‘That doesn’t necessarily mean she’s not your half-sister. Nor, come to that, does Daiyu being born before you and your father went to live at the farm mean Daiyu wasn’t his child, either. You told me last time we met that your father moved around a lot when your mother was alive, and he’s done a lot of roaming around since going to live at the farm, as well. I think it’s naive to imagine that the only place your father has sex with other women is at Chapman—’
‘
‘Look,’ said Strike calmly. ‘I know you want to believe your father sincerely loved your mother—’
‘He fuckin’ did, all righ’?’ said Abigail, now growing pink again.
‘—but even men who love their wives have been known to be unfaithful. Were you and your parents on holiday in Cromer when your mother died, or were you living in the vicinity?’
‘Living,’ said Abigail reluctantly.
‘Don’t you think it’s possible your father and Mazu had already met, and started an affair, before your mother drowned? Isn’t it plausible he took you off to live at Chapman Farm so he could be with his mistress and have both his kids under the same roof? He’d hardly admit as much to his grieving daughter, would he?’
Abigail’s face had reddened. She looked angry.
‘The same applies to Louise,’ said Strike. ‘He could have fathered all her kids, for all you know. Business trips, interviewing for jobs, delivering luxury cars, overnight stays in different cities… I know you’d rather think your father’s promiscuity and infidelity started at Chapman Farm, but I’m trying to find out why Becca was singled out in a way no other eleven-year-old has been, before or since, and one very obvious explanation is that Jonathan Wace fathered her. He seems to value his own bloodline.’
‘You could’ve fooled me,’ snapped Abigail.
‘When I say “value”, I’m not suggesting this is a case of ordinary love. His aim seems to be to propagate the church with his own offspring. If one or two leave he probably thinks of it as a sustainable loss, given that the classroom at Chapman Farm is full of his descendants.
‘But there’s a simple way to prove all of this, or rule it out. I’ve got no authority to force DNA samples out of your father, Mazu or any of the Pirbrights, but if
Abigail stood up abruptly, looking distressed, and walked out of the room.
Confident she’d return, Strike remained where he was. Taking out his phone, he checked for texts. One of them would have pleased him immensely, had he not read the second, and felt anger mixed with panic.
The television in the upstairs temple room was no longer showing footage of Jonathan Wace or Chapman Farm. Instead, the presenter and two guests were discussing the likelihood of Britain formally leaving the EU in early 2017. Mazu paused in her manipulation of the yarrow stalks to mute the television, then continued counting.
She soon finished. Robin watched Mazu’s reflection stoop to make a last note on a piece of paper on the floor, then turn the pages of the I Ching to find the hexagram she’d made.
‘Which one did you get?’ said Robin loudly, stepping into the room.
Mazu jumped to her feet, her face ghastly white in the dim light cast by the television screen.
‘I’ve gone pure spirit,’ said Robin, her heart beating so fast, she might just have run a mile. ‘The doors flew open for me, when I pointed at them.’
She was determined to seem unafraid, but it wasn’t easy. Her rational self insisted that Mazu was ruined, her power gone, that she cut a pathetic figure in her baggy sweatshirt and her dirty jeans, yet some of the terror this woman had inculcated over months remained. Mazu stood before her as the demon of fairy tales, the witch in the gingerbread cottage, mistress of agony and death, and she stirred in Robin the shameful, primitive fears of childhood.
‘So what’s the I Ching telling you?’ Robin said boldly.
To her disquiet, the familiar tight, false smile appeared on the woman’s face. Mazu ought not to be able to smile at this moment; she should be cowed and terrified
‘Funny,’ said Robin, her heart still hammering. ‘From where I’m standing, the power of the dark seems to be in freefall.’
As she said it, the light from the television momentarily brightened, and she saw the reason for Mazu’s confidence. A rifle, hitherto in shadow, was leaning up against the wall just behind her, within easy reach.
