Page 221 of The Hallmarked Man
‘That’s not—’
‘Oh,isn’tit?’
Incensed, Robin got to her feet.
‘I need to get back down the road. I’m tired and I need time to prepare for Fyola Fay.’
‘You’re not going to wait for your food?’
‘I’m not hungry,’ snapped Robin, drawing her car keys out of her pocket, the sight of which made Strike say,
‘I’m buying a new fucking Land Rover.’
‘What?’
‘Plain English, isn’t it? We need a new Land Rover. You can’t keep hiring cars, the business can’t—’
‘I’ll get something else, I just haven’t found anything I can aff—’
‘Which is why—’
‘I can’t take a loan of that size from you,’ said Robin.
‘Then don’t,’ said Strike. ‘The business will own the Land Rover, but you’ll be driving it, so find something appropriate and send me the details.’
‘Fine,’ said Robin, her voice icy.
She turned and walked away, but before Strike could begin to process what had just happened, Robin had turned again and was striding back to the table.
‘I forgot,’ she said, which was a far bigger lie than the claim she wasn’t hungry. ‘There’s another thing.’
‘What?’
‘Dev told me Bijou Watkins called the office. What did she want?’
For a split second, Strike looked just as stunned as she’d expected. Then he said,
‘She wanted some advice.’
‘Oh, really?’ said Robin, glaring down at him. ‘Advice on…?’
‘She thinks Honbold’s playing around on her,’ invented Strike.
‘Is that right?’
‘Yeah. I told her to contact someone else. Said I didn’t want the job.’
‘So I can tell Dev there won’t be any more bad press about you and women?’
‘I’ll tell him myself,’ said Strike.
‘Great,’ said Robin, ‘because we don’t want to lose Dev. See you at the office.’
She walked away and this time, didn’t turn or look back.
The barmaid now reappeared with two large plates of food.
‘Oh,’ she said, watching Robin marching away up the street. ‘Do you—?’
