The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-read, Chapters 76-79: The bad dogs of Valentine's Day

Strike’s anxiety about the results of the DNA test had become acute by the fourth afternoon without news, so he called Bijou while walking towards the shabby street in Holborn where the vanished Jim Todd, or Todd Jameson, as Strike now knew him to be, had lived until very recently.

Bijou now seems not nearly as eager to get the results as she was previously, and, when he calls her in Chapter 76, reminds him that the company probably doesn't process tests on weekends. After annoying Robin by saying he wants to put surveillance on Lord Branfoot in hopes of discovering his covert film studio, he goes off to interview Jim Todd's neighbors, where he learns someone else has already come calling for Todd, sometime the previous week. We get yet another of the instances---there are several in the book-- of witnesses to Ian Griffiths failing to note that the man is only five feet tall, while noticing other details like his glasses and his limp. 

“Can you remember anything else about the man who came looking for him? Facial features? Build? Clothing? Accent?"

Eyes on the tenners, the young man said, "He wasn’t as big as you."

This is somewhat like saying Danny Devito is not as big as Arnold Schwartzenegger. Strike also pays a lot of money for Todd's old poker book. 

“I’d like to buy that from you," said Strike, pulling more cash from his wallet before handing five tenners to his first helper. "And if either of you see the man who was banging on Todd’s door again" – he pointed at the card in the kitchen worker’s hand – "call me. There’s more money in it, if you can give me a lead on him.”

This author doesn't seem to care much for Valentine's Day: remember Harry and Cho's disastrous date in Hogsmeade and the Dinner Party from Hell of Troubled Blood? Chapter 77 suggests this holiday won't be any better. 

Robin’s Valentine’s Day started badly. Murphy had stayed over at her flat. In addition to a card, he’d bought her a plush dog with a heart in its mouth, in allusion to his previous offer to buy her a puppy.

Given that the Flobberworm's first Valentine's Day gift to her was a plush elephant, and she gave that particular item to charity after they split, RFM's gift does not bode well.  It is a bit ironic that he suggests she take the toy on surveillance, given that she and Strike will indeed have to be pretending to be transporting a dog later that evening.  I can only imagine what Plug's colleagues would have thought of the plushie if they had spied in in the Land Rover.  

Sure enough, while Robin is tailing Mrs. Two-times on her shoe-shopping trip, she gets an unwelcome call:

When she saw Murphy’s name, she had a strange sense of foreboding. Sure enough, when she answered, his first words were: "We’ve been fucking gazumped."

"What?"

"Some bastard’s offered the seller another five grand. The estate agent’s just called me."

"Oh, shit," said Robin. But she was shocked by the relief that had just washed over her.

I'm a bit more sympathetic to RFM than are some readers, mainly because I think he does genuinely love Robin and think Robin is wrong for continuing to string him along when she clearly is not fully committed to the relationship. But, he does get on my nerves here---  how can he hear "Oh, shit" and not register disappointment or anger? Robin, for her part, is still too upset with Strike and stressed out by her stalkers to let herself see the situation for what it is. 

Why had she let herself get pulled along into this situation? Hadn’t she learned anything about listening to her own doubts, from the calamity that had been her short-lived marriage?

But this isn’t the same, she argued against herself. He’s not Matthew.

No, he's not Matthew---  but the fact that you keep feeling like you did when you were with Matthew should be telling you something. 

I must admit, I got a little thrill in my stomach when Strike joined her in the Land Rover, and insisted on going to the dogfight with her. 

Plug and a friend had just emerged from the house, dragging a gigantic dog that looked to Robin the kind of creature that might guard the gates of hell: a muzzled, snarling, jet black, heavily muscled cross between a Rottweiler and a giant Bulldog. It took the combined efforts of both men to force it into the back of Plug’s van.

"Don’t you want to—?"Robin began, as she turned on the engine.

"No," said Strike, pulling on his seatbelt, "I’m coming.”

With this, you know Chapter 78 is going to be exciting. 

“Fucking typical it kicks off the night Barclay’s on them," said Strike, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "He needs to clear out. The blokes who dragged him off that roof are probably there.”

Fortunately, it's a fairly long drive to the Ipswich dogfight, so our heroes have time for some very important conversations. Importantly, Strike tells Robin he has located Danny de Leon on the car-less island of Sark, and that he is thinking of traveling there to find him or his family. Note the important contrast between this and the earlier Scotland trip: Strike's primary reason for going is to investigate one of the alternative Wright candidates, but he's not billing Decima for it. Even more importantly, he is, at least initially, planning the trip without Robin. He is starting to reset his ethical compass, compared to earlier, where his entire reason for going to Scotland was to get Robin to the Lake District hotel. 

