Hey Guys, It is time for the second to last section of Career of Evil. Kurt will be with us to wrap up the novel. But as I don’t know how to not write a ton, let’s get right to it.
41
Strike finds out from Wardle that a prostitute was attacked by the killer and just woke up from a coma. And the next morning after a conveniently natural week of not seeing Robin, Strike is leaving his flat to give a report on Mad Dad. Which allows us for this brilliant bit of what I will call a reverse pulp fiction trope. Instead of the detective seeing the silhouette of the beautiful client in the glass, Strike is on his way out when, “...the sight of Robin’s blurred form through the frosted glass changed his mind” (334). Strike enters the office even though he only has maybe ten minutes to spare and the two detectives smile at each other, Strike dressed smartly in his best suit. They update each other, Robin bringing up a point about looking into other murders that Strike didn’t think of. Strike then offers Robin a compliment on her ability to find the strip club Brockbank works at; but Robin is too bothered by the thought that he is having her follow Laing, while knowing he isn’t there to notice. Strike leaves his meeting with the lawyer and decides to stake out Whittaker, sticking his tie in his pocket. It is not long before he tails Stephanie literally to Whittakers back van door. What follows is a brilliantly described juxtaposition of the clean, smartly dressed ex boxer and his satanic cracked up former step father. Whittaker talks some smack, and calculatingly attacks Stephanie. Strike punches him which makes it 2 out of 3 of his suspects that he has at one point punched. Unfortunately, Stephanie doesn’t want to be rescued and so leaves with Whittaker.
42
Strike admits his folly to Wardle and Robin individually. He realizes that no matter what he says to Wardle there won’t be any follow through. He considers the fact that at “18 he was ready to fight and careless of the consequences” (343) It tickles me pink to think at 18 he didn’t punch his stepfather even though he was careless and at 37 he punches him with all the care of a man defending a woman. At the end of it all though, he only knows two things. 1. Stephanie showed interest at some point in Strike and 2. Whittaker finally has male lackeys? Friends? Bandmates I guess? Strike is able to admit to what happened to Robin when she calls later that night and swoon, “Strike found relief and solace”. And if you are not a huge fan of the will they won’t they angle you may want to skip this part because if Strike thinks it I can talk about it. He asks Robin “Why women do that (go back)?” Not to say that Matthew is abusive (although there are quite a few moments with him that, I think, toe the line of emotional abuse). Robin gives him an answer and Strike thinks “I was the bloody alternative, standing right there, in front of her”(345). Is he thinking of Stephanie… yes… but it also it makes me think of two iconic scenes with iconic actors. Ellen Pompeo as Meredith saying “Love me. Choose Me.” and both Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts whole: “I’m just a boy/girl standing in front of a girl/boy asking her/him to love them.” But I mean yea he is talking about Stephanie… not Robin. Nope. Not Robin. And the call ends with neither of them satisfied. The business is going so poorly that even their advertisement online is comes up after articles of the severed leg which led me to wonder on first read if it could be a jealous cop… maybe Roy Carver. After all Jo does write quite a few tongue-in-cheek gallow humor type names. Poor Gary Topley being the one that immediately pops into my head. Robin, later, calls Strike with the news that Jason is available to meet them tomorrow with a woman called Tempest, and asks for the morning off to do wedding stuff before enthusiastically agreeing to meet Strike ahead of time.
43
This chapter is aptly started with the epigraph, “Freud, have mercy on my soul.” While I have taken basic psych classes I can not tell you if Freud studied people with BIID but I have to think it would be something Freud would be interested in based entirely on a vague memory of his thoughts on human development and oral fixation, so I have to think being fixated on being disabled would be right up his alley. To move off the topic of therapists. Strike and Robin meet and Strike correctly identifies Jimmy Choo as shoes. Robin asks if Strike is coming to the wedding and we get yet another gem. “Had he ever agreed that he was attending her wedding, Strike wondered” (348). He becomes adorably grumpy because of course there is nothing he would want to do less; but his “Fondness for her caused his better nature to reassert himself” (349). In one of those examples that I spoke of for the last chapter, Strike comments on the shoes being a bit rock n’ roll for a wedding with the gentleness of adding he doesn’t know but expected it different and Robin thinks Matthew doesn’t like her being too tall. They flirt a little bit more. Strike saying he won’t hit Jason and Robin saying he would break him in half if he did… and then they go into the gallery. The rest of the chapter I honestly tend to skip over. It just hurts, because there are good people and bad people and in between people and BIID is a very real condition that is not understood so I feel for Jason but Tempest is so assuming and demanding in how she acts that it just leaves me feeling sad all around. So in short Tempest talks over Jason, assumes Strike is wealthy and then tries to get Jason to order freely as the detectives are paying for it and talks about how no one understands her without even attempting to understand anyone else. They do remember meeting with Kelsey near Tottenham Court Road and seeing a man on a black or red motorcycle which is the same color bike the man that delivered the severed leg drove. At one point Robin’s look of disgust at Tempest keeps Strike from getting angry but in the end he does yell at them before walking away and Robin, God love her, makes Strike laugh by saying, “At least you didn’t punch her. In her wheelchair. In front of all the art lovers” (359).
