Wong Kei is the restaurant where Cormoran Strike’s investigation of Lula Landry’s death advances through a second look at her laptop. The meal gives way to a meeting with Spanner, whose technical expertise offers Strike another possible route into the computer after the police have examined it.

Setting and Circumstances

On a still-light evening, Strike returns to Wong Kei for the second time in ten days. The tall restaurant has a white front and a window overlooking the arcade center called Play to Win. Strike arrives after a painful effort to reattach his prosthetic leg and walk down Charing Cross Road; he has chosen not to use the gray metal sticks he found among the belongings from his release from Selly Oak Hospital.

The physical difficulty of getting there sits alongside an ordinary meal. Strike eats Singapore noodles one-handed, with a beer beside Lula’s open laptop. Its dark-pink casing, patterned with cherry blossom, makes a sharp visual contrast with his large, hairy figure bent over the distinctly feminine-looking computer. Two waiters in black T-shirts smirk at the sight, giving the restaurant a brief view of the incongruity that Strike himself does not notice.

The Laptop and Spanner

At half past eight, Spanner arrives and takes the seat opposite Strike. He is a young man with straggly fair hair, wearing jeans, a psychedelic T-shirt and Converse sneakers, with a leather bag slung across his chest. His greeting is casual, and he orders a lager before turning to the computer.

The meeting also lets Strike pass news of his separation from Charlotte to someone likely to relay it among their mutual friends without drawing him into an elaborate discussion. Spanner reports that Nick and Ilsa have been talking about Strike and think he has gone underground; they have been calling his flat and getting the answering machine. Ilsa suspects woman trouble. Strike confirms that she has broadly understood the situation and asks that his friends stop calling Charlotte’s flat.

A Second Look

Spanner acknowledges the breakup briefly, then points to the Dell and asks what Strike wants done with it. Strike explains that the police have already examined the laptop, but he wants an independent second opinion. Spanner doubts he will uncover anything the police’s technical staff have not, yet the exchange establishes why Strike has brought the computer to the restaurant: its earlier examination has not ended his search for information relevant to Lula’s death.

Wong Kei thus brings together the investigation’s material and personal threads. On the table, Lula’s pink laptop is both a concrete object requiring technical scrutiny and the focus of a new inquiry; opposite it, the informal presence of an old acquaintance gives Strike a way to seek help while also communicating, indirectly, that his relationship with Charlotte has ended.