The Awesomeness of Pat, Chicken Dinner, and "There's Someone at My Door." The Ink Black Heart Read-along, Chapters 71-81. (Part 6 of 8).

Since we left off with the explosion, I wanted to pick up with how totally awesome I thought Pat was in this part of the book. Not only do we get to see her think on her feet and respond promptly in a way that likely saved both her and Strike's lives, we get to learn a little more about her background. She mentioned that she had an uncle who died in a bombing at a pub in Woolwich in 1974*.  By my calculations, Pat would have been about 16 in 1974, a difficult age to experience death, particularly the senseless "wrong place at the wrong time" type of death that such terrorist attacks bring. 

I was also impressed by how professional she sounded on the phone. While most people would yell, panic-stricken, "we've been bombed!" Pat said, with remarkable calmness, "‘Strike Detective Agency here, Denmark Street. We’ve been sent an explosive device and it’s exploded." In addition:

• She quickly recognized hissing as a warning sign of a bomb
• She knew immediately to run and seek shelter behind Strike's heavy wooden door, not the one with the glass window that led to the landing.

This leads me to wonder if she has had some sort of training in emergency preparedness specifically for this situation. Perhaps instruction in how to recognize and respond to postal bombs was commonplace for someone who started a career as an office manager during the Troubles, just like US teachers have to be taught how to handle active shooter situations now?  In any case, this extraordinary competence, in juxtaposition with her other more mundane concerns like losing her e-cigarette and her freshly cleaned coat getting dirty, really have me cheering for her. As the CID officer said, "Well, if everyone had your powers of observation and quick reactions, Mrs Chauncey, our jobs would be a hell of a lot easier."

It is also good to see Strike realize what an asset he has in her; can you imagine what would have happened if a temp like CoE's Denise had been opening the mail? His concern for her seems to be enough, at least for now, to squelch his own trauma reaction, which, given his own bombing in the Army, we would expect to be a concern. Remember, in Cuckoo's Calling, he had a flashback to the IED triggered by flashbulbs from paparazzi cameras.

A few more interesting notes:

• The experience is enough to make Mr. Team Rational state the closest thing to a religious belief that we have ever heard from him:
• ‘Jesus,’ said Robin, hurrying over to them, and finding nothing else tos ay she repeated, ‘Jesus!’  
• "He was definitely on our side an hour ago,’ said Strike.
• We see what is likely the series' second mention of Capgras delusion: the belief that someone has been replaced by an identical duplicate. 
• Pat describes one of the nutter letters she received with "Some daft bugger thought the Royal Family had all been replaced with imposters."  
• Back in The Silkworm, Robin received a “twelve-page letter from a secure psychiatric unit, begging Strike to help her prove that everyone in her family had been spirited away and replaced with identical imposters.
• Robin brings Pat a glass of medicinal port. 
• This echoes Strike bringing the same remedy to Rona Laing's distressed mother in Career of Evil. 

Robin then has an unexpected but interesting ride home from Ryan Murphy where she learns that Philip Ormond is about to he arrested for murder. She also clears up the confusion over his previous invitation for a drink, and lets him know she would welcome another offer, once he returns from vacation. Murphy also discloses his past drinking problem to her. No sooner is Robin home than Strike calls to accept the offer of her sofa-bed for the night. Oh, this could get interesting...

Another moderators' interlude, where Paperwhite and Morehouse discuss the bombing and Anomie makes an ominous comment to new moderator BorkledDrek about taking over from Morehouse should the latter have an accident.

I love the intentionality of Robin food shopping for Strike, as opposed to for the Flobberworm, as we saw in CoE: 

She knew how hearty an appetite Strike had, and the contents of her fridge weren’t going to be equal to the job of feeding him without substantial reinforcement. As she dropped a whole chicken into her trolley, she wondered why Strike had chosen to stay with her instead of with Madeline.

“Excuse me!” said a cross middle-aged woman trying to reach the sausages. Robin apologized and moved aside, surprised to find that she was holding a pack of chicken thighs. Throwing it into her trolley, she hurried off to the other end of the supermarket. 

