‘So I were getting proper suspicious about Nils, and then, the day – it – happened—’
‘The attacks?’
‘Yeah… Nils was out. He hardly ever goes out.’
‘Did he tell you where he went?’
‘No, I just know he were out, because Bram were off school and Mariam were complaining she’d been trying to do art classes and look after Bram at the same time.
‘But the worst bit… I were so scared, when I found it… I were in Nils’s studio. He keeps it locked, but he wanted me to get a book out of there for him… and I found…’
‘What did she find?’ said Strike as the silence went on.
‘A knife,’ said Robin. ‘She mouthed it at me.’
‘… a really big one,’ Zoe resumed, now whispering and sounding close to tears. ‘It were just there, on the shelf. And it had strange writing on it, like a magic spell or something.’
Robin pressed pause.
‘I’ve seen that knife. It was Nils’s grandfather’s. He called it by some Dutch name I can’t remember. The “magic spell” was a word in Greek that meant “legacy”.’
‘It was just lying around, in his studio?’
‘Yes, and people clearly knew it was there – or Bram did, because he asked Nils whether he could take it into school with him. Nils said no,’ Robin added.
‘Thank fuck for that,’ said Strike, ‘or we’d probably be looking at a school massacre.’
‘That’s all Zoe had to say about her reasons for suspecting Nils,’ said Robin. ‘The rest of the conversation was her panicking that Anomie was going to come and kill her, and me persuading her to go to the hotel. So – what do you think of her theory?’
‘Honestly?’ said Strike, ‘Not much.’
He pulled out his vape and took a long drag on it. Having exhaled, he said,
‘Edie Ledwell really pissed off a lot of men, didn’t she?’
‘Yes,’ said Robin. ‘But I don’t believe she flirted with Nils to get things out of him. I don’t think she was that type, and anyway—’
‘Men are generally predisposed to think they’re being flirted with?’ said Strike, correctly anticipating what Robin was about to say.
‘Some men are,’ said Robin as she checked her watch. ‘It’s always the ones you don’t actually like who seem most predisposed to think you’re crazy about them.’
She was thinking of Hugh Jacks, but Strike’s thoughts darted back to the pavement outside the Ritz.
‘Shall we get something to eat?’ suggested Strike. ‘Still plenty of time before we need to get to the Ledwells.’
So they went to the nearest sandwich bar, to which Strike brought Robin’s notes on the four trolls. Once sat at a small table beside the window, each of them supplied with sandwiches, Strike said,
‘I’ve read these notes.’
‘And?’ asked Robin.
‘And I agree.’
‘With what?’ asked Robin, who hadn’t written down her own conclusion, worried that Strike would think she was seeing things that weren’t there.
‘That they’re the same person. I’m talking about Julius, Johnny, Max and Lepine, obviously. Hard to judge with Zoltan and Scaramouche, because we’ve got no material from them to compare with the others.’
‘I think it’s possible Zoltan and Scaramouche were banned,’ said Robin, relieved that Strike didn’t think her theory absurd, ‘because I couldn’t find any trace of either of them on Twitter. But if Rachel was right, and Zoltan transformed himself into Scaramouche, who also got banned – mightn’t Zoltan/Scaramouche have decided to, I don’t know, kind of spread the load? Make multiple accounts so they could afford to sacrifice one or two if they crossed the line?’
‘Plausible,’ said Strike, nodding, ‘although there’s no shortage of men out there getting a kick out of harassing girls online. They don’t all have to be connected.’
‘I know,’ said Robin, ‘but that doesn’t explain why Rachel gets so much hate from those four accounts. It breaks the pattern: Edie and Kea had both pissed off Anomie. Rachel never did. And did you see the Ringo Starr reference?’
‘Yeah,’ said Strike, ‘which leads us to the inevitable question, doesn’t it? Are we looking at four more online personas of Anomie’s? I’m strongly inclined to think we are, and if so, Ashcroft can’t be Anomie. I don’t know whether you clocked the dates, but Julius and Johnny were tweeting up a storm when you were face to face with Ashcroft in Colchester.’
‘Oh,’ said Robin. ‘That’s how you’ve ruled him out?’
‘I might be wrong – but I don’t think I am.’
‘Well, then, who,’ said Robin, with a trace of desperation, ‘is this person? Could the same individual who wrote those pompous messages to Josh Blay with the Greek in them, and said to Rachel “Edie and I are basically the same person”, also be telling young women online they should raped and starved down to breeding weight?’
‘Why not?’ said Strike robustly. ‘You think well-educated, cultured people aren’t capable of being as mean and filthy as anyone else? Look at fucking Ashcroft. Anyway, it’s not hard to look up a few snippets of Latin and Greek, then copy and paste them. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re looking for a brain like Bhardwaj’s.’
‘If they’re all the same person,’ said Robin, ‘Kea Niven could have been telling the truth about Anomie using Kosh lines on her. She’s a big catch: pretty, directly connected to The Ink Black Heart – Anomie might’ve thought she deserved the treatment in person, rather than delegating it to one of the trolls.’
‘Makes sense,’ said Strike, nodding, ‘and if Anomie did come on to Kea, using Kosh, that points to a man who’s not successful with women in real life – or not as successful as he’d like to be. There are plenty of supposedly happily married men who enjoy the hunt for its own sake. Quantity rather than quality, as Kosh put it.
‘You know,’ said Strike, after a short pause, ‘I still keep going back to that first question: what has Anomie got to lose if he’s unmasked? I understand why Bhardwaj wanted to stay anonymous. He was a kid wanting to be taken seriously by astrophysicists at Cambridge. I doubt he wanted them to know how much of his life was taken up with the game, or to be associated with Anomie’s public persecution of Edie.’
‘I still don’t understand why Vikas didn’t cut ties with Anomie sooner.’
‘But you’ve just found out why, haven’t you?’ said Strike. ‘Paperwhite.’
‘But Paperwhite wasn’t there from the beginning. Why did Vikas stay, before she appeared?’
‘Good question,’ said Strike.
‘Remember that “joke” Vikas made to Rachel? “Anomie’s not my girlfriend. She’s my sister.” What the hell did that mean?’
‘Christ knows,’ said Strike.
Something in his subconscious was nudging him, but refusing to be explicit.
Once their sandwiches were eaten, and Robin had visited the toilet, she said,
‘It isn’t that far to Battledean Road, but we should probably get going… Are you all right?’
‘What?’ said Strike, who was trying to force the subconscious idea that kept irking him to the surface. ‘I’m fine. Just thinking.’
Once back in the BMW, Strike took out his mobile again, with a view to looking up what he now believed to be four pseudonyms of Anomie’s. Perversely, given he’d just told Robin that Zoltan might have nothing whatsoever to do with the case, he Googled that name first.