‘She was always so… unhappy.’ ‘Yeah,’ said Strike. ‘I know.’ ‘But she wouldn’t ever… there was a – a darkness in her.’ ‘Yeah,’ said Strike, ‘and she was in love with it. It’s dangerous to make a cult of your own unhappiness. Hard to get out, once you’ve been in there too long. You forget how.’ He drank some more of his rapidly diminishing pint before saying, ‘I once quoted Aeschylus at her. “Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” Didn’t go down well.’
