Strike now read the text that had just come in, which was from Robin.
What’s happening? How’s your leg?
Still waiting for them to tell me, Strike replied.
Anomie’s behaving very oddly on Twitter
Yeah I’ve noticed
The curtain around Strike’s bed opened again, to reveal a new nurse: short, plump and Hispanic-looking.
‘The doctor’s going to be a little while. Would you like a cup of tea?’
‘I really just need painkillers,’ said Strike, who was as keen not to be a burden on the NHS as any overworked doctor could wish, and found this offer of tea ominous, because it implied he wouldn’t be leaving any time soon. However, when the nurse simply looked expectant, he said,
‘Tea would be great, thanks.’
‘Milk and sugar?’
‘Everything you’ve got.’
Maybe chuck in some co-codamol.
Strike sat back against the pillows and looked dispiritedly around at the inside of his curtains. Footsteps clattered and scuffled past his bed. Somewhere in the distance a baby was crying. His mobile buzzed again, and on picking it up he saw another text from Robin.
If you want a display of real hypocrisy, go and have a look at Tim Ashcroft’s Twitter feed right now. His own, not the Pen of Justice
So Strike opened Twitter, and went to look at Tim’s account.
One hour previously, Tim Ashcroft had tweeted a link to a Daily Mail story, above which he’d written:
Tim Ashcroft @TheWormTurning
As a close friend of Edie Ledwell’s, and as somebody who works with schoolchildren and takes safeguarding seriously, I’m frankly appalled
www.DailyMail/ParentsDisgustedAs…
3.10 pm 11 June 2015
Strike clicked on the link, the headline of which read:
Parents “Disgusted” as Teacher Questioned Over Murder Remains in Post
He scanned the news story, which, as he’d expected, concerned Phillip Ormond, who was currently suspended from his job pending investigation by his school board. The story managed to suggest that Ormond was an unpleasant and unpopular teacher, but stopped just short of saying he’d stabbed his girlfriend and her ex-lover. Most prominence was given to the remarks of the mother whose daughter had been instructed by Ormond to lie for him, when he’d left her detention early to track Edie’s phone.
‘He threatened Sophie if she told the truth. She was too scared to tell us for days. Then she came to me in tears, because she’d seen his girlfriend had been killed that afternoon, and told me the whole story. I called the police straight away. I don’t care if he wasn’t charged, that’s not the point. The fact remains that he told a fourteen-year-old to lie for him, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s a sacking offence.’
Strike returned to Twitter. Tim, he saw, hadn’t been content with his first remarks, but had followed up the first tweet with a couple of others.
Tim Ashcroft @TheWormTurning
(Btw, apologies for linking to that fascist rag, but seems like the parents spoke to them directly so that’s where the story is)
Tim Ashcroft @TheWormTurning
Point is, asking a 14-year-old girl to lie for you is disgusting behaviour. This man isn’t fit to work with children or teenagers.
Andi Reddy @ydderidna
replying to @TheWormTurning
You’re one of the good guys, Tim
Strike texted back:
Superb bit of performative nice-guying from Ashcroft there. Paedo 101
The nurse returned with his tea, which was far too milky. As he thanked her, his stump began to jump around again. Sitting up straighter, he pressed down hard on it with his right hand, forcing it to stay still, willing it to behave, not to give him away, not to make these well-intentioned medics advise that he stay here for more tests.
‘You all right?’ the nurse asked, watching him pin his stump to the bed.
‘Fine,’ he said. He could feel the flickering muscle in his right cheek now.
The nurse left. Strike’s mobile buzzed yet again: another text from Robin.
And we missed a row about Kea Niven last night. Search #FuckKeaNiven
Strike did as he was told.
There had evidently been a small Twitter storm around Kea shortly before midnight. The trigger had been Wally Cardew’s arrest, which had clearly been hotly discussed online. Left-wingers who’d always despised him were now gleefully anticipating his imprisonment, while his long-time defenders were equally certain there’d been a mistake and that he couldn’t possibly be a member of a terrorist cell. The battle had generated the hashtags #FreeWally and #NoCookiesInJail, and in the midst of the furore someone had dug up the old tweets between Wally and Kea that indicated at best some form of acquaintance, and at worst an affair. It hadn’t taken long for Kea’s tumblr post from 2010 (‘all my friends telling me “rebound sex with his best mate ain’t the answer” and I’m like “well that depends on the question”’) to be posted to Twitter, at which point the Ink Black Heart fandom had turned on Kea with the ferocity of a hungry alligator.
Inkheart Lizzie @inkylizy00
OMG look at this, Kea Niven and actual Nazi Wally Cardew were actually… fucking?
Wally C @walCard3w
replying to @notaparrottho
u lookin fine
Spoonie Kea @notaparrottho
replying to @WalCard3w
u too ♥
10.37 pm 10 June 2015
Loren @lºrygill
replying to @inkylizy00
Oh wow. I’ve always supported her, but if this is true…
Moonyspoons @m<>nyspoons
replying to @paperwhiteghost @inkylizy00 @lºrygill
if you screw fascists you *are* a fascist. End of. #fuckKeaNiven
Johnny B @jbaldw1n1>>
replying to @m<>nyspoons @paperwhiteghost @inkylizy00 @lºrygill
So you must’ve screwed a whale #FreeWally
Drek’s Cock @drekscokkk
replying to @dickymacD @marnieb89
At this moment, the doctor with the short grey hair returned.
Strike listened with divided attention as she told him what he already knew: that both his hamstring and his knee were damaged, and that only time and rest could heal them.
‘You should make an appointment with your specialist, but at a bare minimum I’d advise you to keep weight off your leg for four weeks. You might need six.’
‘Four weeks?’ said Strike, his attention no longer drifting. He’d been banking on being told to keep his leg up for a week, which he’d been planning to interpret as three days.
‘It varies according to the patient, but you’re a tall man,’ said the doctor. ‘You’re asking your stump to bear a lot of weight. I strongly advise you contacting your specialist and making an appointment for a fuller assessment. In the meantime, keep your prosthesis off, keep that leg elevated, rest, apply ice to the swollen areas and take care of the end of your stump, because you don’t want that skin to break down any further.
‘As for your spasms,’ she went on, ‘inflammation and muscle tightness might have triggered a renewal of your nerve symptoms, but we’ll know more when we get your blood results back.’