Rachel, Cambridge, the Charlie/Yasmin Stupidity Contest and a Madwoman's Swan Song: The Ink Black Heart Read-along: Chapters 82-94 (Part 7 of 8)

As is typical as we enter the last quarter of a Strike book. the pace picks up. Strike and Robin leave their nice seaside hotel for Leeds, eager to speak to Rachel Ledwell, aka Fiendy1. I am reminded here of their first CoE road-trip to Barrow-in-Furness, where Strike also skipped the full English breakfast and instead swiped a flask full of coffee and a pocketful of Danish from the breakfast buffet. At that time, Strike was concerned about saving money, given the threat the severed leg had posed to his business. Here, the issue for him is calories. The office bombing may be stressful, but no one seems to have the same worries about losing business because of it. 

Dev reports what he has learned from the Ross's nanny.  I must admit, I am curious to know what Charlotte has actually done to her children and step-children. The nanny states that neither Ross is fit to be a parent and the eldest stated on social media that her step-mother is as bad as her father. We know Charlotte has not hesitated to physically attack Strike; is it possible that she also physically abuses the children?

I must admit, I find this part a little puzzling:

His thoughts lingered on the way Robin had taken charge of this particular line of inquiry. If he was absolutely honest with himself, this was the first time he’d seen her as a true partner, an equal. She’d secured the interview through her own ingenuity, then taken charge of how the interview was to unfold, telling him, effectively, that he was surplus to requirements.

This seems a bit backwards to me.  He has been calling her "partner" since the end of The Silkworm, and in Troubled Blood. he left her in charge of the agency for long periods when he was tending to Joan in Cornwall. She secured the Jason and Tempest interviews on her own back in Lethal White, and arranged for the Creed interview on her own, taking the initiative to seek out governmental contacts via Izzy Chiswell and tracking down and interviewing Brian Tucker without consulting Strike. It seems to me that he was considering her an equal well before this. 

Robin's approach to Rachel is effective, and she is able to secure a lot of information, including, most importantly. the real name and location of Morehouse. On the drive to Cambridge, they piece together the connection of assorted internet pick-up lines to the Kosh instructional manual. They also get Midge's report on Jago Ross's abuse of his daughters, which she captured on tape. Robin and Strike have a brief respite enjoying the Cambridge campus. and Strike finally discloses what he studied at Oxford (history) and how he learned Latin. He also makes one minor mistake, when he remarks that "Stephen Hawking was here." Hawking worked as a research director at Cambridge until his death in 2018, so he would still have been there in 2015, and probably knew Vikas personally, given their common status as disabled astrophysicists. Tragically, our heroes arrive too late for Vikas, and discover his body in his residence hall. As sad as the outcome is, it is great to see Strike in emergency mode, taking charge of the scene, as if he were still police. We get a nice glimpse into what kind of soldier he must have been. 

After a return to London and a catch-up meeting with the agency team in the Z hotel cafe, Strike heads off to confront Jago Ross, and, of course, gets Charlotte as a none-too-welcome surprise bonus. Strike lays out his evidence of abuse, and successfully neutralizes the threat to the agency by convincing Jago that the tabloids will be much more interested in a child-battering viscount than they would be by rumors (and denials) of a Charlotte-Strike rekindled love affair. Charlotte seems genuinely shocked that Strike is solely interested in saving his business, and is not, in fact, riding to her rescue.  Her unwillingness to protect her twins from Ross disgusts Strike and he "feels something break," walking away from Charlotte and telling her that he wants nothing more to do with her. Let's hope he really, finally, truly means it this time, because, honestly, we've heard this before: when he walked out of Franco's in LW, when he changed his phone number in TB, etc. 

Back in her small but efficient  Z hotel room, Robin's in a bit of a state, having just been banned from Drek's Game. Fiendy1/Rachel has apparently kept her word to leave the game,  while Anomie is saying that Morehouse has been fired and that he, Anomie, was eliminating private channels. Robin is left wondering how Anomie knew she was talking to Paperwhite on a private channel. There's more whisky and Strike, having really hopefully finally abandoned Charlotte for good, five years after he originally walked out on her, is feeling increasingly attracted to Robin. He forces himself to leave her hotel room, so as not to be tempted by her PJs and the freshly laundered sheets. 

