The Cuckoo's Calling

Robin reflects on her engagement to her partner, Matthew, which took place the night before as she exits the London Underground. She makes her way to her latest temporary secretary position. As she ascends the stairs, a woman nearly knocks her over. Robin reaches Strike’s private detective agency and is excited due to her secret desire to be a private detective. She starts to enter the office but runs into a large man who emerges from the door so quickly she is knocked off her feet.

Strike grabs Robin before she can fall down the stairs. He apologizes and ushers her into his office, not recognizing her. His poor finances forced him to let go of his last temporary secretary, making Robin’s arrival an unpleasant surprise. He refreshes himself in the bathroom and recalls his own evening, which involved being kicked out of his partner Charlotte’s apartment and their subsequent morning altercation that Robin interrupted. Strike emerges and gives Robin hasty secretarial instructions before going into his office. He muses on his mounting debt and sudden homelessness.

Robin interrupts his reflections by telling Strike he has a client. After making himself presentable, Strike is introduced to John. John tells Strike that they know each other from childhood, as Strike used to be friends with John’s late brother Charlie. John then talks about his dead sister, Lula. He recalls when the adopted girl joined his family and bursts into tears. Robin enters with coffee and biscuits. Strike passes her a note asking her to verify that John and Lula are siblings. John continues talking about Lula before he asks Strike to solve her death, believing that she did not die by suicide. Robin discretely passes Strike a note confirming John’s relationship to Lula, as well as additional pertinent information. John explains that Lula’s history of mental health concerns caused the police to believe her death was a suicide, leading them to ignore clues. Strike rejects John’s job, causing John to have an outburst of rage and frustration.

In the outer office, Robin surveys Alison, John’s girlfriend. Alison believes Lula died by suicide, a fact that John cannot seem to accept. In the inner office, John mentions justice and Strike agrees to help him. Strike recalls his training as a member of the special investigation branch of the military police as he starts to question John about the day of Lula’s death. John describes a fight he had with Lula about her choice of boyfriend, but they resolved the issue that morning. After visiting their mother, Lula had her makeup done and visited with her model friend Ciara before partying with her boyfriend, Evan. The two were seen arguing before Lula returned home, where she later fell to her death. John pays Strike a month’s advance and departs, although Alison expresses her displeasure.

Strike compliments Robin on her quick work. He exits and goes to the Tottenham pub for a beer and his thoughts turn to Charlotte. She is beautiful and smart but with deep problems that have made their relationship turbulent. She has done something that he cannot forgive, making him break up with her for the first time, as she was the instigator of their previous rifts. He then reflects again on his poor finances, as well as his recent weight gain exacerbated by his new prosthetic leg. He calls his friend Detective Richard Anstis to get the numbers of the police officers who were assigned Lula’s case. Strike then calls in a favor with a different, unnamed friend before calling Wardle. He offers Wardle information in exchange for Lula’s case file, and they set up a meeting. Strike ignores a call from Robin and goes on a walk, waiting until she leaves the office so he can sleep there.

In the office, Robin calls her friends to share news of her engagement. She performs some secretarial tasks and cleans the office, discovering Strike’s overnight bag. She assumes that the woman she nearly collided with earlier was a romantic partner to Strike. At five o’clock in the evening, she leaves.

Strike wastes time until that evening, then returns to his office with a camp bed to sleep on. He recalls some of his hectic childhood, during which his mother would move him and his sister to various unstable living situations. He then puts together the materials for Lula’s case before reviewing the evidence in an envelope from John. It contains pictures from CCTV footage of an unknown man, dubbed the Runner, approaching Lula’s neighborhood, then running past the camera again 50 minutes later. There are images of a second man as well, which John’s notes state is a possible lookout. There is also a note that the security guard on duty at the apartment building that night was unwell, leaving the lobby unattended for 15 minutes. John’s notes describe Lula’s neighbors, Tansy and Freddie Bestigui, as well as Tansy’s testimony that she heard Lula have an argument before falling.