Читать онлайн "The Ink Black Heart" - Роулинг Джоан Кэтлинг - RuLit

‘Hugh Jacks, then, is it?’

‘No, of course not!’ said Robin. ‘No… it’s Ryan Murphy.’

‘Ryan… what, the CID bloke?’

‘Yes,’ said Robin.

Strike said nothing at all for a few seconds, because he was struggling to process what he’d just been told.

‘When did that happen, then?’ he asked, a little more forcefully than he’d intended.

‘He asked me out a while back and I couldn’t go because I was working, and – now I can. Free weekend.’

‘Ah. Right.’

Strike struggled to find something else to say.

‘Well… he seems like a decent bloke.’

‘Good to know you think so,’ said Robin with a slight smile. ‘Well, I’ll come back in whenever’s convenient, if you—’

‘Yeah, do,’ said Strike. ‘Hopefully I’ll be out soon, though.’

She smiled again, got up and walked away, turning back to wave at the door.

Strike was left staring at the place where she’d vanished, until the young heart-attack survivor reappeared and returned to his bed. The detective didn’t chide his wardmate for the strong smell of Marlboro now wafting on the hot air, because he was experiencing a clarification of his feelings as irrefutable as it was unwelcome. The thing he’d been trying for years not to look at, and not to name, had stepped out of the dark corner where he’d attempted to keep it, and Strike knew there was no longer any way of denying its existence.

Trapped by the drip and the drains in his chest, confined to the narrow hospital bed, he couldn’t follow Robin, couldn’t call her back and tell her it was about time they talked about that moment outside the Ritz.

It’s one date, Strike told himself, suddenly craving a cigarette more powerfully than at any time since being admitted to hospital. Anything could go wrong.

Murphy might get drunk and tell a racist joke. He might patronise Robin, who was a detective with no formal training. He might even make a rough pass – although Strike didn’t like the idea of that at all.

He reached out for one of the flasks of strong tea Robin had brought with her and poured himself a cup. The fact that it was precisely the shade of creosote he preferred made him feel, if possible, worse. He drank it without really tasting it, so couldn’t have said whether stevia tasted different to sugar. Cormoran Strike had just suffered a blow to the heart that the machete had missed, but this wound, unlike the machete’s, was likely to cause him trouble long after the drains were gone and the drip removed.

And the worst of it was, he knew his predicament could have been avoided if only, in his own recently uttered words, he’d opened his fucking eyes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My deepest gratitude goes to:

David Shelley, my incomparable editor, for wisdom, empathy and being extraordinary at his job.

My friend Neil Blair, with reassurance that neither of the fictional agents in the Strike series bear any resemblance to him whatsoever.

Mark Hutchinson, Rebecca Salt and Nicky Stonehill for support on so many levels I could fill the rest of the page with examples, and with apologies to Nicky, because Rebecca, Mark and I spoiled the end of this book for her over dinner.

Di Brooks, Simon Brown, Danny Cameron, Angela Milne, Ross Milne, Fi Shapcott and Kaisa Tiensuu, because without you I couldn’t keep writing.

Sofia, for generously letting me ask her questions about the world of animation.

The tech genius that is Decca, for saving my book and my sanity. God, how I wish I could clone you, and not only for tech support reasons.

David and Kenzie, who accompanied me to Highgate Cemetery in the pouring rain on my birthday and made a real effort to look as though that was exactly how they wanted to spend a few hours.

Neil, for endless cups of tea, patience, kindness, sound advice and for always, always having my back. #NotAllBeards

CREDITS

‘Rather Be’ (here) Hal Leonard: Words and Music by Grace Chatto, Jack Patterson, Nicole Marshall and James Napier. © 2013 EMI Blackwood Music Inc., Sony Music Publishing (US) LLC and Concord SISL Limited. All Rights on behalf of EMI Blackwood Music Inc. and Sony Music Publishing (US) LLC. Administered by Sony Music Publishing (US) LLC, 424 Church Street, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37219. All Rights on behalf of Concord SISL Limited Administered by Concord Lane c/o Concord Music Publishing. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard Europe Ltd.

‘Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime’ (here) Mineko Iwasaki, Geisha of Gion: The True Story of Japan’s Foremost Geisha, published by arrangement with Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 1st Floor, 222 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8HB. A CBS Company.

‘When you give someone your whole heart and he doesn’t want it, you cannot take it back. It’s gone forever’ (here) Compton, Elizabeth Sigmund, ‘Sylvia in Devon 1962’ memoir/essay in Butscher (ed), Sylvia Plath the Woman and the Work (New York: Dodd Mead, 1985).

‘Wherever You Will Go’ (here) Words and Music by Aaron Kamin and Alex Band. © 2001 by Universal Music – Careers, BMG Platinum Songs, Amedeo Music and Alex Band Music. All Rights for BMG Platinum Songs, Amedeo Music and Alex Band Music Administered by BMG Rights Management (US) LLC.

‘The Road To Valhalla’ (here) Words and Music by BRATTA VITO and MIKE TRAMP. VAVOOM MUSIC INC. (ASCAP). All rights on behalf of VAVOOM MUSIC INC. administered by WARNER CHAPPELL OVERSEAS HOLDINGS LTD.

Also by Robert Galbraith

The Cuckoo’s Calling

The Silkworm

Career of Evil

Lethal White

Troubled Blood