‘Aye, she’s great. I ken she sounds like a bronchial docker, but she’s very efficient…’ said Barclay.
Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith
Pat – the chain vaping and smoking office manager, with teeth the colour of old ivory and implausibly black hair, has an unsteady start at the agency due to her dislike of Strike, but soon becomes a crucial part of the team. This week, we’re taking a moment to celebrate the quick-thinking, straight-talking heart of gold occupying Robin’s old desk in the outer office of the Strike and Ellacott detective agency.
‘I don’t want to sack her,’ said Robin. ‘I think she’s great.’
Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith
After a string of high-profile successes, Robin has moved into full time detection work. Neither she nor Strike are happy with the temps they hire to cover the office duties she used to do, so they employ Patricia Chauncey as a full-time office manager to handle the admin and calls at the growing agency. When a woman approaches Strike in Cornwall about the case of her mother, Margot Bamborough, who disappeared almost forty years ago (Troubled Blood), Pat is just coming to the end of her probationary period.
Pat is a thin woman in her fifties, with a voice so deep and gravelly when she answers the phone callers often assume they have got through to Strike himself. She smokes her vape constantly in the office, and has a lit superking in her mouth the moment she hits the pavement outside the front door in Denmark Street. She is also very efficient. As her probation period ends, the filing is up to date, the accounts are in order, all receipts are neatly docketed, the phone is answered promptly, messages are passed on accurately, they never run out of teabags or milk, and Pat never arrives late. Pat is often dry and no nonsense, but she shows a thoughtful side too, getting Robin a new purse for her birthday because she’s noticed her old one was coming apart at the seams.
‘Nasty temper,’ said Pat, who looked weirdly satisfied. ‘Knew it, the moment I laid eyes on him.’
Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith
Strike and Pat’s relationship though is combative from the start, which puzzles Robin as she likes them both. Pat is not inclined to forgive Strike’s moods and will ask him sharply if a ‘thanks’ would kill him when she gives him his messages. She also avoids using his name and seems constantly on the lookout for signs of his bad temper.
When Strike is struck down by the flu over Christmas though, Pat makes the trip to China Town to fetch him chicken soup and brings his Christmas gifts up to his flat above the office. She’s surprised that ‘someone like him’ doesn’t have people taking care of him, and he in turn is very touched by the effort she has made to make him comfortable over a miserable holiday.
Pat seems to be swayed by appearances, bestowing her rare smiles on Saul Morris, the handsome subcontractor Robin finds creepy. Later, she has a fondness for subcontractor Dev Shah and DCI Ryan Murphy, both of whom are very good-looking. She admits to making assumptions about people from how they look, and when she tells Strike he reminds her of her first husband, the reasons for some of her animosity towards him become clearer.
After Robin gives Strike a roasting for his manners and his selfish disregard for the feelings of others in general, leaving her to clear up after him, Strike tries to be more friendly and polite. That means letting Pat have the radio on while she works. As well as making Pat happy, the simple act of generosity leads to a sudden moment of inspiration for Strike and a last-minute break in the case of Margot Bamborough.
‘I had a woman send me my first husband’s Y-fronts in the post, cheeky cow.’
The Ink Black Heart, Robert Galbraith
‘Seriously?’ asked Midge.
‘Oh yeah,’ growled Pat.
‘What did you do?’ Robin asked.
‘Pinned ’em to the front door so they were the first thing he’d see when he come home from work,’ said Pat. She took a deep pull on her e-cigarette and said, ‘And I sent her somefing back she wouldn’t forget.’
‘What?’ said Robin and Midge in unison.
‘Never you mind,’ said Pat. ‘But let’s just say it wouldn’t spread easy on toast.’
By the time Robin and Strike are investigating the case of Edie Ledwell (The Ink Black Heart), Pat has shown herself to be calm and capable when dealing with the press. She’s also had to deal with disturbed people who come to the agency hoping to prove the government is watching them through an air vent, or that their neighbour is a member of an extremist cell. She and the partners have even developed a code to signal possible problems. She’s also become protective of the partners, checking on Robin when she hears raised voices during her meeting with Edie, or warning Strike that Robin looks peaky when she hears of Edie’s death.
Strike and Pat’s relationship continues to improve. When his leg becomes too painful for him to work, he is confined to his flat and the agency struggles with the workload. Pat defends him, then brings him fruitcake and news from the floor below. Strike discovers an unexpected new appreciation for Pat, who, during his incapacitation, provides a brand of matter-of-fact assistance he finds strangely soothing.
During the investigation into Edie’s murder, Pat’s quick thinking saves lives. Alerted by the tell-tale hissing noise, she runs into the inner office just in time to slam the door behind her before a parcel bomb explodes, badly damaging the office. She later tells Strike she lost her uncle to an IRA bomb in Woolwich. Though in shock afterwards, snappy and in need of nicotine while the police question her and Strike in the basement of the Tottenham, she manages to give the investigating officers key details about the parcel. She describes the handwriting – unlike some post they get, the address was spelled correctly and written in black ink – and she remembers the postmark which shows the parcel was posted in Kilburn – her part of town.
When the repairs are complete, she returns to the office without fear and admits the new office chair is better than the old one, though she reckons the fabric on the new settee will stain if anyone spills coffee on it.
She also provides her own commentary on Hugh Jack’s pursuit of Robin after they meet on a skiing trip. ‘Stinkier the turd, harder it is to scrape off your shoe,’ she observes laconically.
‘You might be a grumpy sod,’ said Pat, scowling, ‘but I can’t see you knocking a woman around.’
The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ said Strike.
As Strike and Robin begin to investigate the Universal Humanitarian Church (The Running Grave), Charlotte Ross, Strike’s ex-fiancée, leaves increasingly unhinged voicemails on the office phone. Pat makes sure Strike is aware of them and the accusations they contain. She also warns him of the danger Charlotte might pose, reminding him you can’t trust a drinker; ‘Never know what they might do,’ she says, ‘when the brakes are off’.
The UHC and Charlotte aren’t the only enemies lined up against the agency. The machinations of rival firm, Pattersons Inc., leads to a tearful Pat confessing she has not been entirely truthful with her employers. Strike still respects her fundamental honesty though and does not sack her which makes the usually hard-edged Pat cry.
As a result, Strike and Robin learn a lot more about Pat’s family. As well as a daughter, Rhoda, who is never off Facebook, and who is happy to help them reaching out to a potential witness of the church abuses, she has a granddaughter called Kayleigh who works round the corner from the office at TK Maxx and a great-granddaughter called Tanisha.
‘We have ’em young in my family. Best way, when you’ve still got the energy.’
The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith
Pat insists on helping a vulnerable ex-church member and their child, saying they need looking after, with a look at Strike which suggests she doesn’t think he’s up to the job. She provides pizza and children’s clothes, and a safe refuge for them to stay. Her husband, Dennis, offers companionship and chess. The friendly but robust scepticism they show about church teaching becomes a vital first step in the ex-member’s recovery. She also offers to keep helping even when the case is over.
‘If you found her something round my way, I could keep an eye on ’em. My daughter and granddaughters would muck in.’
The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith
Strike gets better at listening to Pat, such as when she checks him during his dispute with subcontractor Midge, and though she still avoids using Strike’s name, it now seems affectionate rather than disapproving.
So next time you have a cuppa and a slice of fruitcake, think of Pat, fingers flying over the keyboard and her vape clamped between her teeth keeping an eye out for, and on, everyone coming through the door of the Denmark Street office.
