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‘To Jordan? Wha’ for?’ said the voice suspiciously. There was a lot of background noise, including pop music. Strike assumed Ava Reaney was at her nail salon.
‘I’m trying to find as many people as I can who’ve lived at Chapman Farm,’ said Strike.
‘What – that cult place?’ asked Ava Reaney.
‘That’s the one. I think your husband was there in the nineties?’
‘’E was, yeah,’ she said.
‘So, could you—?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘We’ve split up.’
‘Oh. Sorry to hear that,’ said Strike.
‘’E’s inside,’ said Ava.
‘Yeah, I know,’ said Strike, ‘which is why—’
‘’E’s a bastard. I’m divorcing ’im.’
‘Right,’ said Strike. ‘Well, could anyone else take a message to him, to see whether he’d be prepared to talk to me about the UHC?’
‘I can ask ’is sister, if you want,’ said Ava. ‘She’s going up next week. Hey, are you that bloke what caught the Shacklewell Ripper?’
‘I am, yeah,’ said Strike.
‘It is ’im,’ Ava said loudly, apparently to somebody standing nearby, before saying, ‘So you’re after people from the UHT are you? No,’ she corrected herself, ‘that’s milk, innit?’
‘Did Jordan ever talk to you about his time in there?’ asked Strike.
‘Not much. ’E gets nightmares abou’ it, though,’ she added, with a certain malicious satisfaction.
‘Really?’ said Strike.
‘Yeah. Abou’ the pigs. ’E’s frightened of pigs.’
She laughed, and so did the unknown person standing near her.
‘OK, well, if you wouldn’t mind asking Jordan’s sister to give him my message – you’ve got my phone number, haven’t you?’
‘Yeah, I will. OK. See ya.’
Strike hung up.
‘Apparently Jordan Reaney has nightmares about pigs, dating from his time in Chapman Farm.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah… D’you know much about them?’
‘What, pigs? Not really.’
‘Shame. I look to you for farming expertise.’
‘The boars can be really aggressive,’ said Robin, ‘I know that. Our local vet got badly injured by one when I was at school. It slammed him up against metal railings – he had some nasty bites and broken ribs.’
Strike’s mobile now buzzed with the arrival of a text. Robin glimpsed a lot of emojis before her partner swiped the phone off the table and returned it to his pocket.
