As Strike had expected, with half an Orca Punch inside her Madeline began to relax. A jazz quartet took to the small stage and her hand rested lightly on his thigh while they shouted comments into each other’s ears.
‘Did you tell me how your day was?’ Madeline asked him when their second drinks arrived.
‘No,’ Strike said, ‘but it was fine.’
To Madeline’s slight frustration, he never shared details of cases with her. A private joke had grown up between them that he was investigating the Mayor of London and he might have thought up some amusing fictional crime he’d caught Boris Johnson committing, but he couldn’t muster the lung-power to make her understand, given how loudly the saxophonist was currently playing. However, when at last a break in the music came, and the applause died away, Strike said,
‘Have you ever heard of The Ink Black Heart?’
‘The what? Oh – hang on – is it that weird cartoon?’
‘Yeah. You know it?’
‘No, not really, but Henry was into it for a while,’ she said. ‘There’s a character called Dred or Dreg or something, isn’t there?’
‘Dunno,’ said Strike. ‘I heard about it for the first time today.’
‘Yeah, Henry liked Dreg. But didn’t they sack the guy who used to do his voice, or something? I remember Henry and his mates talking about it. Henry lost interest after that. It all slightly goes over my head, all the YouTube stuff. That’s not where you make jewellery sales.’
‘Where’s best for jewellery?’
‘Instagram,’ said Madeline promptly. ‘Haven’t you seen my Instagram page? Bloody hell, call yourself a boyfriend…’
She pulled her iPhone out of her bag and brought it up to show him, her booted foot tapping impatiently because the Wi-Fi was slow.
‘There,’ she said, showing him.
He scrolled slowly through the pictures of various beautiful women wearing Madeline’s jewels, interspersed with arty shots of London and quite a few selfies of Madeline wearing her own earrings or necklaces.
‘We should take a selfie now and I can post it,’ she said, taking her iPhone back and switching to her front camera. ‘This is a cool backdrop.’
‘Private detectives don’t do Instagram,’ said Strike, instinctively raising a large hairy-backed hand to block the lens.
‘No,’ she said with a look of surprise, ‘I s’pose not. Shame. We’re both looking kind of hot tonight.’
She slipped her phone back into her bag.
‘You can post a picture of me once I’m in that tiara,’ said Strike, and she giggled.
‘Want another drink, or’ – she leaned in, her breath warm on his ear – ‘shall we go back to the house?’
‘House,’ said Strike, draining his glass. ‘I’ve got to be in Sloane Square early tomorrow.’
‘Yeah? What’s Boris doing in Sloane Square?’
‘Nicking hub caps, mugging old ladies – the usual,’ said Strike. ‘But he’s a wily bastard and I still haven’t managed to catch him in the act.’
Madeline laughed, and Strike raised a hand for the bill.
9
The pale queen’s honour!
A low laugh scathing and sereing
A mumbling as made by the dead in the tombs…
<Moderator Channel>
<12 February 2015 09.22>
>
>
>
Anomie: Quiet today
>
>
Vilepechora: Yeah. Numbers have been down last two weeks.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Anomie: What’s with the sudden influx of mods?
>
Vilepechora: dunno
>
>
Anomie: I’m going to ban that bastard Harty292 if he keeps that up
Vilepechora: what’s he doing?
Anomie: breaking rule 14. trying to get ages and locations off girls. Arsehole.
>
>
>
>
Anomie: ok I’ve had enough, I’m banning him.
Vilepechora: doesn’t help our numbers if you keep banning people.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Anomie: I’ve got to be somewhere later. Can you cover?
>
Vilepechora: sorry, dude, got a work meeting
Vilepechora: get Morehouse to do it
Anomie: he’s got a thing on, he can’t
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Anomie: I’ve got stuff to do
Anomie: back in a bit
<Anomie has left the channel>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
<Worm28 has joined the channel>
Vilepechora: cheers
>
>
>
>
Vilepechora: suppose it might not matter soon if we slack off, lol
<A new private channel has opened>
<12 February 2015 09.24>
<Hartella invites LordDrek, Vilepechora, Fiendy1, Worm28 and Paperwhite>
Hartella: peeps?
>
<Vilepechora has joined the channel>
<LordDrek has joined the channel>
<Worm 28 has joined the channel>
Worm28: have u heard from josh ?
Hartella: Let’s wait for the others.
>
<Paperwhite has joined the channel>
<Fiendy1 has joined the channel>
>
Fiendy1: what’s happened?
Hartella: Josh just texted me. He and Ledwell are going to meet face-to-face this afternoon. She’s still denying it, so he’s going to take the dossier and show it to her.
Fiendy1: whoa
Worm28: OMFG
Vilepechora: FKN EXCELLENT!
LordDrek: she’s not gonna be able to bullshit her way out of this one
Paperwhite: where are they gonna meet?
Hartella: can’t tell you that, sorry
Paperwhite: because you don’t know or?