Роберт Гэлбрейт - Lethal White

All her swagger had gone today.

‘Well, I’ve asked two experts, but,’ she said, sounding fragile and fearful, ‘and they can’t say for sure, not from a photograph taken on a phone—’

‘Well, obviously not,’ said Robin coolly. ‘I said in my text, didn’t I, that I wasn’t expecting a definitive answer? We’re not asking for a firm identification or valuation. All we want to know is whether somebody might have credibly believed—’

‘Well, then, yes,’ said Sarah. ‘One of our experts is quite excited about it, actually. One of the old notebooks lists a painting done of a mare with a dead foal, but it’s never been found.’

‘What notebooks?’

‘Oh, sorry,’ said Sarah. She had never sounded so meek, so frightened, in Robin’s vicinity. ‘Stubbs.’

‘And if it is a Stubbs?’ asked Robin, turning to look out of the window at the Feathers, a pub where she and Strike had sometimes drunk.

‘Well, this is entirely speculative, obviously . . . but if it’s genuine, if it’s the one he listed in 1760, it could be a lot.’

‘Give me a rough estimate.’

‘Well, his “Gimcrack” went for—’

‘—twenty-two million,’ said Robin, feeling suddenly light-headed. ‘Yes. You said so at our house-warming party.’

Sarah made no answer. Perhaps the mention of the party, where she had brought lilies to her lover’s wife’s house, had scared her.

‘So if “Mare Mourning” is a genuine Stubbs—’

‘It’d probably make more than “Gimcrack” at auction. It’s a unique subject. Stubbs was an anatomist, as much scientist as artist. If this is a depiction of a lethal white foal, it might be the first recorded instance. It could set records.’

Robin’s mobile buzzed in her hand. Another text had arrived.

‘This has been very helpful, Sarah, thanks. You’ll keep this confidential?’

‘Yes, of course,’ said Sarah. And then, in a rush:

‘Robin, listen—’

‘No,’ said Robin, trying to stay calm. ‘I’m working a case.’

‘—it’s over, it’s finished, Matt’s in pieces—’

‘Goodbye, Sarah.’

Robin hung up, then read the text that had just arrived.

Meet me after work or I’m giving a statement to the press.

Eager as she was to return to the group next door and relay the sensational information she had just received, Robin remained where she stood, temporarily flummoxed by the threat, and texted back:

Statement to the press about what?

His response came within seconds, littered with angry typos.

The mail called the office this morning g and left a message asking how I feel about my dive shacking up with Cornish Strike. The sun’s been one this afternoon. You probably know he’s two timing you but maybe you don’t give a shit. I’m not having the papers calling me at work. Either meet me or I’m go give a statement to get them off my back.

Robin was rereading the message when yet another text arrived, this time with an attachment.

In case you haven’t seen it

Robin enlarged the attachment, which was a screenshot of a diary item in the Evening Standard .

The Curious Case of Charlotte

Campbell and Cormoran Strike

A staple of the gossip columns ever since she ran away from her first private school, Charlotte Campbell has lived out her life in a glare of publicity. Most people would choose a discreet spot for their consultation with a private detective, but the pregnant Ms Campbell – now Mrs Jago Ross – chose the window table of one of the West End’s busiest restaurants.

Were detective services under discussion during the intense heart-to-heart, or something more personal? The colourful Mr Strike, illegitimate son of rock star Jonny Rokeby, war hero and modern-day Sherlock Holmes, also happens to be Campbell’s ex-lover.

Campbell’s businessman husband will doubtless be keen to solve the mystery – business or pleasure? – upon his return from New York.

A mass of uncomfortable feelings jostled inside Robin, of which the dominant ones were panic, anger and mortification at the thought of Matthew speaking to the press in such a way as to leave open, spitefully, the possibility that she and Strike were indeed sleeping together.

She tried to call the number, but it went straight to voicemail. Two seconds later, another angry text appeared.

I’M WITH A CLIENT I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS

IN FRONT OF HIM JUST MEET ME

Angry now, Robin texted:

And I’m at New Scotland Yard. Find a quiet corner.

She could imagine Matthew’s polite smile as the client watched, his smooth ‘just the office, excuse me’, while he hammered out his furious replies.

We’ve got stuff to sort out and you’re acting like a child refusing to meet me. Either you come talk to me or I’m ringing the papers at eight. I notice you’re not denying your sleeping with him, by the way

Furious, but feeling cornered, Robin typed back:

Fine, let’s discuss it face to face, where?

He texted her directions to a bar in Little Venice. Still shaken, Robin pushed open the door to the incident room. The group was now huddled around a monitor showing a page of Jimmy Knight’s blog, from which Strike was reading aloud:

‘ . . . “in other words, a single bottle of wine at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons can cost more than a single, out-of-work mother receives per week to feed, clothe and house her entire family.” Now that,’ said Strike, ‘struck me as a weirdly specific choice of restaurant, if he wanted to rant about Tories and their spending. That’s what made me think he’d been there recently. Then Robin tells me “Blanc de Blanc” is the name of one of their suites, but I didn’t put that together as quickly as I should’ve done. It hit me a few hours later.’

‘He’s a hell of a bloody hypocrite on top of everything else, isn’t he?’ said Wardle, who was standing, arms folded, behind Strike.

‘You’ve looked in Woolstone?’ Strike asked.

‘The shithole in Charlemont Road, Woolstone, everywhere,’ said Layborn, ‘but don’t worry. We’ve got a line on one of his girlfriends down in Dulwich. Checking there right now. With luck, we’ll have him in custody tonight.’

Layborn now noticed Robin, standing with her phone in her hand.

‘I know you’ve already got people looking at it,’ she told Layborn, ‘but I’ve got a contact at Christie’s. I sent her the picture of “Mare Mourning” and she’s just called me back. According to one of their experts, it might be a Stubbs.’

‘Even I’ve heard of Stubbs,’ Layborn said.

‘What would it be worth, if it is?’ Wardle asked.

‘My contact thinks upwards of twenty-two million.’

Wardle whistled. Layborn said, ‘Fuck me.’

‘Doesn’t matter to us what it’s worth,’ Strike reminded them all. ‘What matters is whether somebody might’ve spotted its potential value.’

‘Twenty-two fucking million,’ said Wardle, ‘is a hell of a motive.’

‘Cormoran,’ said Robin, picking her jacket off the back of the chair where she’d left it, ‘could I have a quick word outside? I’m going to have to leave, sorry,’ she said to the others.

‘Everything OK?’ Strike asked, as they re-entered the corridor together and Robin had closed the door on the group of police.

‘Yes,’ said Robin, and then, ‘Well – not really. Maybe,’ she said, handing him her phone, ‘you’d better just read this.’

Frowning, Strike scrolled slowly through the interchange between Robin and Matthew, including the Evening Stan dard clip.