Chapter 15 is a brief glimpse of Venetia's second day undercover. Robin is summoned to see Jasper Chiswell in his office, where the Minister is is usual cheerful self. He grouches that Robin hasn't planted the bug yet. Hey Jasper, if you are concerned about her getting the job done, having her walk several buildings over to you for a 30-second conversation before telling her to get back to work may not be the best idea. But, Robin gets to meet Della Winn and be mistaken for an old fencing friend of Freddie Chiswell's, who we will eventually learn is Verity Pulham. Fun fact: Della suggests "going over the plans for the twelfth" on the ride to Greenwich. These are likely the plans for the Paralympic reception.
Chapter 16 covers Strike's interview with Jimmy's ex, Dawn. Most of the information Strike gets about Jimmy turns out to be red herrings but she shares Strike's compassion for his brother Billy. The most important thing we learned is that Jimmy spoke of his father as a joiner, not an odd-jobs man, and had a real problem with how Jack O'Kent made his living.
Chapter 17 takes us back to the House of Commons, where Robin is finally invited into Winn's office, so he can explain about the Venetia/Verity mix-up of his "poor wife," Two things to note:
- At Geraint's mention of Della as his "poor wife,"Aamir "flings Geraint a sharp look, like the flash of a claw, swiftly retracted." This is the first hint that there might be something between them.
- Robin is in no way flirtatious or employing "feminine wiles" when she asks Winn for advice of political versus charity careers; in fact, she has just pulled away from his unwanted touch of her scar.
Chapter 18 brings he welcome news that Barclay has infiltrated Jimmy's CORE inner circle, by chatting him up about Scottish independence and the evils of the British army. Strike calls Robin to fill her in; she lies to Matthew and tells him it's Vanessa. Unfortunately, Strike is only "distantly interested" in the joint history of the Chiswell and Winn children on the British junior fencing team, saying he "doubts that explains the Winns wanting Chiswell out of office." A misdirection, of course; the fallout from Rhiannon replacing Verity on the team will be at the heart of that old grudge.
Spurred on by Strike's praise of Barclay's work, Robin gets into the office early the next day and manages to plant the first bug in Chapter 19. Aamir catches her, but the story of the dropped bangle gives her a reason for being there. She returns to the office, only to have Raff's unexpected appearance trigger her third panic attack in three days. Robin learns of Izzy's strong resentment of her stepmother and the money Chiswell spends on her. As if her ears are burning, Kinvara makes a call to the office at that moment, apparently hysterical over intruders near the house. Izzy dashes off to deliver some papers to her father, leaving Robin and Raff behind to listen to the phone messages including the voice of the menacing blackmailer. One clue that the caller is not Jimmy Knight is the demand for 40K pounds. Jimmy had already reduced his request for payment for the gallows to 20K.
Sorry, Matthew; another pub meeting for Strike and Robin comes in
Chapter 20. The image of "lowly servants carrying the heavy load of a sedan chair," to Strike:
seemed appropriate, although the occupant of the sedan chair in the pub sign was a refined lady in white, not a large, curmudgeonly minister with wiry hair and a short temper.
They listen to the recording that Robin collected from the bug, but don't learn anything incriminating, only that the pictures that could provide proof of Chiswell's misdeed are in the foreign office, and that Winn considers Aamir Malik in their debt in some way, and is using that to pressure Aamir into requesting the pictures from someone named "Christopher."
The curmudgeon is, of course, lives up to his reputation and is furious to hear that Aamir is seeking the pictures. He claims to have dirt on the young assistant, and insists there is nothing to Kinvara's reports of intruders. In what proves to be an unintentionally ironic statement, Chiswell declares "My problems are in London." Considering who the murderers are, he could have used a detective in his home.
Strike finds himself instantly disliking Raphael, both because his privilege reminds Strike of Jago Ross, and because he senses Robin might have feelings for him. As he rides home on the tube, Strike
tries to deny an uncomfortable idea headspace, but it nosed up against him, like a dog demanding food, impossible to ignore. He now realized that he had never imagined Robin being interested in any man other than Matthew, except, of course when he himself had held her on the stairs at her wedding, when briefly.... Angry at himself, he kicked the unhelpful thought aside.
Two things of note here:
- This is a preview of the much more explicit anger Strike feels when Robin dates Ryan in TRG.
- This is the book's second use of dog imagery to describe our heroes' attraction to each other. The first was from Robin in Chapter 3:
- The hug on the stairs, to which her thoughts kept scampering back like a dog to a blissfully pungent lamppost, seemed to have meant far less to him than it had to her.
