Fergus Robertson is a journalist who has previously investigated the UHC.  In 2006 he interviewed an anonymous ex-member of the church.  Strike reads this interview and then arranges to meet Robertson in The Westminster Arms.

Fergus Robertson is described as ‘a short, rotund and almost entirely bald man’ (Chapter 14) who chews Nicorette gum vigorously.  Robertson starts the conversation by asking Strike if he knows Dominic Culpepper and also for Strike’s views on Brexit. 

Robertson tells Strike that the ex-member of the UHC that he interviewed had been at Chapman Farm for five and a half years.  She told him of the many horrors that she had experienced there including ‘spirit bonding’. His source mentioned the ‘divine secrets’ but wouldn’t divulge what they were; and she told Robertson she had seen ‘ghosts and magic’.

Robertson gives Strike his list of the ex-members of the church in return for which Strike agrees to let Robertson have exclusive access to the story should the agency uncover anything new about the UHC.