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Back The Cuckoo's Calling Save as PDF
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

Strike got up and started pacing up and down, the picture of Professor Josiah Agyeman in his hand.

‘Didn’t get a regiment, did you? Not that it matters. I can find out,’ he said.

‘I did ask,’ said Robin, consulting her notes, ‘but I don’t really understand – is there a regiment called the Sappers or some—’

‘Royal Engineers,’ said Strike. ‘I can check up on all that.’

He stopped beside Robin’s desk, and stared again at the face of Professor Josiah Agyeman.

‘He was from Ghana originally,’ she said. ‘But the family lived in Clerkenwell until he died.’

Strike handed her back the picture.

‘Don’t lose that. You’ve done bloody well, Robin.’

‘That’s not all,’ she said, flushed, excited and trying to keep from smiling. ‘I took the train out to Oxford in the afternoon, to the Malmaison. Do you know, they’ve made a hotel out of an old prison?’

‘Really?’ said Strike, sinking back on to the sofa.

‘Yes. It’s quite nice, actually. Well, anyway, I thought I’d pretend to be Alison and check whether Tony Landry had left something there or something…’

Strike sipped his tea, thinking that it was highly implausible that a secretary would be dispatched in person for such an enquiry three months after the event.

‘Anyway, that was a mistake.’

‘Really?’ he said, his tone carefully neutral.

‘Yes, because Alison actually did go to the Malmaison on the seventh, to try and find Tony Landry. It was incredibly embarrassing, because one of the girls on reception had been there that day, and she remembered her.’

Strike lowered his mug.

‘Now that,’ he said, ‘is very interesting indeed.’

‘I know,’ said Robin excitedly. ‘So then I had to think really fast.’

‘Did you tell them your name was Annabel?’

‘No,’ she said, on a half-laugh. ‘I said, well, OK then, I’ll tell the truth, I’m his girlfriend. And I cried a bit.’

‘You cried?’

‘It wasn’t actually that hard,’ said Robin, with an air of surprise. ‘I got right into character. I said I thought he was having an affair.’

‘Not with Alison? If they’ve seen her, they wouldn’t believe that…’