Page 119 of The Killer’s Mark

‘Oh yeah, I remember him. He’s not here, Susan.’ Poe leaned down, put his head next to hers. ‘He was never here.’

‘But—’

‘Gilliard might not be here any more,’ Towler said, grinning at her the way a female praying mantis grins at her mate right before she bites his head off. ‘But I am.’

At least she had the good sense to look scared.

‘You’re going to answer every question I ask,’ Poe said. ‘If you refuse, or hesitate, or if I think you’re lying, then you’re of no more use to me.’

Towler removed her gun from his pocket. ‘This has your prints on and no one else’s. If Poe hands you over to me, then you, me and my friend Tick-Tock are going on a little ride. We’ll find somewhere picturesque. Somewhere you can blow your own brains out. And if you think I don’t know how to fake a suicide, you haven’t been paying attention.’

Susan gulped. ‘What do you want to know?’

‘Where’s Esmerée?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Ah, fuck this shit,’ Towler said. ‘Let me deal with this, mate.’

‘No!’ Susan shouted. ‘I really don’t know where she is! It’ll be somewhere close, but that’s all I can tell you. The organisation is heavily compartmentalised. The right hand never knows the left’s finer details and vice versa.’

Poe glanced at Bradshaw.

‘Are they planning to kill her?’ he asked.

Susan nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘Regardless of whether I bring them her mother?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you’re OK with that?’

‘No.’

‘But it was you who gave her up.’

‘It was.’

‘You can see the contradiction?’

‘Of course I can,’ she said. ‘But when you’re in, you’re all the way in. You don’t get to pick and choose.’

‘How many men will be with her?’

‘Two or three now. More at the exchange.’

‘Dongyang Dong?’

‘He’s in overall command of Europe. He’ll be there.’

‘How can I get them to reveal their location without proving I have Océane Blue?’

‘You really don’t know where she is?’

‘I really don’t. And I don’t know why they think I do.’

Susan didn’t answer.