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‘You either do or you don’t,’ said Amandeep.
‘Then – I did,’ said Robin. ‘When I worked in PR, there was a tendency—’
‘Never mind tendencies,’ boomed Walter. ‘Never mind PR! What did you do? What did you say?’
‘I remember saying a client looked too big for her dress,’ invented Robin, ‘and she heard me and I felt terrible about it.’
A storm of jeering broke over her. Taio, who was sitting beside his mother, was the only person remaining silent, but he was smiling as he watched Robin.
‘Did you feel terrible, Rowena?’ asked Mazu quietly. ‘Or are you just giving us token examples, to avoid admitting to real shame?’
‘I—’
‘Why was your wedding called off, Rowena?’
‘I – we were arguing a lot.’
‘Whose fault was that?’ demanded Vivienne.
‘Mine,’ said Robin desperately.
‘What did you argue about?’ asked Amandeep.
There shouldn’t be any points of resemblance between your own life and Rowena’s, Strike had said, but he wasn’t here, stupefied by tiredness and fear, forced to come up with a story on the spot.
‘I… thought my fiancé was kind of… he didn’t have a proper job, wasn’t earning much…’
She was reversing the truth: it was Matthew who’d complained about her poor salary when she’d started working for Strike, Matthew who’d thought private detection a joke of a career.
The rest of the group began to call her names, their voices echoing off the dark walls, and Robin could make out only a few individual words: mercenary fucking bitch, gold-digger, greedy slag. Taio’s smile was broadening.
‘Tell us specifically what you said to your fiancé,’ demanded Walter.
‘That his boss was taking advantage of him—’
‘The exact words.’
‘“She’s taking advantage of you”, “she’s only keeping you on because you’re cheap”—’
While they jeered at and insulted her, she dredged her memory for the things Matthew had said about Strike during their marriage.
‘—“she fancies you”, “it’s a matter of time before she makes a move”—’
Now the surrounding circle began to shout.
‘Controlling cow!’
‘Jealous, self-centred—’
‘Stuckup, selfish bitch!’
‘Go on,’ Mazu said to Robin.
‘—and he loved the job,’ said Robin, her mouth now so dry her lips were sticking to her teeth, ‘and I made it as hard as I could for him to continue with it—’
The shouts became louder, echoing off the temple walls. In the dim light she could see fingers pointing at her, flashes of teeth, and still Taio smiled. Robin knew she was supposed to cry, that mercy came only once the person in the middle of the circle had broken down, but even though she could now see little dots of light popping in front of her eyes, something stubborn in her resisted.
Now the circle demanded the excavation of intimate details and ugly scenes. Robin embellished scenes from her marriage, reversing her and Matthew’s positions: now it was she who’d thought her partner was taking too many risks.
