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‘Valerian’s a sleep aid, isn’t it?’
‘You’d need a bit of expertise if you’re messing around with plants.’
‘True,’ said Robin, remembering the blood in the bathroom, and Lin’s rash.
There was another brief silence, both of them thinking.
‘Carrie was defensive about Daiyu not getting out of the van at those two different grocers, as well,’ said Strike.
‘Daiyu might not have wanted to get out. There’s no reason she should have.’
‘What if Carrie gave Daiyu a “special drink” somewhere between waving goodbye to the early duty lot and carrying her down to the sea? Maybe Daiyu was too sleepy to get out of the van, even if she’d wanted to.’
‘So you think Carrie killed her?’
‘Don’t you?’
Robin ate more sandwich before answering.
‘I can’t see it,’ she said at last. ‘I can’t imagine her doing it.’
She waited for Strike’s agreement, but none came.
‘D’you honestly think the woman we just met could hold that child underwater until she was dead?’ Robin asked him. ‘Or drag her out into the deep, knowing she couldn’t swim?’
‘I think,’ said Strike, ‘the proportion of people who could be persuaded to commit terrible acts, given the right circumstances, is higher than most of us would like to think. You know the Milgram experiment?’
‘Yes,’ said Robin. ‘Participants were instructed to administer increasingly strong electric shocks to another person, every time that person answered a question wrongly. And sixty-five per cent continued turning up the dial until they were administering what they thought was a dangerously high level of electricity.’
‘Exactly,’ said Strike. ‘Sixty-five per cent.’
‘All the participants in that experiment were male.’
‘You don’t think women would have complied?’
‘Just pointing it out,’ said Robin.
‘Because if you don’t think young women are capable of committing atrocities, I’d refer you to Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins and – whatever the others were called.’
‘Who?’ said Robin, perplexed.
‘I’m talking about the Manson Family, which differed from the UHC only in laying slightly more emphasis on murder and a lot less on generating revenue, although by all accounts Charles Manson would’ve been happy to get cash as well. They committed nine murders in all, one of them of a pregnant actress, and those young women were right in the thick of the action, ignoring the victims’ pleas for mercy, dipping their fingers in the victims’ blood to scrawl – Jesus,’ said Strike, with a startled laugh, as he remembered a detail he’d forgotten, ‘they wrote “pigs” on the wall as well. In blood.’
‘You’re kidding?’
‘Yeah. “Death to pigs”.’
Having finished two pork pies, Strike rummaged in the bag for a Yorkie bar, and the apple he’d bought as an afterthought.
‘How’re we feeling about “Joe” and “Rose”?’ he asked, as he unwrapped the chocolate.
‘You sound sceptical.’
‘Can’t help thinking “Rose” might’ve been a name she thought of on the spur of the moment, given that she named her kids Poppy and Daisy.’
‘If she was going to lie, wouldn’t she deny her own involvement?’
‘It would’ve been too late. Her reaction when she saw the pictures gave her away.’
