Page 5 of The Hallmarked Man
The baby’s screams dwindled; Strike heard the scraping of chair legs and a small whimper of pain from Decima. He tried not to visualise what was happening behind him, and hoped to God she wasn’t one of those women who’d happily bare their breasts in front of strangers. At last, after what felt much longer than a couple of minutes, she said in a shaky voice,
‘It’s all right, you can turn round.’
Decima had pulled the poncho back over herself and the baby was once more hidden from view. As Strike sat down again, Decima said tremulously,
‘Please, youcan’ttell anyone I’ve got him! Nobody knows, except the people at the hospital!’
While he’d thought she was living here alone, Strike had been agreeable to keeping her secrets, notwithstanding his suspicion that she wasn’t in perfect mental health. She’d given no indication ofsuicidality, and she had family; if she wanted to hide out at her miserable inherited house, it wasn’t any of his business. However, Strike didn’t want the burden of being the only person who knew this baby existed, outside the hospital.
‘Haven’t you got a—?’ He struggled to think of someone whose responsibility women who’d just given birth might be. ‘A health visitor, or—?’
‘I don’t need one. Youcan’t tell anyone about Lion.I need aguarantee—’
Strike, who was fairly sure she’d just told him her son’s name was ‘Lion’, which didn’t strengthen his reliance on her mental health, said,
‘Why don’t you want anyone to know you’ve got a child?’
Decima burst into tears. When it became clear she wasn’t going to stop any time soon, Strike looked around for kitchen roll, saw none, so pushed himself back into a standing position and limped off in search of toilet roll.
The small bathroom off the hall had an old-fashioned chain-operated cistern and a dead spider plant on the windowsill. He took the entire roll off its holder, returned to the kitchen and set it in front of the weeping Decima, who sobbed her thanks and groped one-handed for a few sheets. Strike sat back down in front of his open notebook.
‘This man you think was killed in the vault,’ said Strike. ‘Is he your baby’s father?’
Decima began to sob even more loudly, pressing toilet roll to her eyes. Strike took this as a ‘yes’.
‘He hasn’t left me!’
She’d already told Strike her ‘friend’ was twenty-six, and Strike judged her own age to be nearing forty. Strike’s own mother had married a man seventeen years younger than herself, at whose hands Strike remained convinced (though the jury hadn’t agreed) she’d died. Jeff Whittaker had married Leda Strike for the money he’d believed she had, and had been furious to discover that it was tied up in ways that meant he couldn’t touch it. In consequence, Cormoran Strike wasn’t very well disposed to much younger men who attached themselves to wealthy older women.
‘Everyone says he’s left me!’ sobbed Decima. ‘Valentine – he wasvileabout me and Rupe, from the start – he actually said to me, “you’d better not get knocked up by him.”He actually said that!And I wasalready pregnant! He wasg-gladwhen Rupe disappeared! And myf-father said Rupe was only after my money –it isn’t true!When we met, it wasinstant, likenothing I’ve ever felt before –it was as though I’dalwaysknown him, and Rupe f-felt exactly the same, hetoldme so – we had this incredible connection! It was as though we – werecognisedeach other, as though we’d known each other—’don’t say in a previous life‘—in a previous life!’
‘His name’s Rupert, is it?’ was Strike’s only response, picking up his pen again.
‘Y-yes… Rupert Fleetwood.’ Decima was struggling to pull herself together, and after a few gulps said, ‘Rupert Peter Bernard Christian Fleetwood… he was born on March the eighth, 1990, and he g-grew up in Zurich.’
‘Is he Swiss?’
‘No… his aunt married a Swiss man, and… when Rupe was two… his parents took him there for a v-visit… and his mum and dad went skiing… and there was an avalanche… and they were k-killed… so he was raised there, by his aunt and uncle. But hehatedit in Zurich, he had a really unhappy childhood, he just wanted to get back to the UK, and f-finally he got to London, and then Sacha – Sacha’s Rupe’s cousin – suggested he try for a job at my father’s club, because Daddy’s Rupe’s godfather… and so, that’s how we m-met. I w-was splitting my time between Daddy’s club and my own place, because Daddy’s previous chef was fired…’
The news that Rupert was the cousin of Sacha Legard, who was an acclaimed actor and exceptionally good-looking, added weight to Strike’s suspicion that Rupert Fleetwood had been interested in Decima’s money rather than herself. If he resembled Sacha, he could probably have taken his pick of younger, more glamorous women.
‘How long were you and Rupert in a relationship?’
‘A y-year.’
‘Did Fleetwood know you were pregnant?’
‘Yes, and he wasdelighted, he wasso, sohappy!’ sobbed Decima. ‘But he was having some problems and – he’sproud, he wanted to fix things himself – but he’dneverhave left me for good, we wereso in love –n-nobody understands!’
‘You mentioned him moving out of his house. You weren’t living together?’
‘Obviously we weregoingto, eventually, but he had things he needed to s-sort out first – he was trying toprotectme!’
‘Protect you from what?’
‘He had someone after him, someone dangerous!’
‘Who was that?’
