The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-Read, Chapters 116-120: Visual ambiguities, Chekhov's priest and a series of interrupted phone calls.

The Hallmarked Man is winding down, which means the chapters get shorter and the pacing gets faster. In Chapter 116, it's the evening of the terrorist attack. 

Robin was at home, alone. Night had fallen, her curtains were closed, her door double-locked, her alarm on, and the dining room chair was still propped beneath the handle of the front door.

Fortunately, her anxiety is lifted by a call from Midge, who shows that listening to a recorded interview is the next best thing to being there. We learn first that Wright was kind enough to help the Mohamed family with their daughter's wheelchair. Even better, Robin's speculations about the weights were right on the money. 

“Can you remember anything about the weights?" asked Midge, while Robin’s heart rate accelerated almost painfully.

"Yes, they were yellow, with the face of a black lion on them, or maybe a lioness, drawn like a cartoon. I only saw them for a second. He looked at me strangely when he’d covered them again.”

One very reasonable critique of the parallels I draw between books of the series is that the criteria of how specific a connection must be to make the list is somewhat arbitrary. That's why I get so excited when I see multifaceted similarities. For example, "Strike interviews a dealer in expensive home furnishings" is fairly generic. But, "Strike interviews a dealer of expensive home furnishings whose first name is Henry, who has Charlotte for a customer and for which Charlotte learns of the interview and ambushes Strike immediately afterwards" is so specific that we can be pretty sure it is deliberate.

We find another parallel between TB and THM here, with Robin's flash of visual insight:

Things that looked as you expected them to look. A sheaf of corn, or a tree. A black lion on a yellow background…

Thanks to her brother Martin telling her that gym weights can be imprinted with customized logos, Robin realizes that what Hussein Mohamed mistook for a black lioness on a yellow background could instead have been the Wolverhampton Wolf, the mascot of Tyler Powell's favorite football team. Back in Troubled Blood, Robin realized that the elusive floral delivery van seen speeding away from the area of Margot Bamborough's abduction might instead be a wholefoods van with a sun logo. This insight was sparked by an Ellacott family Christmas Pictionary game where everyone was stumped by "Icarus"*, thinking that the sketch of a winged figure was an insect hovering around a flower, rather than a young man flying too near the sun. And which of the seven Ellacotts drew the baffling illustration? Martin. The origin of both of these guesses-based-on-visual-ambiguity clues with Martin Ellacott takes the specificity level from questionable to likely for me. 

After texting a thank-you to Midge, Robin gets another message from the supposed Chloe. I caught a clue this time around that I missed before. 

No I don’t know why Tyler left, he was hardly talking to me before I went interrailing and my boyfriend was getting angry if I even said hello to him in the street after he gave me that crappy birth flower bracelet thing.

Chloe's birthday was in April, shortly before Tyler's disappearance in May. The birth flowers for April are daisies and sweet peas. Violets are for February. Robin was already wondering why teasing about the violet bracelet upset Chloe so much; the knowledge that violets are not Chloe's birth month flower may have been another clue that prompted Robin to look closer into their significance. 

Struck by a random idea, Robin looked up the meaning of a name on Google.

"Oh my God," she whispered. 

This is presumably Robin looking up the meaning of Jolanda. Bragging point:  I looked it up on my first read-through and therefore guessed Chloe was Jolanda as soon and I saw the bracelet. See the fifth paragraph of this post. 

With shaking hands, she opened Instagram yet again. She had to be sure, before she contacted Strike. She must be absolutely certain.

An hour passed, and for the first time since she’d been attacked outside the Whiteheads’ house, Robin forgot her fear. She neither jumped at small night-time noises, nor did she get up from her table to re-check that the door was locked. It didn’t occur to her to cross to the window to stare down into Blackhorse Road, in case Wade King was watching her windows. All she cared about was proving the shocking theory that had leapt out at her, from the meaning of a name.

