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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

‘It’s nothing bad. John isn’t sure that Lula committed suicide, that’s all.’

He guessed that the only thing keeping her in the seat was her terror of the construction he might put on instant flight. Her fear was out of all proportion to his manner or words.

‘There’s nothing to worry about,’ he assured her again. ‘John wants me to take another look at the circumstances, that’s—’

‘Does ’e say I’ve got something to do wiv ’er dying?’

‘No, of course not. I’m just hoping you might be able to tell me about her state of mind, what she got up to in the lead-up to her death. You saw her regularly, didn’t you? I thought you might be able to tell me what was going on in her life.’

Rochelle made as though to speak, then changed her mind and attempted to drink her scalding coffee instead.

‘So, what – ’er brother’s trying to make out she never killed ’erself? What, like she was pushed out the window?’

‘He thinks it’s possible.’

She seemed to be trying to fathom something, to work it out in her head.

‘I don’t ’ave to talk to you. You ain’t real police.’

‘Yeah, that’s true. But wouldn’t you like to help find out what—’

‘She jumped,’ declared Rochelle Onifade firmly.

‘What makes you so sure?’ asked Strike.

‘I jus’ know.’

‘It seems to have come as a shock to nearly everyone else she knew.’

‘She wuz depressed. Yeah, she wuz on stuff for it. Like me. Sometimes it jus’ takes you over. It’s an illness,’ she said, although she made the words sound like ‘it’s uh nillness’.

Nillness, thought Strike, for a second distracted. He had slept badly. Nillness, that was where Luna Landry had gone, and where all of them, he and Rochelle included, were headed. Sometimes illness turned slowly to nillness, as was happening to Bristow’s mother… sometimes nillness rose to meet you out of nowhere, like a concrete road slamming your skull apart.

He was sure that if he took out his notebook, she would clam up, or leave. He therefore continued to ask questions as casually as he could manage, asking her how she had come to attend the clinic, how she had first met Lula.