded, how chilled the cocktails are, how thin the waitresses are – I’m not kidding – he finds a way of forcing girls out if he decides they don’t look right. He wants to live in this – this completely controlled world… Rupe burned his hand really badly in the kitchen, a couple of days before he left, and Mr Longcaster was just angry. Said he didn’t want his waiters wearing bandages, that they didn’t look smart.
‘And he used to call Rupe “the jellyfish”. Any time he did anything wrong – and Rupe’s a hard worker, it was only small mistakes – he’d call him the jellyfish and he worked up a comedy bit about it.’ Albie looked truly angry now. ‘“Blob of brainless, semi-sentient matter”, stuff like that. “Invasive species, fundamentally pointless.” And he talked about Rupe’s father.’
‘What did he say?’
‘That Rupe was just like him. “A drip off the old blob”, that was his favourite. And once, Rupe was serving Mr Longcaster and his friends a private dinner in Dostoevsky – that’s one of the rooms, they’re all named after famous gamblers – and Mr Longcaster pointed out the nef to one of his friends in front of Rupert, and said he’d won it off his waiter’s father, and then he said Peter Fleetwood was “even worse at backgammon than he was at skiing”. And that’s how Rupe’s parentsdied,’ said Albie, and he was no longer red, but rather white. ‘Skiing.’
‘That sounds incredibly cruel,’ said Robin.
‘I’m not even giving you all of it,’ said Albie in a low voice. ‘Being a shit to Rupe was like his new hobby. And then Mr Longcaster found out about Rupe and Decima – I think Valentine noticed something was up, and told his father – and it was open season on both of them. Rupe just cracked. That’s what the nef was about. One day, he saw red, and he took the nef, and left for good.’
‘When was the last time you saw him, Albie?’
‘Well… then. When he took the nef. That day. Earlier that day.’
‘You haven’t seen him since?’
‘No.’
‘But you were clearly good friends.’
‘Yeah,’ said Albie.
‘You really haven’t seen him since the day he took the nef?’
‘No.’
Robin was certain he was lying. The fluency with which he’d discussed Dino Longcaster’s bullying had been replaced by a distinct shiftiness.
‘Has he called or texted you?’
‘Er… maybe a couple of times.’
‘How recently?’
‘Probably… not recently. Like, a few days after he left Dino’s. Nothing since then.’
Just as Strike had with Jim Todd, Robin now felt to the full the disadvantage of having no official power to demand sight of Albie’s texts, to compel his cooperation. Albie’s plate was nearly empty; Robin knew her time was almost up.
‘Were you aware that the silver shop where the body was found – the body that Decima thinks was Rupert – is masonic?’ she asked.
‘Er… yeah, I think I saw that,’ he said.
‘Was Rupert interested in the Freemasons? Did he have any connection with them?’
‘No,’ said Albie. ‘I never heard him say anything about masons.’
‘Did Rupert know a man called Osgood, or “Oz”?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Albie.
‘Aren’t you worried about him?’ Robin asked.