Robin could be checking on almost anyone in the case. So far in this mystery, the detective team looked at Instagram pages for Rupert, the fake Oz, Tyler, Gretchen Schiff, Sapphire Neagle, Tish Benton, Valentine Longcaster, Cosima Longcaster, and Chloe Griffiths, the last having two, an old one for Ironbridge, a new one detailing her interrailing.  Robin may be checking the birthday party picture to confirm the bracelet is violets; more likely, she is checking Chloe's second Instagram account and reverse-searching the images to determine the pictures are fake. I think we are supposed to assume this hour-long search also includes re-examining the picture of Reata at the concert, and this time recognizing Griffiths and Wade King, but readers are not given that vital clue. 

Robin calls Strike and we learn he has set Rena Liddell up in a Travelodge for a few nights. But Robin's information is more urgent. 

“Strike, I think I’ve got something important – really important."

"Funnily enough," said Strike, who was limping towards to his BMW, "so have I.”

Has Strike deduced that Semple killed himself by throwing himself off the Regents Park Bridge? I must say, I love that Robin seems to have been the one to assemble the most important clues and come up with a coherent idea that explains them all. Strike got closure for Semple's family, which is great, but Robin's deduction undoubtedly saved Sapphire's life, not to mention busting an international human trafficking ring. 

We enter Part 10 and Chapter 117 with Strike and Robin still on the phone, having spoken for more than two hours. They are once again in that situation where they are sure they have the right answer, but not enough proof. 

“I still think,’ said Strike, ‘we’ll be very lucky to interest the Met with what we’ve got right now.”

Especially since they have very few helpful contacts left and the cops on the Silver Vault case can't stand the sight of them. In order to get the proof, Strike is planning a breaking and entering errand with Barclay and Wardle, while Midge and Robin plan to revisit Ramsay's silver shop, which is closed and near bankruptcy. Robin feels bad for the guy, while Strike continues to characterize Ramsey as an "idiot."

Robin is forced to end the call with Strike to take a call from RFM, who suggests going to the Ritz for his 34th birthday. It seems they never did get around to planning that San Sebastian trip. 

“Oh," said Robin blankly. "OK. I mean – right, I’ll make sure I’ve got it off." Fearing she’d been insufficiently enthusiastic, she added, "That’ll be lovely, the Ritz."

But after Murphy had hung up, Robin sat frozen, staring at the Raoul Dufy print hanging above her mantelpiece. It showed a seascape viewed through two open windows, and it added a trace of yearning to her sudden feeling of panic.

Dufy has more than one painting of windows overlooking the sea, but this seems to be the most popular. Of course, her panic is caused by the thought that RFM's atypically expensive restaurant choice is going to mean a proposal, and a request for her to immediately don that "tiny sparkling shackle." And, in the office, Strike is thinking the same thing, even without knowing the restaurant. 

Ten miles away, Strike was regretting the tone he’d taken with Robin about Kenneth Ramsay. His strictures on those who did stupid things and were far too easily forgiven by Robin had very little to do with the silver shop owner and everything to do with the lapsed alcoholic whose proposal, he was certain, was approaching fast.

Nonetheless, Strike tries to focus on his plans for the next day.  

Having read through everything he’d written so far, Strike added "Handcuffs (multiple?)", pondered for a while longer, then wrote the word "priest". This done, he turned out his desk lamp, picked up his notebook and left for his attic.

As we can assume that Mr. Team Rational will not be taking a cleric along on his mission, we are confident that the Chekhov's gun Strike took from Ted's house is going to get fired.  

We enter Part 10 and Chapter 118 (one of the shortest in the series) with the news that the men's mission is out of town. 

“There’s a reason why we’re startin’ oot at seven a.m., is there?" yawned Barclay, arriving at the garage where Strike kept his BMW the following morning.

This chapter is too brief to tell us much other than that they are driving to a rental place in Strike's car, so that Barclay and Wardle can go ahead to their destination, while Strike waits until after dark, since he's been seen in the location before. Plus, Wardle's eating an Egg McMuffin, thinks he might get carsick and Strike is entirely dismissive of his concerns. 

“Ye can forget borrowin’ mah knuckledusters, if that’s yer attitude," said Barclay, drawing his long legs into the car.

Perhaps Barclay would have rather gone with Midge and Robin, since they are embarking on a mission that seems very much like his and Robin's trip to the Athorn flat: showing up to a city building with clanking bags of tools. The tension builds, as Chapter 119 is even shorter than 118. 

