‘Katya found it for him,’ said Inigo, who was trying to set the mug of fruit tea back onto the table, his hand shaking badly: there were large wet patches on his jeans now. Robin helped him move it the last few inches. ‘Thank you. Yes, Katya drove Blay to see the new flat. Nice and close to us.
‘Need the bathroom,’ he added, and wheeled himself slowly to the door, pressed the button beside it, backed expertly away as it opened and left the room. Another brief snatch of Gus’s cello reached them, before the door swung closed again.
‘Inigo thinks I got over-involved,’ said Katya in a low voice. ‘He doesn’t understand – we were all helping each other – I – I was going through rather a nasty bout of depression when I met Josh and Edie at North Grove. It – it isn’t always easy, with Inigo being ill, and poor Gus having such a nightmarish time with his skin, and Flavia’s had some problems at school, and I’m the sole breadwinner these days – I mean, we’ve got some capital, but one doesn’t want to eat into that, not when Inigo’s condition is so uncertain – but he had to give up work, and running my business from home can be quite stressful, so I ended up seeing a therapist who told me I should do something for myself,’ said Katya, with desperate emphasis. ‘I’ve always wanted to draw, so I went along to North Grove and that’s where I met Josh and Edie and all the others. It was all… just rather fun. All their friends doing the voices… Tim’s a lovely man and… it was fun, that’s all and yes, I suppose I felt’ – she baulked momentarily at the word – ‘maternal towards Josh – towards them both,’ she added, and Robin, remembering the YouTube video of the extraordinarily handsome Josh Blay, with his long dark hair, square jaw, high cheekbones and large blue eyes, saw Katya turn pink again and felt uncomfortably as though she’d just caught a glimpse of the older woman in her underwear.
‘Josh is rather vulnerable,’ Katya hurried on, ‘and he was having difficulty adjusting to all the decisions success brings, so I tried to help as best I could. I was in PR when I met Inigo, I’ve got experience – anyway, I’m glad Josh felt he could drop in here any time for a chat. That was part of – he needed to be able to talk to someone, in confidence. He’s quite unworldly and naive in some ways, always assuming the best of everyone, and people exploit that, they take advantage! Once the cartoon started getting lots of fans, there were managers and agents queuing up to take their ten or their twenty per cent commission, or whatever these people charge, but whether they’d have had Josh’s best interests at heart is another question. And he doesn’t have any family, not proper family – his mother’s dead, his father’s an alcoholic—’
Katya broke off as the door reopened; the sound of the cello drifted upstairs and was cut off again as Inigo wheeled himself back to the coffee table.
‘There was one other matter we hoped you might be able to help us with,’ said Strike. ‘We’ve come across a blog called the Pen of Justice, which has been quite critical of Edie and J—’
‘Oh, I think I know who that is,’ said Katya, and the change in her manner was so sudden as to be startling: she now spoke eagerly. ‘I’m certain that’s written by—’
‘Katya,’ said Inigo, eyes now narrowed, ‘before you do even more damage under the guise of being helpful, I’d advise you to carefully consider what you’re saying.’
Katya looked stricken.
‘My wife,’ said Inigo, looking at Strike, and while he was clearly angry he was also, Strike thought, finding cathartic pleasure in venting his rage, ‘has become quite obsessive about the Pen of Justice blog.’
‘I—’
‘If you spent as much time running your business as you do obsessing over that damned website, we wouldn’t be having to cash in half our investments to pay for Gus’s treatment,’ said Inigo, whose hands were shaking again. ‘I’d have thought, after everything that’s happened, you’d be ready to learn from your mistakes!’
‘What d’you—?’
‘Egging Blay on to go and confront Edie about all the nasty things she’d supposedly written about you in her emails,’ spat Inigo. ‘Encouraging him to think the only woman in the world he could trust is you. And now you’re going to denigrate some young girl out of jealousy—’
‘Jealousy, w-what do you mean, jealousy?’ stammered Katya. ‘Don’t be so – so ridiculous, there’s no question—’
‘You haven’t a shred of evidence—’
‘They want information—’
‘Wild guesswork driven by resentment is not information—’
‘It’s exactly her tone! I’ve watched all her videos!’
‘An essential part of being Josh’s agent, or manager, or lifestyle coach, or whatever title you’re using this week, I’m sure,’ said Inigo.
‘I might be completely off base,’ said Robin, and her quiet, reasonable tone made both Upcotts look round at her, ‘but you don’t happen to think Kea Niven’s behind the Pen of Justice blog, do you?’
‘There, you see!’ Katya said to her husband in tremulous triumph. ‘I’m not the only one! They already know about Kea!’
Katya turned eagerly back to Robin.
‘That girl’s been virtually stalking Josh ever since they split up! Saying he stole all her ideas. Absolute tosh. She claims to be ill – I think Josh feels sorry for her, which is why he didn’t want to take legal action against her.’
‘If he feels sorry for anyone,’ said Inigo nastily, ‘it isn’t Kea Niven.’
Katya’s face burned scarlet. Her breathing had become shallow. Robin, who was certain the Upcotts had never openly discussed these things before, felt desperately sorry for her.
‘From what I’ve heard,’ Inigo continued, ‘Blay treated that young Kea person extremely badly. It seems to me – and, of course, I wasn’t privy to all the conversations my wife had with Josh, oh dear me no – but it seems to me that Mr Blay is a young man who’s made something of a career of using people for his own ends, then casting them aside. And people who feel they’ve been used, and then cast aside like so much trash—’
The electric door swung open again and Flavia walked into the room, still in her Christmas pudding onesie, with a phone in her hand.
‘Mummy, Auntie Caroline says I can go and see the puppies if—’
‘Get BACK!’ roared Inigo with sudden ferocity, as though Flavia were a wild animal. ‘You are INFECTIOUS!’
Flavia stopped dead.
‘If you wish me to be bedbound for the next six weeks, by all means keep allowing her into this fucking room!’ Inigo snarled at Katya. ‘But perhaps that’s the whole idea? I tell you what – I’ll remove myself from the vicinity, shall I, as nobody else seems particularly interested in my well-being?’
He turned his wheelchair and wheeled himself rapidly back into the side room. The door, which seemed to be electrically operated as well, slid shut. Inigo’s outburst seemed still to echo through the room.
‘Please can I go and see the puppies, Mummy?’ said Flavia in a small voice.
Tearful and still scarlet in the face, Katya said:
‘You’re poorly, Flavia.’
‘Auntie Caroline says she doesn’t mind, she’s already had this cold.’
‘Well – well then, put on proper clothes,’ said Katya. Flavia let herself out of the electric door. This time, no cello was heard, and the reason became apparent when, just before the door closed behind Flavia, Gus slipped into the room instead, holding a mobile phone in his hand.