The Running Grave — страница 164 из 179

is someone from the church going to meet you, Kevin? and the by now exceptionally pissed Kevin says, and answer for it. So,’ said Strike, looking up, ‘which woman in the church had things to answer for, as far as Kevin was concerned? Who was going to “answer for it”?’

‘Take your pick,’ said Robin. ‘Mazu – Louise – she dragged the family there in the first place – Becca—’

‘Becca,’ repeated Strike, ‘who he connected with a plot, according to the writing on his bedroom wall…’

He dropped his gaze again to the transcript.

‘Then Kevin goes off on a bit of a detour, starts talking about Paul Draper, or Dopey, as he refers to him here… think was part of… part of the plot? That fits, if Draper was one of the people set up to witness Carrie and Daiyu leaving.’

Robin was also reading the transcript again.

The pigs,’ she read aloud, ‘and Navabi says forget the pigs and Kevin says he liked pigs… no “he liked pigs”… is that Draper?’

‘Well, we know for sure it’s not Jordan Reaney,’ said Strike. ‘I was in the woodsBecca told me off because, Wace’s daughter and mustn’t snitch. And then Kevin mentions a plot again and in it together. So: a plot that involving Wace’s daughter, and multiple other people.’

‘Daiyu wasn’t the only Wace daughter at the farm, remember,’ said Robin. ‘There was Abigail, Lin – any number of girls playing in the woods at Chapman Farm could have been fathered by Jonathan Wace. Most of the kids I saw in the classroom have got his or Taio’s eyes.’

Always together,’ said Strike, reading again, ‘which could mean Daiyu and Carrie – if I’m right – and bution. What’s bution?’

‘Attribution? Contribution? Distri—’

‘Retribution!’ said Strike sharply. ‘“Retribution” was written on Kevin’s wall as well. And then he gets really incoherent. There’s a gale blowing, an ire but too wet – no idea – weirdthreatened meran out of there (I think, though possibly not) – thought it was for punishmentBecca told me… and then he went off to puke in the bogs.’

‘Fire,’ said Robin.

‘What?’

‘A fire, but it was too wet to catch, maybe?’

‘You think someone was trying to burn something in the woods?’

‘Someone did burn something in those woods,’ said Robin. ‘Rope.’

‘Rope,’ repeated Strike.

‘There was a lump of charred rope near those stumps I told you about. The posts someone chopped down. They were in a circle – it looked pagan.’

‘You think someone at Chapman Farm was conducting secret rituals in the woods?’

‘Daiyu was supposedly doing secret magic with the big kids, don’t forget. Oh, and we’re also forgetting the axe. The one hidden in the tree, which Jiang says was Daiyu’s.’

‘Does it seem plausible a seven-year-old had her own pet axe?’

‘Not really,’ said Robin. ‘I’m only telling you what Jiang said.’

Strike sat in silence for a few seconds then said, ‘I need a pee now,’ and pushed himself to his feet with a grunt.

His first words on re-entering the office a few minutes later were,

‘I’m hungry.’

‘You’ve literally just eaten about five thousand calories,’ said Robin in disbelief.

‘Well, I’m doing a lot of brain work here.’

Strike refilled the kettle. The birds were singing more loudly outside. The hour was fast approaching when Daiyu Wace had supposedly entered the sea at Cromer, never to be seen again.

‘Why the same stretch of beach?’ Strike said, turning to look at Robin. ‘Why the hell was Daiyu – or whoever the kid was – taken to exactly the same stretch of beach where Jennifer Wace died?’

‘No idea,’ said Robin.

‘And why did Jordan Reaney try and kill himself?’

‘Again – no idea.’

‘Come on,’ said Strike bracingly.

‘Well… presumably because he was afraid of retribution,’ said Robin.

‘Retribution,’ repeated Strike. ‘Exactly. So what did whoever was on the phone threaten Reaney with?’

‘I suppose… being hurt in some way. Exposed as involved in something serious and criminal. Beaten up. Killed.’

‘Right. But nobody’s hurt Reaney so far except Reaney.’

Strike made two more coffees, passed one to Robin, then sat back down at Pat’s desk.

‘How’s this for a theory?’ he said. ‘Reaney overdosed because he knew he’d be in deep shit once whoever phoned him realised he’d blabbed to me.’

‘Blabbed what?’

‘Good question. He was cagey about nearly everything. He did say he’d had to “clean up” after the Waces, and that things he’d done played on his mind…’

‘Maybe,’ said Robin suddenly, ‘he was supposed to destroy those Polaroids? Just the fact that they’re still in existence might be what’s got him in trouble?’

