The Cuckoo's Calling

Strike and Robin visit the cameras that captured images of the Runner. As they walk, Strike thinks about the evidence John gave him, as well as the fact that Lula had been looking for information about her biological family. They survey Lula’s apartment building, which appears safe from the exterior. They discuss potential suspects and motives.

At home, Matthew is in a bad mood and speaks disparagingly of Strike, Robin’s job, and her attempts to maintain confidentiality about the case.

Strike goes to collect his belongings from Charlotte’s apartment, ruminating that they both had difficult childhoods despite their vast economic differences. He is tempted to wait for her to return and ask to try again but leaves before his resolve falters.

Robin is upset because it is her last day working with Strike through the temporary agency. Strike’s other client arrives at the office and describes her marital troubles to her. The client also reveals that Strike’s father is Jonny Rokeby, a famous rockstar. Strike arrives and Robin distracts the client as he prepares his office. After the client leaves, he is mournful that Robin is at the end of her contract. On impulse, they negotiate that she will continue working for him while she looks for permanent work.

Strike begins an interview with Derrick Wilson, which Derrick admits John paid him to participate in. Derrick was fond of Lula, and he recounts the night she died: Freddie Bestigui said something to her, then she was swarmed by paparazzi as she left for the clubs. When she returned to the building, she looked angry. After a restroom break, Derrick found Tansy Bestigui screaming in the lobby that a man pushed Lula off her balcony. Derrick searched the apartment and found it empty. Derrick later showed a policeman Lula’s unit and the apartment below hers, where Deeby was supposed to be staying. The officer knocked over a vase of roses that were supposed to be a gift from Freddie to Deeby.

Derrick additionally recalls a fight Lula had with her boyfriend several months prior before Kieran, Lula’s chauffer, joins the interview.

Kieran tells Strike that the police didn’t find his information important, but he wants to make sure that someone knows what he knows. He and Lula bonded because they are both of Black and white ancestry, and Lula had a strained relationship with her adoptive mother.

The morning of her death, Lula visited her mother but emerged from her meeting pensive and writing on a piece of paper. Lula then joined a woman she met in rehab at a boutique but ended the visit much sooner than expected, without her paper. Kieran then was hired to chauffer Deeby. The more Strike questions him, the more irritated he becomes until he leaves abruptly. Derrick agrees to let Strike into the apartment building when Freddie is out of town.

Strike gets settled in his office over the weekend. Strike returns to his notes and is frustrated at his lack of authority now that he is a civilian and not a member of the military. Strike scours the internet for information on Lula and the people connected to her. Her fame leads Strike to think about his own famous father.

Sunday morning, Strike walks along the Thames River and calls John, asking for guidance on finding Lula’s friend from rehabilitation. John tells him that Evan visited his mother the day before, but no one knows what he wanted. They talk about other aspects of the case before Strike arrives at a hostel for unhoused people, where he learns that Lula’s friend was named Rochelle and has left the hostel. Another girl at the hostel claims that Lula and Rochelle were not as close as Rochelle claimed. As he reads a copy of the news report detailing Evan’s visit to Lula’s mother, he gets a text from Robin about the same article.

The next day, Robin travels to the office and reflects on Matthew’s dissatisfaction with her recent behavior. Strike goes to the Barrack, a night club Deeby was taken to the night of Lula’s death. Robin calls to set up appointments for him. Strike then meets Wardle, where he exchanges information about an open murder case for information about Lula’s case. Wardle confirms that they searched for two men from the CCTV footage but turned up no leads. The conversation turns to Tansy, who Wardle dismisses because of her substance use. Wardle describes how the police tested her ability to overhear an argument and found it to be impossible due to the soundproofing of the building, and he disbelieves her claims that she opened a window to get some air because of the freezing temperatures. Despite Freddie’s history of violence, he was dismissed as a suspect at the time of the death due to the lack of evidence. The two men run through Deeby and Evan’s alibis. As they depart, Strike asks for Lula’s case file. Wardle promises to give it to him if Strike’s information about the open case proves true.

Back at the office, Robin admits her difficulties getting into contact with Evan and Guy. As he travels to eat lunch with Tansy, he reads an article Robin gave him about Freddie’s sexual harassment of an employee. He arrives at the restaurant where John, Tansy, and her sister Ursula are waiting. The women talk about Strike’s father before Tansy insists that their conversation stays off the record. Tansy says that Freddie wanted to get Lula into acting, even going so far as to follow her to a party to sway her. John reveals that after Lula’s death, Freddie approached their mother about making a documentary of Lula’s life, which resulted in an argument. Tansy relays what she heard and saw the night of Lula’s death.

John receives a phone call from Alison and steps away. The women gossip about Alison, claiming she is in love with John’s uncle Tony. When John returns, Strike continues to question Tansy about the death and her cocaine use. As they prepare to leave, Ursula’s husband arrives and escorts the women away. The men depart and Strike relistens to the conversation he secretly recorded on his cell phone. He believes that Tansy overheard the argument but thinks the rest of her story is false.