We then move into a very nice evening with Robin and Strike. as he stays over in her apartment, especially considering Strike acts like a bit of a jerk at times. Yes, he arrives on time, is thinking about calories and trying an e-cigarettes for the first time. They have some good case-related talks, as Strike lays out the case against Ormond being the killer, and Robin reports on the pedophilic evidence against Tim Ashcroft, both direct and online. But Strike really steps into a mess when he first gets snarky about Robin's "friend Pez" and then lies to Madeline about being in a hotel and tries to pass Robin off as room service. He accomplishes little other than pissing off both women. The positive aspects are:

1. Strike acknowledging it's time to end things with the Madwoman
2. Robin being tough enough to call him a dick when he's being one. 

Things settle down a bit over dinner (steamed veggies!) and it is great to see Strike learning more about Robin as a person by checking out her pictures and apartment decor. He consciously compares it to the grandeur of Charlotte's place, but I bet he is also thinking of it in contrast to Madeline's monochrome digs. 

And, I will add another wish list for the TV production:  we need to see Strike in those brand new pajamas! 

I don't claim to be any fan of Stewart Nutley, but I do feel compelled to defend him in this instance. Strike specifically hired him "on a weekly contract that could be terminated without notice at either party’s behest" and both Strike and Robin clearly hope to sack him as soon as they can afford to do so. The sword cuts both ways; it's hard to expect Nutley to be willing to risk his safety for a business that clearly has no long-term commitment to him. 

What Strike and Robin think is going to be a routine drop-in interview of Inigo Upcott turns into a trip to his vacation home in Whitstable. Inigo appears to berate Gus for the entire drive and is no more pleasant to the detective team when they arrive at his home.  Very interesting that Gus's initial response is a "look of horror" and he's "only too happy" to get out of the room. Of course, readers are convinced, quite reasonably that it was his father he was eager to escape. We learn a lot more about Inigo's self-pity and his fondness for Kea, and that he treats Gus no better than his "problem child" Flavia. We also learn he believes Anomie is Yasmin Weatherhead. Robin is interrupted by a call from the police telling her that the Halvening is scoping out her apartment, and Gus, when walking back with the detectives to the car park, drops the surprising news that his father communicates with a second woman, named Rachel, online. 

With Robin now shut out of her flat, our heroes decide to stay at a hotel in the seaside town, and the day takes a bit of an upturn, with an air similar to the road-trip to Skegness. Once they settle into their Marine Hotel rooms, Robin gets involves in a football-related chat with Fiendy1 while Strike seeks relief for his leg and makes the break-up call to Madeline. Hallelujah. We are left hoping this is the end of her. 

We can tell the mood ua picking up with the flashes of humor:

‘What’s going on with your leg?’
‘Keeps moving of its own bloody accord.’
‘What?’ said Robin, glancing at the prosthesis propped against the wall, which made Strike give a grunt of laughter. 

Over dinner, we learn Robin has made a breakthrough in the case, thanks to figuring out that Fiendyl's favorite team is nicknamed the Peacocks. Too bad Strike didn't bother telling her that earlier. I love their dinner and Strike's reaction to Robin's texting. This is really the reverse of the scene in LW where he shows her the brochure for the flat Elin is considering, and she jumps to the conclusion that he's moving in with her, when he's really trying to show her he's found Donald Laing's apartment. Here, Strike gets worried about her intense texting, thinking she's making plans with Hugh Jacks, and, when she looks up with excitement, he makes the rather wild leap that she's just gotten a marriage proposal! (What woman wouldn't want that grand gesture by text, after all?)  In reality, she's excited to have snagged an interview with Rachel Ledwell. If Rachel can identify Morehouse, Morehouse can lead them to Anomie. 

If only this breakthrough had come earlier. This section ends with the final chat between "Paperwhite" and Morehouse, that sounds so wonderful, then ends with the dreadful, "someone's at my door, give me a mo...."  and then a lot of blank text. 

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We'll pick up Monday with the last week of the read-a-long! 

We are almost there, people!  

*Historically, such an bombing incident did occur, killing two people and injuring 35. Interestingly, two members of "Guilford Four" were wrongly convicted of the bombing and spent 15 years in jail until their convictions were overturned in 1990. Was Mr. Galbraith's choice of this specific bombing location intentional? FYI, The pub in question, The King's Arms, was demolished in 2020 and replaced with housing.