Page 361 of The Hallmarked Man
‘With his great-uncle and his gran,’ said Strike. ‘With luck, Plug’ll get a long stretch inside and the boy’ll now have a fighting chance at a normal life. Anyway, we had to give statements to the police and it’s bloody lucky we had plenty of photographic evidence to prove we’ve been tailing Plug for months, or I think we’d have been done for assault, which, as we know, the Met would bloody love. And we’re down one man, maybe permanently.’
‘What d’you mean?’ said Robin.
‘I think there’s a possibility we’re going to lose Shah to Navabi.’
‘What?’ said Robin, horrified. ‘Dev wouldn’t leave!’
‘I wouldn’t bet on that. He and I had an argument last night while we were waiting for Plug to make his move. He had all Kim’s arguments down pat. We shouldn’t have taken the silver vault case, we were exploiting Decima, “colluding in covering up her baby”, going on jaunts round the country, et cetera. I think old mates at the Met have been telling him he works for a proper wrong ’un. He also thinks I sexually harassed Kim.’
‘Wh—?’
‘She’ll have told him so,’ said Strike wearily. ‘She and Navabi seem very keen on fucking with me. Have they tried to poach either ofyouyet?’
‘No,’ said Robin. ‘I suppose I should feel offended.’
‘I’lltalk to Shah about bloody Cochran,’ said Wardle, scowling. ‘I’ll tell himexactlywho she is. I told you before, she caused trouble on every single job she worked. Fucking liability.’
‘That’d be helpful, cheers,’ said Strike, rubbing his eyes, which were stinging with tiredness, ‘and while you’re at it, you can tell Shah the silver vault case continues, and I’m paying for it out of my own pocket.’
‘What?’ said Robin, her spirits lifting immeasurably at this news.
‘I’d better go,’ said Wardle. ‘I’m on that cheating civil servant in half an hour.’
When Wardle had closed the dividing door behind him, Strike looked up at Robin said,
‘What’re you looking so happy about?’
‘You mean it? The silver vault case continues?’
‘Yeah, I do.’
‘I’ll contribute financially, too. You can’t bear all the expenses; you won’t have anything left of your inheritance at this rate.’
‘I don’t need it for anything,’ said Strike indifferently.
‘Don’t you ever want to buy a place?’
‘What for? Nothing’d be as convenient as the flat,’ said Strike.
He might have said that if Robin wanted to move in with him, he was more than happy to start house-hunting, but naturally didn’t.
‘Why’re you so pleased we’re keeping it going?’ he asked.
‘Because – don’t yell, all right?’ said Robin.
‘What’s happened?’ said Strike ominously.
‘Nothing, but probably only because Martin was there.’
Robin described the previous evening’s happenings and concluded,
‘I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. I want to end this case, properly.’
‘Did you call the police about King breaking his bail conditions?’ said Strike, exercising maximum control to do as she’d requested, and keep calm.
‘Yes,’ said Robin, ‘and I reminded them I’ve still got two other things he foisted on me, but—’
‘They weren’t interested.’
