Anomie
@AnomieGamemaster
Fedwell’s about to sack @The_Wally_Cardew as Drek. I’m hearing @realJoshBlay doesn’t want him to go.
Sign petition below to #KeepWallyDrek
https://www.change.org/KeepWallyDrek
7.27 pm 15 Mar 2012
Zozo @inkyheart28
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
Nooooooooooooooo #KeepWallyDrek
Terence Ryder @Ultima_Brother_14
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
This better not be fucking true #KeepWallyDrek
Pen of Justice @penjustwrites
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
I’ve disagreed with a lot Ledwell’s done but in fairness I don’t see that @The_Wally_Cardew left her with a lot of choice.
Algernon Gizzard Esq @Gizzard_Al
replying to @penjustwrites @AnomieGamemaster
Fuck off cuck. Wally’s literally the only good thing about that shitty cartoon
Pen of Justice @penjustwrites
replying to @Gizzard_Al @AnomieGamemaster
sure, if by ‘good’ you mean ‘literally a Nazi’
Wally Cardew @The_Wally_Cardew
replying to @AnomieGamemaster
First I’ve heard I’m being sacked.
Anomie @AnomieGamemaster
replying to @The_Wally_Cardew
Sorry to be the one to break it to you. You’re getting too famous
for #GreedieFedwell. Can’t have anyone outshining Greedie.
King of Ultima Thule @Heimd&ll88
replying to @The_Wally_Cardew @AnomieGamemaster
What you get for working for SJWs mate. Check out
www.brotherhoodofultimathule.com
‘So Anomie knew Cardew was being sacked before he did?’ said Strike. ‘And then the head of the Brotherhood tried to recruit him?’
‘He tried twice,’ said Robin. ‘Look at the rest of the tweets.’
Brotherhood of Ultima Thule @#B_O_U_T
.@The_Wally_Cardew
Check out our response to your sacking.
www.BrotherhoodOfUltimaThule/TheSackingof…
8.03 pm 18 March 2012
Wally Cardew @The_Wally_Cardew
replying to @#B_O_U_T
Yeah, that about sums it up, cheers for the support
Brotherhood of Ultima Thule @#B_O_U_T
replying to @the_Wally_Cardew
We’re big fans of yours. Would be great to meet up. Contact me here or at @Heimd&ll88.
‘Good work, finding this,’ Strike said. ‘Was that the last time the Brotherhood and Wally interacted on Twitter, three years ago?’
‘I think so. I couldn’t see anything else.’
‘Maybe they took the relationship offline after that. Did you read what the Brotherhood had to say about Wally’s sacking?’ he added, checking that the article wasn’t attached.
‘Yes,’ said Robin, ‘but there was nothing new there. Boiled down to Wally being discriminated against because he was a straight white man, feminazis are taking over the world and you can’t make a simple joke about burning Jews without the thought police coming for you.’
The car rolled on up Tottenham Court Road.
‘Mind if I smoke?’ asked Strike in deference to Robin’s definitely cold manner; he wouldn’t normally have asked, given that she kept a tin in the glove compartment for him to use as an ashtray.
‘No,’ she said, and then, ‘d’you think there’s any chance the Brotherhood of Ultima Thule and The Halvening—?’
‘Are the public and secret face of the same organisation?’
‘Exactly.’
‘A bloody good chance, I’d’ve thought,’ said Strike, blowing his smoke carefully out of the window. ‘The Brotherhood’s the recruitment tool and the hardcore members get drafted into the militant wing.’
Strike now turned to the last page Robin had printed out, which was a short excerpt from an online interview with Edie Ledwell from a website called Women Who Create back in 2011. WWC: What’s a typical day like for you? Edie: There isn’t really a typical day. Getting Josh out of bed is the first big job. But then we often work through till 3 or 4 a.m., so I suppose he’s entitled to a lie-in. WWC: And what’s the division of labour? Edie: Well, I tend to come up with the story for each episode, although Josh is always throwing in ideas and I often use them or develop them, or whatever. We both animate: he does Harty, Magspie and Lord and Lady Wyrdy-Grob and I do Drek, The Worm and Paperwhite. WWC: Has your process evolved, or has it remained the same? Edie: We’ve got a bit more organised. I’ve started putting ideas and reminders on my phone instead of scraps of paper I immediately drop or throw away by mistake.
‘She kept ideas on her phone,’ said Strike. ‘Interesting… I’ve been wondering why the phones were taken. The obvious answer was to try and stop the police seeing who they’d called before they were killed at the cemetery, but that would’ve meant the killer didn’t realise the police could get that information anyway. If getting hold of her ideas was the motive, it fits better with my other theory.’
‘Which is?’
‘That the phones were taken as trophies,’ said Strike. ‘Mark Chapman made sure to get his album signed before he killed Lennon.’
An unpleasant prickle ran down Robin’s spine.
They drove on, up through Camden, Strike smoking out of the window.
He was wondering exactly why Robin’s manner was so frosty. Usually, when a woman gave him the silent treatment, he could hazard a good guess at what he’d done wrong. He’d certainly detected an edge to her voice after Charlotte had so skilfully broken the news that he was dating Madeline, but he’d been so consumed by his own fury, discomfort and worry in the aftermath of her visit he hadn’t had much room in his head for analysing what Robin felt about it all. Was her continuing coolness merely down to the fact that, as her supposed best friend, he’d failed to mention the relationship, and therefore rooted in hurt pride at being the last to know? Or was she pissed off that he’d added another case to their already groaning workload, a case, moreover, that she might see (however unfairly) as of his own making? Or – and he was well aware that even posing the question to himself might be more of the same vanity that had led him to assume she’d welcome his advances outside the Ritz – was she jealous?
Merely to break the silence, he said,
‘I still can’t get into that bloody game.’
‘Nor can I,’ said Robin.
She hadn’t told Strike her idea about using Midge’s ex-girlfriend’s log-in details, partly because Midge hadn’t got back to her and she didn’t want to promise what she might not be able to deliver, but also (if she were honest) because she didn’t see why Strike should be the only person who kept secrets.
‘Oh, and I read your notes about the Pen of Justice,’ Strike said, flicking ash out of the window. ‘We should definitely ask Katya Upcott what she knows about the Pen, and about Kea Niven… Straight on here,’ he added, as they entered Parkhill Road, ‘and then left in about half a mile.’
The rest of the journey passed in silence.