“Hi," said Midge, joining Robin at the end of Wild Court at a quarter to nine.

We have a very brief catch-up on Midge's personal life, learning she has had a bit of "rebound shagging" with Ellen, of "WishIwaswithEllen" fame. Presumably Beth retained custody of the original Bufflypaws when she and Ellen broke up, since Ellen's cat sounds pretty nasty, not something one would name their gaming avatar after. I still wonder if Midge drove back to Manchester or if Ellen had relocated to London. 

Ramsay turns up to escort them into the now-shuttered shop, and Robin cautions him not to get his hopes up. 

But she could tell, by Ramsay’s agitated air as he fumbled with the shop keys, that he was praying for a miracle.

Chapter 120, which is finally one that is longer than three pages, takes us back to the men's journey. The seemingly rapid pacing and the building tension are increased by no fewer than three interrupted phone calls. 

As they drove north, Strike told Barclay and Wardle how he believed William Wright had died, and why. He found it a useful exercise, because their incredulity showed him exactly what he and Robin would need to do if they were to convince the police.

When murder seems too complex to be believed to the man who solved the Owen Quine, Jasper Chiswell and Edie Ledwell murders, it's perhaps not too surprising that a lot of the audience felt the same way. Wardle's thoughts certainly echoed those of many readers:

“If that’s what happened," said Wardle, "it’s the most convoluted fucking murder I’ve ever heard of and I can’t believe he brought it off.”

Wardle and Barclay head north in the rental, while Strike enjoys flapjacks and coffee in the Old Town Cafe and Deli in the small town of Banbury.  He takes a quick call from the recuperating Dev Shah, who apologizes for believing the Kimphomaniac, Wardle having set him straight about her antics. Strike, in turn, agrees to keep him on salary while he is recovering from the stab wound. Shah's call is interrupted by a call from Midge and Robin, so Strike gets live coverage of their excavation of the Ramsay's Silver basement. Robin is in the storage closet, breaking through the wall in the back to access the "bit of dead space" that was pointed out to us in Chapter 97. She removes the wooden wall and finds loose bricks behind it. 

Robin had battered the bricks as hard as she could in the cramped space and one of them fell through into the empty space beyond. With a definite clang, it hit something metallic.

As usual, our heroes' guess is correct. All of Ramsay's missing silver is there, along with William Wright's bloody clothes (but not his shoes, which is important). 

Because Strike and Robin spend so much time on the outs with each other, I've missed the humor Strike and Robin so often have in their banter in this book. But, we get a flash of humor in the next exchange. 

He’d thought it likely, on the balance of probabilities, that the Murdoch silver had never actually left the shop, but hearing that theory confirmed was an immense relief. Then he heard a loud, echoing wail.

"The hell’s that?"

"Er – that was Mr Ramsay," said Robin.

The shop owner had flung himself onto all fours to squeeze himself into the cupboard and peer through the hole Robin had made. Now he was sobbing hysterically, only his legs and backside visible.

"Hang on," said Robin, as Ramsay’s echoing wails filled the small space, and she climbed the stairs back up to the shop floor. "He’s a bit overwrought," she said quietly.

Strike is about to change the topic of the conversation to Rupert Fleetwood, when he is interrupted yet again by another phone call, this time from the last cop in the Met who is still speaking to him, George Layborn, who tells him the police had followed Strike's hunch and found Rupert Fleetwood's body. Strike immediately calls Robin back to share that news. She agrees to have Ramsay keep quiet about the recovered silver for now, but clearly still has misgivings about the guy's mission. 

“But please be careful."

"I think that’s what’s called 'rich', coming from the woman who once jumped in front of a moving train," said Strike.

Their call is again interrupted, this time from Barclay, who tells him their target has “just left, wi’ a van full of other guys.” Strike decides it's time to catch up to his sub-contractors. 

He paid for his flapjacks and coffee, visited the café’s bathroom, returned to his car, and set off in the direction of Ironbridge. 

Next time:  The resolution!  Part 10 closes with a lot of bloodshed.  

*Although, it is somewhat surprising that a guy who didn't remember that King Arthur owned Excalibur would have known who Icarus was in the first place.