Page 129 of The Hallmarked Man
But you let underlings know, for joking purposes. Prick.
Approaching the theatre, Strike had wondered whether Sacha would mention Charlotte, whether he’d press Strike’s hand in condolence or reuse hisRomeo and Julietquotation, all of which Strike would have found thoroughly objectionable, but the total absence of comment stuck in his craw even more. He supposed he should have realised that Sacha would prefer no mention of the past and, perversely, this made Strike determined to make allusion to it when the opportunity arose.
Grace set a coffee in front of Strike, who thanked her. She left the bar.
‘So,’ said Sacha, ‘you want to talk about Rupe?’
‘That’s right,’ said Strike, taking out his notebook.
‘OK, well, I should probably tell you straight off the bat, I’m not going to be much help. I was shooting in Mexico when all this business with him and Dessie happened – I barely know her, actually – so, honestly, you probably know more than I do about it all. But obviously, I want to help,’ said Sacha earnestly. ‘Anything I can do.’
‘You barely know Decima?’
‘’Fraid so. I’ve only ever met her a handful of times – just throughValentine, you know. I mean, I’ve eaten at the Happy Carrot. She’s a really gifted chef. It’s a shame, what’s happening to the restaurant, I hear it’s in trouble. She’s taken a leave of absence or something, hasn’t she?’
Strike suspected he was being invited to acknowledge that his client was having some kind of emotional crisis. When he didn’t speak, Sacha went on,
‘Yeah, so I’m afraid I’m out of the loop with the whole thing, because I went straight from filmingConquestinto rehearsals for this.’
Strike had no idea whatConquestwas – film, TV series, aftershave commercial – and cared even less, so he merely asked,
‘Rupert’s your first cousin, right?’
‘That’s right, yeah, Dad’s sister’s boy. Poor little sod. You know what happened? The avalanche, et cetera?’
‘Yeah, Decima told me.’
‘Bloody awful thing. I was only twelve when it happened. I can still remember bawling my eyes out. My first experience of real grief.’
Strike having declined, by his silence, the tacit invitation to commiserate with the actor, Sacha continued,
‘Yeah, so, Rupe was brought up in Switzerland by his paternal aunt. She kept a pretty tight grip on him while he was growing up. It was all Dad could do to get him over to Heberley every few years, and Rupe’s a lot younger than me, so we never really, you know, hung out much when we were kids. Lovely guy, though,’ said Sacha.
‘He seems to have got himself into a lot of trouble, one way or another,’ said Strike.
‘Well, as I say, you probably know more about that than I do,’ said Sacha, with a rueful expression.
‘Did you know about the drug debt?’
‘The – what, sorry?’ said Sacha, and Strike recognised his reaction as one of obfuscation, rather than genuine confusion.
‘Rupert was being threatened. His housemate stiffed a drug dealer who then turned his attention to Rupert.’
‘Ah,’ said Sacha.
‘And Rupert ended up paying the guy a couple of grand to get him to back off.’
‘Oh,’ said Sacha. ‘Right.’
‘You didn’t know he had a vengeful coke dealer after him?’
‘I… no, I had no idea.’
‘Did he ask to borrow money from you?’
A faint pink flush had now suffused Sacha’s handsome face.
‘I don’t know that that’s any of your business.’
