Robin left Martin asleep on the sofa bed in the sitting room the following morning and headed for the office. There was something she wanted to say to Strike face to face, so she forced herself to drive into town, checking her rear-view mirror constantly, and feeling shaky and exposed during the short walk to Denmark Street.
Arriving shortly after nine, she found Pat already at her desk, and Wardle talking to Strike in the inner office.
‘Didn’t we have three fish in there?’ Robin asked Pat as she hung up her coat, because the large black fish and the smaller gold one appeared to have lost a companion.
‘Travolta died,’ grunted Pat. ‘He says he found him floating when he got in this morning.’
‘Travolta?’
‘Yeah, we had Cormoran, Robin and Travolta. Yours is the only one that hasn’t given any trouble. Makes sense,’ added Pat darkly.
Strike emerged from the inner office, unshaven and looking exhausted.
‘Morning,’ he said to Robin. ‘You missed a real shit show last night. I was just telling Wardle…’
She followed him into the inner office, where Wardle stood, arms folded, leaning against the wall.
‘We intercepted Plug, two mates and his son as they were heading for the front door of fifteen Carnival Street,’ said Strike. ‘They jumped to the conclusion we were allied with the dog killer and pulled out knives. Long story short, Shah got stabbed in the leg.’
Robin gasped; the speech she’d been about to make to Strike fled her mind.
‘Is he OK?’
‘Ish. He was let out of hospital this morning but the wound’s deep. Barclay restrained Plug, and I took down his biggest mate, but the third guy scarpered. We managed to persuade Plug’s son to stay put, though, poor little bastard. You weren’t lying about half his face being chewed off, were you?’
‘No,’ said Robin. ‘I think he’s going to be scarred for life – in more ways than one. Where is he now?’
‘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 of
‘No,’ said Robin. ‘I suppose I should feel offended.’
‘
‘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.’
‘
‘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.’