The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-Read, Chapter 88: Where Strike doesn't stumble.

As I mentioned in yeserday's post, Chapter 87is my favorite in the book.  But, Chapter 89 comes close to being the perfect folow-up, largely because of how and why we get rid of the Kimphomaniac. 

The injury to Strike’s face looked even worse the following morning, the swelling slightly diminished but livid blue bruises dappling his skin. His face continued to ache and he chose not to shave, for fear of reopening the gash left by the spade.

Before heading back to the ferry, he and Robin walked a little way along La Coupée, which lay just beyond the Old Forge: a high, narrow isthmus connecting the main island from Little Sark. 

Like Robin's black eyes in Troubled Blood, Strike's injury looks worse the next day. And, as sorry as I was not to see them cross La Coupée on horseback, I was happy, as in Skegness, to at least let them see a windy view of the sea together. 

There's even more wind coming up, as our heroes are forced to fly back to London during Storm Doris, adding another real-life weather event to the actions of the Strike novels.  Previously, we've had the record-setting snows of The Silkworm, the Cornish floods of Troubled Blood, and Storm Katie in The Running Grave. I think many of the readers joined Strike and Robin in their wish that the storm would have delayed their return even longer. But, it was not to be. 

"White-floored lobby, decorated with
objects such as giant chess pieces."

By Friday, the storm has blown over and it's back to work.  Strike is tailing Mrs. Two-times , waiting outside her house on a street filled with storm-toppled trees and expecting to hand off to KFC when he gets a text from her saying she is delayed by a personal emergency. KFC being KFC, I assumed she was lying, but the truth turns out to be more interesting. Strike stays on the case, and winds up following Mrs. TT to the St. Martin's Lane Hotel, where he texts Kim to ask her to come to relieve him when she can. 

It was a shame, Strike thought, that he didn’t have the same fetish as Two-Times; he’d be having the time of his life if he derived pleasure from knowing the woman he loved was fucking someone better-looking.

"Strike was in no mood to find this 
charmingly whimsical."

Strike arrives at the hotel and, after some searching, finds Mrs. TT in the Blind Spot, a "secret bar" opened by a "hidden white door with a outstretched golden hand as a handle." We are reminded that this type of situation (disgruntled at Robin's relationship, waiting in a bar for an attractive woman to show up) is exactly the type of situation that can make Strike stumble into temptation. 

The room inside was long, narrow and so dark that he nearly fell on his face by snagging his fake foot on the edge of a rug.

Music is playing, and, as the Christmas songs did earlier, serves as mid-chapter epigraph. Strike hears "Itchycoo Park's" line, I feel inclined to blow my mind and decides he need a really stiff drink instead of the froofy international cocktails that are The Blind Spot's specialty. 

A song about "blowing his mind" is appropriate, given Strike's mood, but more interesting is the song's opening line: Over bridge of sighs to rest my eyes.  Not only does this connect to the bridges theme of the book, the Bridge of Sighs is a landmark in Venice, so named because it was the last sight of the beautiful city condemned prisoners would see before being taken to their cells. Given that Strike thinks he has blown  his last chance to win "Venetia"  from Murphy, this is certainly appropriate. 

"Small puddles of light cast by the lamps"

While watching Mrs. TT, searching for Jim Todd's mother online and and chugging lots of Ardbeg whiskey, Strike gets two strange phone calls. The first is from someone claiming to be Rupert Fleetwood. He is deep-voiced, and, when asked for identifying information, he gives Decima's pet name for him, "Bear*" and the fact that he stole the silver nef. When told that neither is specific enough, he hangs up. 

Interestingly, Francoise Hardy's "Tous Les Garcons et Les Filles," a song about a young person despairing that they will ever find the love their peers have, is playing during this conversation. The words given in the text translate as Yes, but I go alone, because nobody loves me and Like boys and girls my age, would I soon know what love is? Both are appropriate for Rupert, who has been forced to leave behind literally the only person who loves him, but Strike probably feels like they fit him, too. 

Strike's second call is from his Scottish Gateshead, again insisting he has to meet him at the Golden Fleece. The major bit of information his call provides is the confirmation that this is, indeed, Rena Liddell. There is still no recognition of the similarity of this name to "Rita Linda."

