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‘Moving on: Toy Boy update. Client told me yesterday he wants us to concentrate on the bloke’s background.’
‘We’ve looked,’ said Midge in frustration. ‘He’s clean!’
‘Well, we’re being paid to look again and find dirt,’ said Strike, ‘so it’s time to start milking family, friends and neighbours. You two,’ he said to Barclay and Midge, ‘put your heads together and come up with some workable covers, run them past me or Robin, and we’ll work out the rota accordingly.’
Strike ticked Toy Boy off the list in front of him and moved to the next item.
‘New client: her husband took a detour to Hampstead Heath last night, after dark.’
‘I’m guessing he wasn’t there for the views,’ said Midge.
As Hampstead Heath was a well-known gay cruising area, Strike tended to agree.
‘He didn’t meet anyone. Probably got the wind up: there was a gang of kids wandering around near where he got out of the car. Only stayed ten minutes – but if that’s his game, I doubt it’ll be long before we get the wife what she wants.’
‘Good,’ piped up Pat, ‘because I had that cricketer on the phone this morning, asking when we’re going to get to him.’
‘Let him go to McCabes,’ said Strike indifferently. ‘He’s an arsehole. Anyway, until we’ve got a replacement for Littlejohn, we haven’t got the manpower.’
He ticked ‘Hampstead’ off the list.
‘Which brings us to Patterson Inc.’
‘Or, as they’re now known, Royally Fucked Inc,’ said Barclay. ‘Patterson’s been charged, did ye see that?’
‘Yeah,’ said Strike. ‘Turns out, if you’re going to illegally bug an office, best not to do it to a leading barrister. Hope Patterson enjoys prison food. Anyway, I’ve now had three job applications from people struggling to get off the sinking Patterson ship. I’ll check with Shah and see if any of them are worth an interview. I’m happy to forgo the pleasure of working with Navabi, given how shit she is at surveillance. However, her pitch for the job was that she’d be the ideal person to get into Zhou’s clinic.’
‘The fuck does she know we’re trying to get in there?’ asked Barclay.
‘Because she was in there herself, while Patterson Inc were still doing the UHC case, and that explains Littlejohn’s insistence he had something else for me – presumably she told him what she saw in there.’
‘You’re not going to get anything out of Littlejohn now,’ said Midge.
‘I know,’ said Strike, crossing ‘Patterson’ off the list, ‘but this makes me even keener than I was to get a woman into that bloody clinic – it’s got to be a woman, Navabi said it was ninety per cent women there. I just don’t think you fit the profile, Midge,’ Strike added, as the subcontractor opened her mouth, ‘we need someone—’
‘I wasn’t gonna suggest me,’ said Midge, ‘I was gonna say, we’ve got the ideal person.’
‘Robin can’t do it, she—’
‘I know that, Strike, I’m not fookin’ stupid. Tasha.’
‘Tasha,’ repeated Strike.
‘Tasha. She’s the type, isn’t she? Actress, got a bit of money. Her play’s finished as well. She’d do it for us, no problem. She’s dead grateful for—’
‘Still in touch with her, are you?’ said Strike.
Barclay and Robin both reached for their coffees and drank in perfect synchronicity.
‘Yeah,’ said Midge. ‘She’s not a client any more. Not a problem, is it?’
Strike caught Pat’s eye.
‘No,’ he said. ‘Not a problem.’
102
Inquire of the oracle once again
