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‘Wace was supposed to be absent that morning, remember,’ said Strike.
‘So you think Mazu planned it all behind Wace’s back?’
‘It’s a possibility.’
‘But where did Daiyu go, if the drowning was faked? We haven’t found any other family.’
‘Yeah, we have. Wace’s parents, in South Africa.’
‘But that means a passport, and if Wace wasn’t privy to the hoax…’
Strike frowned, then said with a sigh,
‘OK, objection sustained.’
‘I’ve got another objection,’ said Robin tentatively. ‘I know you’re going to say this is based on emotion, not facts, but I don’t believe Carrie was capable of drowning a child. I just don’t, Strike.’
‘Then explain “It wasn’t a joke. It wasn’t pretend. It was real. She wasn’t coming back.”’
‘I can’t, except that I’m certain Carrie believed Daiyu was dead.’
‘Then—’
‘Dead… but not in the sea. Or not with her, in the sea…
‘You know,’ said Robin, after another long pause, ‘there might be an alternative explanation for the chocolate and the toys. Not grooming… blackmail. Daiyu saw something when she was sneaking around. Somebody was trying to keep her sweet… and that might tie back in with those Polaroids. Maybe she saw the naked people in masks, but unlike Kevin, knew they were real people… I need a pee,’ said Robin, getting to her feet, Strike’s jacket still wrapped around her.
Robin’s reflection was ghostly in the tarnished mirror of the landing bathroom. Having washed her hands, she returned to the office to find Strike now at Pat’s desk, poring over his attempt at a transcript of Kevin Pirbright’s interview with Farah Navabi.
‘I ran you off a copy,’ said Strike, putting the still-warm pages into Robin’s hand.
‘Want a coffee?’ asked Robin, dropping the pages onto the sofa to attend to in a few minutes.
‘Yeah, go on… and she drowned, or they said she drowned,’ he read off the paper in front of him. ‘So Kevin had his doubts about Daiyu’s death, too.’
‘He was only six when it happened,’ objected Robin, switching on the kettle.
‘He might not have had doubts then, but he grew up with people who might’ve let slip more than they let on at the time, and started wondering about it later… and he says, I remember funny things happening, things I keep thinking about, stuff I keep remembering, and then, there were four of them – or that’s what Navabi thought he said. It’s not clear on the tape.’
‘Four people in pig masks?’ suggested Robin.
‘Possibly, although we might be getting a bit too hung up on those pictures… What else could it be? “More of them”, “score of them”, “sixty-four of them”… Christ knows…
‘Then we’ve got it was more than just Cherie – he was slurring a lot, but that’s what it sounded like… then something about drinks… then, but Bec made Em, visible and then bullshit.’
‘But Becca made Emily lie about Daiyu being invisible?’ suggested Robin, over the sound of the bubbling kettle.
‘Got to be, because then Navabi says, Becca made Em lie, did you say? And Kevin says, she was allowed out, she could get things and smuggle it in.’
Robin finished making the two coffees, set Strike’s beside him and sat down on the sofa.
‘Cheers,’ said Strike, still reading the transcript. ‘Then we’ve got let her away with stuff – didn’t care about her, really – she had chocolate once and I stole some – and bully, though.’
Robin had just found the part of the transcript Strike was reading.
‘Well, let her away with stuff sounds like Daiyu… and didn’t care about her, really might well apply to Daiyu, too…’
‘Who didn’t care about Daiyu?’ objected Strike. ‘Abigail told me she was the princess of the place.’