44
This chapter is very short. It is literally just the killer angry that the prostitute survived. Then laughing at the poor attempt at a photofit and grumbling about how he needs to act sweet to IT and that he adds emollient (stuff used to soften skin like glycerin or vaseline) to her drinks to make her off balanced and clingy. So he poisons her to make her be how he doesn’t want her to be and then blames her for acting that way. What a psycho. He is able to finally convince her to let him go away for a week.
45
Strike and Wardle talk on the phone. The highlights include Baxter aka Devotee fits the profile, they have found Laing at the place Strike has been surveilling and oh by the way Coco thinks you’re hot so are you seeing anyone before Wardle then says an engagement wouldn’t have stopped him from trying to pick up Robin. Awkward. Strike decides to change what Robin has been doing, at this point even the farting sofa is taking pity on Strike and doesn’t make noise. Which leads to a brilliant bit of not flirting… “Ok, what if he is there? ‘I’ll cross that bridge- I’m not going to hit him.’ said Strike correctly reading her thoughts. ‘Ok’ said Robin but then you hit Whittaker, though.’ ‘That was different. Whittaker’s special. He’s family.” Strike then heads to the strip club to look for Brockbank and meets Orla, the Irish stripper and maybe Harry Potter fan, if her stars tattoo are the same as from the Harry Potter series. However she is able to confirm he did work there and was fired after having a fit. She also lets him know that Brockbank is living with his girlfriend Alyssa and her two little girls in Bow.
46
Another killer chapter. The killer is a disgusting human being. No surprise there. But he does give us what he believes Robin’s height is 5’7 or 5’8. We also learn that he calls the Blue Oyster Cult, The Cult and that he hated them at first but now loves them and uses their music as part of his rituals before and after killing.
47
Robin is getting married in a month but realizes just how disconnected she is to all of the wedding stuff. Matthew is driving the land rover (sacrilege!) and dropping her off because he is auditing in Bromley. Is anyone else wondering if he really is doing that or is he meeting with Sara? Robin tells Matthew that Sara can still come to the wedding but then insists that she is nowhere near Strike. Robin is wearing a sundress and a jean jacket on this particular day. (oh shoot… have I been unconsciously dressing like Robin for the past month at work?? Cue facepalm and an embarrassed shake of the head.) Robin notes a small child that could look like Zahara that stares at her until she trips and falls. But it makes Robin realize something that “Strike wouldn’t have thought of that - of course he wouldn’t, he was a man” (379)! Once again highlighting the difference between men and women and the seemingly consistent ability for men, in general, to not think like a woman. Although now that I think about it, if my husband ever wanted to hide anything he could just stick it in his golf clubs and I would be oblivious. So I guess Jo is on to something there. Robin is so excited about this idea that she misses her brief chance to talk to Stephanie. She then calls Strike to update him and tells him she is going back to Wollaston Close to stake out Laing. Strike tells her to call even if there isn’t any news, good God that man is adorable. Robin gets there, only to slide in a mystery pile of something, (Thank God it was curry) and fall. Only to come face to face with Donald Laing himself. Leading me to wonder did he laugh because she fell or because he finally found her?
48
Another killer chapter. This time he finds a drunk girl and kills her; taking her ears with plastic ice cream cone earrings with him. But it does lead me to a question. He kisses her to stop her from possibly being rescued by a person opening a door. Wouldn’t he have left some form of DNA on her from kissing her like maybe skin cells or something? Are there any forensic people who would be able to answer that question?
