Summary

Nina Lascelles, Culpepper's niece who works at Roper Chard Publishing, calls Strike, in Chapter 11, to set up their date to attend Roper Chard's anniversary party together. Nina guesses correctly that he is investigating Bombyx Mori and tells him that no one at the office is supposed to talk about it because of all the lawyers storming in and out of Daniel Chard's office. She jokes that Strike will "infiltrate" (99) the company and "spy" (100) on everyone.

When Robin asks Strike what he thinks of Matthew, he automatically responds that he is a "[n]ice bloke" (102). Strike's lukewarm response disappoints and irritates her sufficiently that she leaves the office at 5 p.m. sharp and slams the door behind her. Strike recalls (in Chapter 13) that as soon as he broke up with Charlotte, his former fiancée, she returned to the fellow she had left when...