The Hallmarked Man Real-Time Re-Read, Part 4, Chapters 45-47: Robin recalls her high school German, and gets more reasons to hate Kim.

Today, January 10th,  is National Houseplant Appreciation Day, so I'm sharing a picture of my Phyllis. Does anyone else have one?  

Robin was relieved to have one project to focus on at the moment, a place to concentrate her energies, where she couldn’t keep fretting about personal matters: trying to persuade Gretchen Schiff, the former flatmate of Sofia Medina, to meet her in person.

Chapter 45 is mainly Robin's interview with Gretchen and her not-so-helpful boyfriend Max. This interview is a huge breakthrough, as is shows that Sofia was seeing, and was likely killed by, the impersonator of Calvin Osgood and drastically increases the likelihood of it being Sofia and Osgood who robbed William Wright's flat.  This scene emphasizes how many of the breakthroughs needed to crack the case of the sex trafficking ring were made by Robin. Strike's contributions were largely related to the alternate Wright suspects: tracking down Danny DeLeon on Sark, deducing the location of Semple's body, etc.: important but lesser aspects of the case.  

We also see Robin's skills at bluffing. Pretending to know more than she does has served her well in the past, though this time I was reminded that this same bluffing skill will be used to deceive Ilsa into breaking Strike's confidence later in the book. 

Like Robin, I had a few years of German, so I was pleasantly surprised to be able to read most of what was said.  Here are the full translations: 

Lass uns gehen = "Let's go!"

Du solltest mit einem Anwalt reden! = "You should talk to a lawyer!"

Ich hätte es sagen sollen! = "I should have told them!"

Dann geh zurück zur Polizei! = "Then go back to the police!"

Sag nichts anderes. Sie hat keine Autorität. = "Don't say anything else. She has no authority."

Weil die Polizei es bereits weiß!  = "Because the police already know!"

Und jetzt rufen wir einen Anwalt an. = "And now we're going to call a lawyer." 

"Yes," said Robin, closing her notebook. "I think calling a lawyer’s a very good idea."

I think it's awesome the way she lets them know she understands at least some of what they have been saying to each other. 

The next morning, in Chapter 46, Strike and Robin meet in the office to catch up prior to their lunch with Decima Mullins.  Strike is eager to give her full credit for the breakthrough. 

“Well, I sure as hell haven’t got anything to beat what you got yesterday," said Strike, when Robin arrived at the office at eleven o’clock the following morning.

Strike and Robin chat a bit about elements of the case, but raise more questions than they answer, including:

• Why would "Oz" have returned to WW's apartment for the weights?
• Why did he need Sofia Medina for an accomplice?
• What was in the text that cause Pamela Bullen to leave the shop suddenly?

There is also a bit of discussion about Oliver Branfoot and the shady rumors surrounding him, and speculation about whether he is a Freemason. Fortunately, investigative journalist Fergus Robertson's on the case, and Strike hopes to get information from him. Notice the contrast to his dealings with Dominic Culpepper in The Silkworm, when Culpepper relied on Strike to do the investigating. 

Unfortunately, their discussion is interrupted by the arrival of the Kimphomaniac. She turns up at the door holding a fold-up chair, yet claiming not to know that Robin was in. If she genuinely did not think Robin was in the inner office, she wouldn't have needed to grab her own chair, because Robin's desk chair would be free. 

“I’ve got intel on the three men who went into the shop to murder Wright, and" – Kim held up a large manila envelope – "I’ve got you pictures of the body.”

Chapter 47 could be subtitled "Fifty reasons to hate KFC"

“I’ve been working on this guy I know for weeks, and he finally came across last night," said Kim triumphantly, unfolding her chair and sitting down while Robin quietly burned with resentment. It wasn’t just that Kim was about to outshine her (though it was, definitely, partly that): Kim’s offhand tone when speaking to Robin, and the broad smile she saved for Strike, rankled.

My guess is, Kim pushed her lush of a colleague hard for this information because she felt a need to suck up to Strike even more, after he reprimanded her for being overly bossy with Midge and asked her to apologize. Notice how she brings up the "good about the Midge thing?" query at the end of the conversation. Thus, she is even worse about ignoring Robin and treating Strike like he's the only one who matters. 

Robin specifically notices the livor mortis, which is the gravitational pooling of blood in the body after death. The presence of the blue-purple on Wright's chest indicates he would have lain face-down for at least 2-4 hours after he was killed. Unfortunately, Kim's obnoxious interruptions drowns out Robin's important observation.

“The mutilation was done a good bit after he was killed," said Strike. "There’s not enough blood here for it to have been done immediately after death."

"His killers were in the shop for two hou—" began Robin.

"He was attacked from behind, hit over the head with something heavy," said Kim, interrupting Robin.

Robin was about to point out that the timeframe of the evening visit to the shop was very short to have both the liver mortis set in and the extensive mutilations to occur. If KFC hadn't interrupted her, the detectives might have figured out that the killing had to have happened earlier in the day many chapters earlier. The fact that the four men on CCTV are students unaffiliated with the robbery is another hint that Wright never actually left the shop. What we're seeing here is that KFC's flirting with Strike, ignoring Robin, self-promotion and undercutting of the other women in the agency is not just annoying. It's stopping the detectives from doing their best work, 

While it is good that Kim tipped off Strike about Humbold having Bijou followed, I have no doubt it was for the wrong reasons (again, promoting her self and trying to make Strike grateful to her.  However, this is the first step in the Bijou pregnancy scare storyline, so the tone of the story is about to get a lot more soap-opera/ cheesy talk-showish. So, there's another interruption to Strike and Robin's conversation, and another lost opportunity during which they might have put some clues together.

Kim left the room. Robin reappeared in the doorway.

"Everything all right?" she asked, because Strike’s expression was now strangely shut down.

"Yeah, fine,’ said Strike again, checking his watch. They still had a good bit of time before lunch with Decima. "Actually – could you give me another moment? Need to make a phone call.”

The call to Ilsa will, of course, give him still more bad news. Tune in Tuesday for a look at that chapter, the lunch with Decima, one of Strike and Robin's first major ethical clashes and the Bijou fallout.