49
The news runs reports of Heather Smart the woman killed in the last chapter and the killer gets his name: The Shakellwell Ripper. Strike moves in with Nick and Ilsa and sends Robin to Masham. Wardle updates Strike on what really happened. And how they have identified at least two more victims. One from 2009 in Leeds and the previous year in Milton Keynes. He also tells Strike that they looked into all three men and none of them really fit. Brockbank is now an active member in a church and that he lives with two little girls and that he was in church when Kelsey died. Strike asks Wardle if he is Catholic, which makes me think Strike is not. Then again I really never gave much thought to what his religion would be and if pressed would have said he isn’t a member of any religion. Laing can’t have done it as he is too sickly according to police. As for Whittaker he claims to have alibis for all of the nights, but the police are looking into those more. Strike contemplates how all three men are not ones that would seem to entice Kelsey into any kind of relationship. That logic says it can’t be any of them. However, Strike doesn’t agree with that logic which seems to mean he is going with his gut instinct instead of facts here. Something that Strike obhores doing and yet seemingly does all the time.
50
Robin is home in Masham for a final dress fitting and realizes her mom has basically taken over all the duties of planning the wedding. Matthew is annoyed at her for not taking the time off for his surprise honeymoon and Martin won’t stop talking about Heather’s murder. Robin is also having nightmares about being attacked. This seems to imply that there may be some PTSD there. But then comes something a bit interesting. Robin is with her mother talking to their vicar about the wedding and her eye is drawn to a large stone crab that had fascinated her as a child. Linda had looked up the answer of why there was a crab in the church and told her 9 year old that it was the emblem of the Scrope family. Robin was disappointed with this answer. So I did some digging because of course I did. Crabs are very symbolic in a bunch of cultures. If we look at the classics Ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the crab is a symbol of a fierce devoted soldier but ultimately vulnerable (nautilus magazine). Remind you of anyone… cough Strike.. Cough… sorry I had a tickle in my throat. In Celtic tradition it is connected with two goddesses the first is Arianrod the goddess of love and beauty which makes the crab a symbol of rebirth, transformations, and new beginnings… cough… Robin… cough. Man sorry this tickle is bad where was I? Ahh yes, and the goddess Maeve who was a moon goddess and was in charge of war and fertility, along with healing and regeneration. All of this is care of spiritandsymbolism.com. If these are true then Robin looking at the crab in a church is not just a sign of her wanting to know but also a sign of her rebirth, or transformation into a detective, her battle against evil as a detective, a sign of Strike as the vulnerable soldier which calls back to his crap knight errant comment, and finally a sign of the healing that still needs to take place with both of them. WAY TO GO JO! Brilliant as usual. Robin eventually goes to her last dress fitting. But is interrupted by Strike calling, which Robin knows because he has his own ringtone. Who else is dying to know what it is? As a person closer to Robin’s age I know I have assigned things like Stacy’s Mom and the Jaws theme to my mother (long story) so did she give him a song? Private eyes by Hall and Oates perhaps? Also if Strike has his own ringtone then Matthew has to know that right? Does Matthew have his own? I feel like that answer might be no and I am here for that. Tragically, Strike tells Robin that Wardles brother was killed in a car accident. Which is sad enough in its own right but also Carver is now the lead detective on the case and has basically just interrogated Strike for three hours. But then Robin tells Strike that she has Brockbanks address and Strike gives her a second compliment in these ten chapters; “ Jesus Christ, Robin, that’s fucking brilliant” (405) And Robin becomes the stunning bride she was meant to be as she hangs up the phone with her future hus… Strike. Right. Strike…
51
Robin is back at work. The news is running articles about all 5 women who have been killed by the Shakellwell Ripper and Strike is telling Robin that they are not investigating but they are because Carver is looking for any reason to mess up Strike's business. Robin points out her wedding is coming up in three weeks and is annoyed that he didn’t realize it was so close. Oh Robin, because the time that he thought he had is running out. Robin goes to stake out Whittaker’s place and finally runs into Stephanie literally. Stephanie is more upset about Whittaker cheating than getting beaten by him. But Robin is able to get an alibi for Whittaker right before he shows up and starts asking questions. Robin calls Strike to tell him what happened, noting that she realizes it is after dark but that she is on her way home. As she explains what Stephanie said she realizes she lost track of where she was walking and thinks she sees a shadow moving. So she does what every woman in her situation does. Stays on the line and reaches into her pocket for her rape alarm. She tells Strike that she is just jumpy but she sees where she went wrong and that she is going to turn around… and then the hands reach out from the dark and grab her, sending her phone to the pavement. And on that note… I will see you all on the third with the first 7 chapters of Lethal White. Kurt, I hand the blog over to your brilliance.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated.