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‘You can play with them, if you want,’ said Pat.
The little girl toddled uncertainly towards Pat, who held out the block to her, and rummaged for some pens. Strike and Robin’s eyes met again, and Strike stood up, holding his pizza.
‘Fancy coming through here a moment, Will?’ he asked.
They left the connecting door between the offices open, so that Qing could see where her father was. Strike brought his plastic chair with him.
Robin had forgotten that all the pictures relating to the UHC case were on the board on the inner office wall. Will stopped dead, staring at them.
‘Why have you got all these?’ he said, in an accusatory voice, and to Robin’s dismay, he backed away. ‘That’s the Drowned Prophet,’ he said, pointing at the Torment Town pictures, sounding panicked now. ‘Why have you drawn her like that?’
‘We didn’t draw her,’ said Strike, moving quickly to close the flaps of the board, but Will said suddenly,
‘That’s Kevin!’
‘Yes,’ said Strike. Changing his mind about closing up the board, he stepped away from it, allowing Will a clear view. ‘Did you know Kevin?’
‘Only for a few… he left, not long after I… why…?’
Will took a few steps closer to the board. Kevin’s picture, which Strike had taken from the newspaper archive, still had the caption attached: ‘Murder of Kevin Pirbright was drug-related, say police.’
‘Kevin killed himself,’ said Will slowly. ‘Why’re they saying…?’
‘He was shot by someone else,’ said Strike.
‘No, he killed himself,’ said Will, with some of the dogmatism he’d displayed the first time Robin had ever heard him talk, on the vegetable patch. ‘He committed suicide, because he was pure spirit, and couldn’t cope with the materialist world.’
‘There was no gun found at the scene,’ said Strike. ‘Somebody else shot him.’
‘No… they can’t have done…’
‘They did,’ said Strike.
Will was frowning. Then –
‘Pig demons!’ he said suddenly, pointing at the Polaroids.
Strike and Robin looked at each other.
‘Kevin told me they appear, if there are too many impure spirits at the farm.’
‘Those aren’t demons,’ said Strike.
‘No,’ said Will, with a trace of impatience. ‘I know that. They’re wearing masks. But that’s how Kevin described them to me. Naked, with pig heads.’
‘Where did he see them, Will, did he say?’ asked Robin.
‘In the barn,’ said Will. ‘He and his sister saw them, through a gap in the wood. I don’t want her looking at me,’ he added in a febrile voice, and Robin, who knew he meant the Drowned Prophet, strode to the board and covered it over.
‘Why don’t you sit down?’ said Strike.
Will did so, but he looked very wary as the other two also sat. They could hear Qing chattering to Pat in the outer office.
‘Will, you said you’ve done things that are criminal,’ said Strike.
‘I’ll tell the police all about that, once we’ve found Lin.’
‘OK,’ said Strike, ‘but as we’re—’