Strike also shares his thoughts about Semple and the SAS, including the information about his earlier visit to their base. The very expensive poker book has borne some fruit, showing that Jim Todd has very bad spelling, suggesting to Strike that Todd composed "Wright's" CV as a means of getting him the silver shop job. 

This next exchange struck me as a bit odd:

“Did you see, Patterson’s been sentenced?"

"Yes," said Robin. "Two years."

"Not nearly fucking long enough for me," said Strike. When Robin didn’t respond, he said,

“I see they’ve put out a request for information on that silver Peugeot.”

I don't blame Robin for not responding here, given that, if she hadn't had the presence of mind to take all the listening devices home before Chiswell got murdered, it could have been her on trial for bugging a government official's office. Unlike Farah, I doubt Robin would have cried crocodile tears in open court and left her senior partner to take the full rap. 

Just as the sun is setting, Strike gets the message from Bijou with the DNA test results, and the very welcome news that he is not a father. He is so overwhelmed by emotion that he blurts out the whole story. 

Strike felt almost drunk with the release of tension, and his mouth appeared to be acting independently of his brain. He’d only known this sensation a couple of times before in his entire life: arriving through flooded countryside at the old house in St Mawes, in time to reach his aunt’s deathbed; finding Charlotte alive, at last, in hospital, forty-eight hours after he’d found her torn-up dress.

I was a little surprised that no incident with Robin made this list: I would have thought that breaking through the barge door and finding her alive with Raff, or seeing her run out of the woods by the Chapman Farm fence would have produced similar levels of relief. 

Strike and Robin have been at emotional odds with each other since around Chapter 50. It is great to see them start to come back together.  

“I know I should’ve told you," said Strike. "I just – after all the other Culpepper shit – I wanted to know for certain what I was dealing with."

Almost against her will, the vice-like grip of anger and anguish that had been with Robin ever since Ilsa had told her about Bijou’s baby was loosening.

Strike takes another trapeze swing:

“So, then," said Robin, "why disregard the red flag?"

"Because sometimes," said Strike, all caution gone, "if you can’t get what you want, you take what you can get.”

But, once again, this is not explicit enough for Robin, and she lets him crash into the net.  

Was he talking about the dead Charlotte, now forever beyond hope of reform or reunion? Or was he hinting…? But she couldn’t make herself ask. She was scared of taking a step that might put her in possession of information that would have ramifications way beyond deciding whether she and Murphy should put in a higher bid on a house.

Beside her, Strike was thinking, ask me. Ask me what I mean and I’ll bloody say it. Ask.

Neither spoke. They drove on in silence. 

Another missed opportunity. 

Apparently, nothing else of significance is said until they reach the dogfight in Chapter 79:

Over an hour later, Plug’s white van indicated left and turned up the road that led to the compound on waste ground, north of Ipswich.

Readers can see how the situation is going to play out, as soon as Strike gets out of the car and tells Robin to turn it around in case they need to make a quick getaway. They are going to need to make a quick getaway. Strike manages to make some video of Plug enjoying the dogfight, but someone clues into the fact that he is not a regular and, as Strike makes his way back to the Land Rover, sics "Lennon*" on him. Fortunately, Robin is there, not just with a Land Rover poised and ready to go, but with a handy bottle of pepper spray. 

One of the elements many readers were hoping for here was that Robin would have a chance to rescue Strike, and we got our wish. 

Robin scrambled out of the car. The shadowy figures of the sprinting men were growing larger, but she aimed the pepper spray at the mauling dog’s face and squeezed at short range. With a frantic yelp, the half-blinded dog released its grip. 

In a nice gender-reversal of the Chapman Farm rescue, Strike scrambles for the car while Robin delivers the parting blow to his pursuers (capsaicin instead of wire cutters), then jumps in the car and gets the hell outta Dodge.  

Fists rained down upon the car’s windows, but Robin had already started the engine. She slammed her foot flat to the floor, and the Land Rover hurtled off down the dirt track, leaving a choking, coughing knot of men in its wake.

Coming up Saturday:  the milky aftermath of the pepper spray rescue and the journey to (*sigh*) Sark!

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*Note the "John" name. I guess Pat can't use this one for the next fish, if Elton goes the way of Travolta.