With two dog comparisons, it is clear that the stair hug had great significance for them both. It is interestingly that the detectives' mutual attraction is paired with these "animal instinct-" type examples. Strellacott shippers should also take note of the word "seemed" here, and not lose hope in the face of the
THM blurb language.
While I usually leave the epigraph analysis to experts like
Beatrice Groves and the
Harpy Eagles Eyes of the Strike and Ellacott files, (you can learn a lot about the epigraphs of
Troubled Blood and
The Ink Black Heart and
The Running Grave at these links) the one from
Chapter 21 jumped out at me: "Certain games are going on behind your back in this house." Of course, there is tons of stuff going on behind people's backs in the House of Commons, tops being Robin's undercover mission, which is not only a secret from the Winns but also from Raff and Kinvara. But, looking back, we can also think of it referring to Kinvara's and Raff's affair, which has been going on behind everyone's back at Chiswell House. This is particularly ironic considering Chiswell's order in the last chapter that Strike "restrict his investigations to London, not Oxfordshire."
Aamir turns up in Izzy's office to ask for invitations to the Paralympic reception for the Level Playing Field trustees. Chiswell turns up quoting Catullus's most obscene poem. (if you want a translation, see
here), which is actually addressed to two young men. This is appropriate, since Chiswell has as much contempt for Raff as Aamir at this point, and is hoping to bring them both down, with the Lachesis reference a pointer to the pills that gave Chiswell the knowledge of Raff and Kinvara's affair.
Robin is interrupted by a text from Strike that she slips off into the crypt chapel to read. He asks her, at the last minute, to tail Jimmy Knight at the protest the following day, an assignment she regretfully turns down in favor of the planned trip with Matthew to celebrate their one-year anniversary. She feels she is letting not only Strike down, but feminists like Emily Davison who came before her.
While Robin and Raff are discussing redemption, they are interrupted by the first appearance of Kinvara Chiswell. The "blank" look she gives Raff upon finding him alone in the office with the "pretty" Venetia, and Raff's quick return to his computer have a different meaning to re-readers who know about their affair. The same can be said for Chiswell greeting her "without any trace of affection." He has to be wondering if she showed up at the office for another quickie with Raff.
Chapter 22 finds Robin's fears coming true, with Strike tailing Jimmy Knight at the peace march, resenting her actions every step of the way.
Why the f*ck... was he, senior partner and founder of the firm, having to stake out a protest march on a hot Saturday morning, when he had three employees and a knackered leg? Because... he didn't have a baby that needed watching, or a wife who'd booked plane tickets or broken her wrist, or a f*cking anniversary weekend planned. He wasn't married, so it was his downtime that had to be sacrificed, his weekend that became just two more working days.
The Guy Fawkes mask is an interesting echo to The Silkworm, in which the major crime occurred on Bonfire Night. And can we count Jimmy and Flick's probing tongues as an echo to Robin and Pez in TIBH?
Despite his doubts about the utility of this stakeout, Strike actually learns some important stuff, such as Flick "doing that cleaning" and the fact that Jimmy has got Billy stashed someplace. Strike likely could have tailed them to the hiding place if, in an echo to both books 2 and 6, his hamstring hadn't given out.
Chapters 23 and 24 offer an interesting contrast between Robin and Strike. The former is on an anniversary trip celebrating a marriage that is making her miserable. Her major concern is that she is now saying "I love you" to Matthew when she knows she doesn't mean it. Strike has the opposite problem. When he accepted Lorelei's offer to care for him in the aftermath of his injury, he raised her expectations for their relationship, declared her love and he was too honest to say "I love you" back. Interestingly, we are heading into The Hallmarked Man with Robin in a similar dilemma: she's told Ryan she loves him, but is questioning whether she means it. Meanwhile, Strike has, or thinks he has, kinda sorta maybe told Robin he's in love with her, but his framing it in Charlotte's beliefs may have given Robin a way to talk herself out of his true meaning.
This great character moment for Strike is interrupted by a call from Lucy, which prompts Strike to grab his keys and crutches and exit the flat immediately.
Chapter 25: We happily get to close this section with a major, if borderline illegal triumph of Robin's, as she intercepts a letter from a Level Playing Field Trustee, manages to impersonate Della Winn on the phone to learn its contents. She now has the dirt she needs on Geraint Winn and, failing to reach Strike, she goes off to inform Chiswell, giving him his only cheerful scene in the book. He manages to cheer Robin up, as well, arranging for her to attend the Paralympic reception and letting her know that Strike said she was the best he had.
Coming up next Thursday: Bring Kleenex for the hospital scene.
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