Page 373 of The Hallmarked Man
Strike answered almost immediately.
‘Where are you?’ asked Robin.
‘Just left Rena Liddell in a Travelodge,’ said Strike. ‘I’ve paid for her to stay there a couple of nights. How’re you?’
‘Strike, I think I’ve got something important –reallyimportant.’
‘Funnily enough,’ said Strike, who was limping towards to his BMW, ‘so have I.’
PART TEN
Here, of a surety, he said to himself, was the silver heart from which the scattered veins had been projected.
John Oxenham
A Maid of the Silver Sea
117
Knight of the East, or the Sword…
Most men yield to the stress of the current, and float with it to the shore, or are swept over the rapids; and only here and there the stout, strong heart and vigorous arms struggle on toward ultimate success.
Albert Pike
Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
‘I still think,’ said Strike, ‘we’ll be very lucky to interest the Met with what we’ve got right now.’
He was back at the office, sitting at the partners’ desk, the sky jet black outside the window. He and Robin were still on the call he’d taken on the way to his car, two hours previously. Each had shared everything they’d discovered and deduced, and while both believed that, at long last, they’d isolated the puzzle pieces of William Wright from those of other men and assembled them correctly, their conversation had been going round in circles for a while.
‘I’ve been kicking myself,’ said Robin. ‘I should’ve seen…’
‘We’ve been hunting a needle in a fucking haystack,’ said Strike, ‘but I can’t see what our counterargument is if the police say all we’ve got is guesswork, a couple of fake Instagram accounts and an old ad on eBay… bloody good work finding that, though.’
He was looking at the old advert as he spoke, because Robin had sent it to him by email: second-hand weights, sold by a man in Dagenham in May of the previous year. Robin had already contacted the seller, and been told that a man called Will had purchased them for cash; he’d been delighted with them, because he hadn’t imagined such a set existed.
‘I’m nervous about you going it alone again,’ said Robin, refusing to be flattered out of her concerns.
‘I won’t be alone, I’m taking Barclay and Wardle.’
‘Going rogue, then. In the sense of getting arrested for breaking and entering again.’
‘This’ll be different.’
‘How?’
‘If I’m lucky, I’ll get in and out without anyone knowing I was ever there. You’re the one who thinks this might be life and death.’
Robin had indeed said this towards the beginning of the call, but two hours of circular discussion later she was feeling rather less optimistic.
‘That might’ve been wishful thinking. I hate saying this, but Sapphire Neagle might be dead. There’s been no sign of her in months and we know he’s got no qualms about killing people who’ve outlived their usefulness.’
‘Well, if you and Midge are successful at Ramsay Silver tomorrow morning, we’ll have solid evidence at least part of our theory’s right. Did I tell you Ramsays has been closed up ever since they found out Todd was murdered?’
‘No,’ said Robin. ‘Why?’
‘Apparently the assistant walked out, afraid she might be the next employee killed, his wife’s in no fit state to return to work and he’s barely clinging on at his financial services job. He says he’s going to declare bankruptcy.’