‘Possible. Likely, even, given that those Polaroids definitely put the fear of God into him.’

Strike got up again and entered the inner office, reappearing with the noticeboard. Closing the dividing door, he propped the board against it and sat back down. For the longest time yet, the pair sat in silence, staring at the pictures, cuttings and notes.

‘Some of this,’ said Strike at last, ‘has got to be irrelevant. People were there, but not involved. Things get misremembered. Accidents do happen,’ he said, his gaze travelling yet again to Jennifer Wace.

Getting up again, he unpinned the picture of Kevin Pirbright’s bedsit as it had been found on his death, and took it back to the desk to examine more closely. Robin was staring at the words ‘jogger on the beach?’ but Strike was now staring at one innocent little word on Kevin’s wall, which he’d seen previously, and never thought about again. He looked up at the pig-masked figures in the Polaroids, and after several long minutes of staring at them, he realised something he couldn’t quite believe he hadn’t registered before.

He mentally backed away from his new theory to examine it in its entirety, and from every angle he surveyed it, saw it to be smooth, balanced and complete. The extraneous and the irrelevant were now lying discarded to one side.

‘I think I know what happened,’ said Strike.

And as he drew breath to explain, a quotation rang through his head that he’d heard recently from a man who had nothing whatsoever to do with the Universal Humanitarian Church.

And where the offence is, let the great axe fall.’

PART NINE



Wei Chi/Before Completion

BEFORE COMPLETION. Success.

But if the little fox, after nearly completing the crossing,

Gets his tail in the water,

There is nothing that would further.

The I Ching or Book of Changes

122

At the beginning of a military enterprise, order is imperative. A just and valid cause must exist, and the obedience and coordination of the troops must be well organized, otherwise the result is inevitably failure.

The I Ching or Book of Changes




Of the many things that needed to be done before the agency could prove how, why and by whose contrivance Daiyu Wace had disappeared forever, Strike allocated one of the most important to Sam Barclay, whom he recalled from Norwich the day after the shooting, after Robin had gone home to catch up on some sleep. Both partners had agreed that the so far fruitless exercise of waiting for Emily Pirbright to appear with a collecting tin should now be abandoned, and the agency’s efforts turned instead towards proving that the myth of the Drowned Prophet was entirely baseless.

‘How far am I allowed to go, tae worm my way in wi’ this guy?’ asked Barclay, who’d just pocketed the name, address, place of work and photograph, all gleaned online by Strike, of the man who Strike wanted him to befriend, by whatever means necessary.

‘Unlimited alcohol budget. Doubt he’s into drugs. Milk the military. Big yourself up.’

‘A’right, I’ll get ontae it.’

‘And be careful. There’s a gun out there that’s still got bullets in the chamber.’

Barclay gave a mock salute and departed, passing Pat in the doorway.

‘I’ve called all these people,’ she told Strike, holding in her hand a piece of paper on which Strike had listed the names and numbers of Eric Wardle, who was his best friend in the Metropolitan Police; Vanessa Ekwensi, who was Robin’s; DI George Layborn, who’d rendered the agency significant help in a previous case, and Ryan Murphy. ‘I’ve only been able to get hold of George Layborn so far. He says he could meet you Wednesday evening, next week. I’ve left messages with the rest of them. I don’t see why Robin can’t ask Ryan herself.’

‘Because this is coming from me,’ said Strike. ‘I need to meet them all simultaneously, and lay out everything we’ve got, so we can hit the UHC as hard as possible, right when Wace and his lawyers aren’t expecting it.’

‘They still haven’t found that bloke who shot at you two and Will,’ grumbled Pat. ‘Don’t know what we pay our bloody taxes for.’

Blurry pictures of the Ford Focus with the fake plates had been appearing on various news channels all morning, with appeals to the public for any information. Though thankful his and Robin’s names hadn’t appeared in the press, Strike had had to take two cabs already that morning, and knew he’d need to hire himself a car for work purposes before the police were through with his own.

‘Dennis just called, by the way,’ Pat added. ‘Will’s feeling a bit better.’

‘Great,’ said Strike, who’d already endured ten solid minutes’ grousing from Pat about the state of shock in which Will had been returned to her house in the early hours of the morning. ‘Any news on him talking to my lawyer friend about immunity from prosecution?’

‘He’s thinking about it,’ said Pat.