Elin was an ex-professional violinist, now a presenter on Radio Three, a stunning Nordic-looking blonde who reminded Robin of a more beautiful Sarah Shadlock. She supposed that this was one reason why she had taken an almost immediate dislike to Elin. The other was that she had, in Robin’s hearing, referred to her as Strike’s secretary. (查看原文)
Strike said nothing. Comments on her figure fell strictly outside the self-imposed boundaries he had established for their relationship, which he had determined from the outset must never become too intimate. Nevertheless, he thought she was becoming too thin. In his opinion (and even the thought fell outside those same boundaries), she looked better curvier. (查看原文)
“I forgot,” he added, glancing back across the street to the Japanese Canteen. The table where the man in camouflage jacket and shades had sat was now unoccupied. “I got you this.” It was a rape alarm. “I’ve already got one,” said Robin, pulling it out of her coat pocket and showing him. “Yeah, but this one’s better,” said Strike, showing her its features. “You want an alarm of at least 120 decibels and it sprays them with indelible red stuff.” “Mine does 140 decibels.” “I still think this one’s better.” “Is this the usual bloke thing of thinking any gadget you’ve chosen must be superior to anything I’ve got?” He laughed and drained his pint. (查看原文)
Strike, meanwhile, had seen just enough of Robin to be shocked by her appearance. He had never seen her face so pale, nor her eyes so puffy and bloodshot. Even as he sat down at his desk, eager to hear what information on Whittaker Shanker had brought to his office, the thought crossed his mind: What’s the bastard done to her? And for a fraction of a second, before fixing all his attention on Shanker, Strike imagined punching Matthew and enjoying it. (查看原文)
“Waiting for someone,” she said. He was slightly blurred when she looked up at him, a wiry blond man with bleached blue eyes, and she could tell that he did not believe her. “Can I wait with you?” “No, you fucking can’t,” said another, familiar voice. Strike had arrived, massive, scowling, glaring at the stranger, who retreated with ill grace to a couple of friends at the bar. “What are you doing here?” asked Robin, surprised to find that her tongue felt numb and thick after two glasses of wine. “Looking for you,” said Strike. “How did you know I was—?” “I’m a detective. How many of those have you had?” he asked, looking down at her wineglass. “Only one,” she lied, so he went to the bar for another, and a pint of Doom Bar for himself. (查看原文)
“And not just once,” said Robin, in that same tight voice. “He was doing it for months. With someone we both know. Sarah Shadlock. She’s an old friend of his from university.” “Christ,” said Strike. “I’m sorry.” He was sorry, genuinely sorry, for the pain she was in. Yet the revelation had caused certain other feelings—feelings he usually kept under tight rein, considering them both misguided and dangerous—to flex inside him, to test their strength against their restraining bonds. (查看原文)
Smoking in silence as she concentrated on navigating through the increasingly heavy morning traffic, Strike noted how much he liked making her laugh. He also recognized that he felt much happier, much more comfortable, sitting here in this ramshackle Land Rover talking inconsequential nonsense with Robin than he had felt last night at dinner with Elin. He was not a man who told himself comfortable lies. He might have argued that Robin represented the ease of friendship; Elin, the pitfalls and pleasures of a sexual relationship. He knew that the truth was more complicated, and certainly made more so by the fact that the sapphire ring had vanished from Robin’s finger. (查看原文)
“Well, he wants to get back together.” “Course he does,” said Strike. “Why ‘of course’?” “If I’m not allowed to fish, you aren’t.” Robin was not sure what to say to that, though it gave her a small glow of pleasure. She thought it might be the very first time that Strike had ever given any indication that he saw her as a woman, and she silently filed away the exchange to pore over later, in solitude. (查看原文)
Strike wasn’t moving in with Elin. She did not know why she was blushing again. Her emotions seemed totally out of control. What on earth was wrong with her? She turned on her swivel chair to concentrate on the post yet again, hiding her face from both men. (查看原文)
She too looked paler and thinner than usual. As always, he found her better-looking in the flesh than in the memory he had of her when not present. This did not make him feel any more kindly towards her. (查看原文)
The beautiful bride, who had not once smiled in the entire service, was suddenly beaming. “I do,” said Robin in a ringing voice, looking straight into the eyes, not of her stony-faced new husband, but of the battered and bloodied man who had just sent her flowers crashing to the floor. (查看原文)
