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Back The Cuckoo's Calling
Chapters (57)
  1. COPYRIGHT
  2. The Cuckoo’s Calling
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. Prologue
  6. Three Months Later
  7. Part One
  8. 1
  9. 2
  10. 3
  11. 4
  12. 5
  13. 6
  14. 7
  15. Part Two
  16. 1
  17. 2
  18. 3
  19. 4
  20. 5
  21. 6
  22. 7
  23. 8
  24. 9
  25. 10
  26. 11
  27. Part Three
  28. 1
  29. 2
  30. 3
  31. 4
  32. 5
  33. 6
  34. 7
  35. 8
  36. 9
  37. 10
  38. Part Four
  39. 1
  40. 2
  41. 3
  42. 4
  43. 5
  44. 6
  45. 7
  46. 8
  47. 9
  48. 10
  49. 11
  50. 12
  51. 13
  52. 14
  53. Part Five
  54. 1
  55. 2
  56. Epilogue
  57. Ten Days Later

Ursula was watching Bristow through the window; he was standing on the pavement, talking hard into his mobile as he paced up and down. Her tongue properly loosened now, she said:

‘I bet I know what that’s about. Conway Oates’s executors are making a fuss about how the firm handled his affairs. He was the American financier, you know? Cyprian and Tony are in a real bait about it, making John fly around trying to smooth things over. John always gets the shitty end of the stick.’

Her tone was more scathing than sympathetic.

Bristow returned to the table, looking flustered.

‘Sorry, sorry, Alison just wanted to give me some messages,’ he said.

The waiter came to collect their plates. Strike was the only one who had cleared his. When the waiter was out of earshot, Strike said:

‘Tansy, the police disregarded your evidence because they didn’t think you could have heard what you claimed to have heard.’

‘Well they were wrong, weren’t they?’ she snapped, her good humour gone in a trice. ‘I did hear it.’

‘Through a closed window?’

‘It was open,’ she said, meeting none of her companions’ eyes. ‘It was stuffy, I opened one of the windows on the way to get water.’

Strike was sure that pressing her on the point would only lead to her refusing to answer any other questions.

‘They also allege that you’d taken cocaine.’

Tansy made a little noise of impatience, a soft ‘cuh’.

‘Look,’ she said, ‘I had some earlier, during dinner, OK, and they found it in the bathroom when they looked around the flat. The fucking boredom of the Dunnes. Anyone would have done a couple of lines to get through Benjy Dunne’s bloody anecdotes. But I didn’t imagine that voice upstairs. A man was there, and he killed her. He killed her,’ repeated Tansy, glaring at Strike.

‘And where do you think he went afterwards?’

‘I don’t know, do I? That’s what John’s paying you to find out. He sneaked out somehow. Maybe he climbed out the back window. Maybe he hid in the lift. Maybe he went out through the car park downstairs. I don’t bloody know how he got out, I just know he was there.’

‘We believe you,’ interjected Bristow anxiously. ‘We believe you, Tansy. Cormoran needs to ask these questions to – to get a clear picture of how it all happened.’