There is a nice reversal the next morning when, just as Robin bore the brunt of the team's anger when Strike damaged his leg, Strike absorbed their displeasure when explaining that Robin has been kicked out of Drek's Game. Our heroes are summoned back to New Scotland Yard, where they are able to identify Pez Pierce as Wally's chief Anomie suspect. and in return, they get conformation that the Peach Brothers are Lord Drek and Vilepechora and learn new connections between the Halvening and Vikas's murderer, such as their penchant for latex masks. There was a missed opportunity for humor here:

One of ’is nicknames round the commune was Horse, ’cause ’e ’ad a fuckin’ massive c—’

Uruz laughed. Murphy stopped the recording.

‘We’re hoping,’ he said, ‘you might be able to tell us—’

‘Pez Pierce,’ said Robin. ‘Full name: Preston Pierce. He’s from Liverpool and he lives at the North Grove art commune place in Highgate.’

I think Robin should have added, "and they're right about his penis." That would have caused both Strike and Murphy to do a double-take,  I can imagine the explanation:  "I had the opportunity to view his penis a few weeks ago and it is certainly larger than my ex's,  4 to 4.5 inches, non-erect."  We know she's a great witness, after all. 

Strike and Robin take a lunch break in St. Stephen's Tavern so Strike can explain why the Met is, as usual, wrong and Anomie, not the Halvening, is responsible for the attacks on Edie, Josh, Oliver Peach and Vikas. After checking out of the Z, with the Met's blessing, Strike heads off to question Yasmin Weatherhead again, in hopes of getting a picture of Paperwhite. Yasmin, who seems determined to beat Oliver Peach in the Drek's Game Moderators Annual Stupidity Contest, is eventually convinced that she cannot fool both London's greatest private eye and the elite police anti-terrorism unit with her insipid lies, and to needs to come clean. She also confesses to impersonating Anomie in the game. which means our heroes are practically back to square one in terms of eliminating suspects. 

Fortunately, things are going better for Robin, at least until the death threat. She makes contact with Rachel again, gets a picture of the supposed Paperwhite, and quickly identifies her. Strike's leg, on the other hand, is deteriorating faster than the Anomie case. Once again, there is a chink in his Team Rational armor. 

He found himself mentally offering bargains to a God he wasn’t at all sure he believed in. I’ll lose weight. I’ll stop smoking. Just let me get home. I swear I’ll take better care of myself. Just don’t let me collapse in the fucking street. 

Robin's report of the death threat, however, snaps him back into soldier mode, and he insists she go back to the hotel. I would have expected her to remind him of the promise he made in TB after their Mucky Ricci row, that she would take the same risks he would. After all, the threat, since it came through the office line, could have been for Strike as much as for Robin. Instead, she agrees. I like to think this is concern about his leg, rather than her backing down professionally. 

Strike has no sooner set his mind at ease regarding Robin than he has to deal with a drunken and hysterical Madeline, who has turned up on Denmark Street apparently determined to snatch the title of Milady Berserko from Ms. Campbell-Ross. Strike decides, leg injured or not, he cannot survive the encounter without cigarettes. Madeline makes a complete fool of herself, screaming, punching, and  threatening Strike with the press, before managing to knock him over and imprint his thigh with the mark of her stiletto heel. Fortunately, though Strike falls over, smacks his head and finishes any hope of his leg recovering anytime soon, he does not fall for the scream-violence-then-sobbing-contrition routine from the Madwoman a second time, and sends her on her way. Like Pat, he prioritizes finding his cigarette before actually getting to his feet. Even in the midst of his agony, he makes the connection of the accusing letter that Madeline had threatened to another unresolved element of the case, and suddenly has a new lead he can share with Robin when she calls back. One thing for Detective Strike, he is always on the job. 

I'll be back on Thursday with the Ink Black Finale.  In the meantime, I'm planning a few more spoiler-filled posts before The Running Grave's debut on September 26th.