Strike breaks down and orders food, shortly before KFC shows up. It turns out, her personal crises is real. Not only as her ex gassed himself, but the wife from whom the Kimphomaniac stole him turned up at Kim's flat, smashed up her car and assaulted her. Kim has been dealing not only with a tragedy involving a past lover but also a police report against an ex-fellow-cop. 

What is remarkable is Kim's glacial response to this event. Two children have just been left fatherless, and her affair and subsequent dumping, if not directly responsible, certainly played a major role. Kim is all about deflecting the responsibility onto the ex-life (who had the unmitigated gall to expect the dude to get a job to support the two kids he fathered!) and to use her own stress as an excuse to consume Ardbeg herself and to cozy up to Strike. Note that she initially says she hates the stuff, but, seeing that Strike likes it, orders a second. 

Contrast this to Robin, who, in the last book, could not stop blaming herself for the suicide of mother-of-two Cherie Gittens, even though Abigail Glover was ultimately, much more responsible for driving the poor woman to hang herself.  Recall also Strike's recent worries for Wardle. KFC looks remarkably callous in comparison. 

Also ask yourself, why did she turn up at all? Surely any reasonable person, under these circumstances, would call off work entirely; it's at least as good an excuse as your wife breaking her wrist. Note that she arrived by taxi, with no plan for how to continue the surveillance when Mrs. TT was done drinking. The answer, of course, is the Kimphomaniac is eager to hook up with Strike, and was no doubt hopeful that he would, if not immediately suggest they take a room in the hotel in response to her advances, at least offer to stay with her for the remainder of the surveillance job, then drive her home. KFC is doubly motivated:  not only is she warm for Strike's form, but she is no doubt eager to secure an management-level ally against Robin, after the latter's entirely justified reprimand for botching the Tish Bennet job. As I said before, she wants Robin's job, as well as her man. 

There's another musical interlude that emphasizes how precarious a position this is for Strike. As the Kimphomaniac leans in for a snuggle and to "accidently" display a picture of herself in the buff, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates begin blasting When you move in right up close to me, that’s when I get the shakes all over me…” from their "Shakin' All Over."

But Strike, at last, has learned his lesson about displacement f*cks. 

• In CoE, he had been on the verge of breaking up with Elin when Robin resumed her engagement to the Flobberworm, so he continued the affair because it was "safer" to have a beautiful woman within reach. 
• In LW, disappointed in Robin for not walking out on her marriage, he first slept with Coco, then began dating her friend Lorelei.
• In TIBH, the thought of Robin having a New Years liaison in Zermatt led him to accept a midnight kiss from Madeline. 
• In TRG, hearing Robin laughing with Murphy over dinner in her flat pushed him into accepting a date with Bijou, which nearly necessitated a Porta-crib and bottle-warmer for his attic flat. 

But here, for the first time, even though he's disgruntled that he can't have Robin and a beautiful woman is throwing herself at him, he says no.  

He reached down, took her wrist and threw her hand back into her lap.

"Don’t."

"What?"

"You know what. We’re not going to fuck," said Strike, more forcefully than he’d have done had he not drunk so much. "Ever."

"What? I didn’t—"

"Enough," said Strike, whose tongue felt far heavier than it should have, but whose anger at himself, and the mess he’d made with Robin, had at last found a target. "No more accidental texts, none of it, all right? And keep your fucking nudes to yourself.”

When he told Robin Bijou had "cured him of the habit," he wasn't kidding. There's no indication he was even tempted. 

He was hyper-aware of Kim sitting rigidly beside him as he paid his bill. He didn’t doubt she felt angry and humiliated, but he didn’t care. Having paid, he got up with difficulty, pins and needles in his legs, and said, without looking at her,

"See you at the office."

Oh no you won't, Bluey. 

He left, and only by a miracle of luck did he avoid tripping over the rug for a second time.

It wasn't luck; it was a sincere and long-overdue change in priorities. Finally!!!!

On Tuesday, we finish up Part Seven with RFM's vodka, Barnaby's reveal and Strike finding a couple of bodies.  

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*I hope that, if Decima and Rupert decide to change their identities and relocate to Sweden, where half-siblings, with permission from the government, can marry, she'll change her name to "Tiger."