Page 12 of The Killer’s Mark

Poe took the bundle of cash she was still holding. He passed it to Bradshaw. ‘Give Esmerée a receipt for ninety pounds, Tilly.’

Esmerée looked up. ‘Do you mean …?’

Poe nodded. ‘Consider us hired.’

She let out a huge sigh of relief. ‘Thank you,’ she said. She wiped away a tear, then picked up her can of Coke and started beating the shit out of the table.

Poe stared, astonished.

‘Oh, one other thing, Poe,’ Bradshaw said. ‘Esmerée has alien hand syndrome.’

Chapter 5

‘What the hell is alien hand syndrome?’ Poe said after he’d done his best to wipe up the spilled Coke.

Esmerée was getting clean in the top-floor toilets. She’d banged her Coke on Poe’s meeting table until the can was dented and sugary liquid had sprayed all over his office. She had looked mortified. Genuinely embarrassed. Bradshaw had shown her where the toilets were.

‘It’s a psychological condition characterised by the belief that the affected hand doesn’t belong to the person,’ Bradshaw explained. ‘In Esmerée’s case, she believes her right hand is autonomous.’

‘You mean …?’

‘Yes, she believes her hand has its own agenda.’

Poe thought about it. ‘I suppose if you’re going to have a mental illness, you might as well have one of the fun ones,’ he said. ‘What causes it? She had a bang on the noggin?’

Bradshaw nodded. ‘AHS is usually associated with an acquired brain injury. There are three main types and I think Esmerée must have the frontal lobe version, as that’s the only one that affects the right hand.’

‘Treatment?’

‘There is no treatment, Poe.’

‘Poor sod,’ he said.

‘How you gonna find my mom?’ Esmerée asked from the doorway. ‘And please don’t feel sorry for me. My hand’s just one more asshole in my life.’

‘Take a seat, Esmerée,’ Poe said. ‘Before I get started, I need some basic details. Tilly will take notes and ask you to check them before you leave. Make sure we have the facts as you understand them. Is that OK?’

‘Sure.’

‘OK then. In your own time.’

Chapter 6

‘Poor sod,’ Poe said for the second time in an hour. ‘No wonder she’s so angry.’

Esmerée had told her story and Poe had said he’d call her the following day with news, even if the news was that there was no news. She didn’t have a phone, so she’d agreed to pop in instead. She’d then left the office and almost skipped down the stairs.

‘It is a sad case,’ Bradshaw agreed.

‘Let me get this straight,’ he said. ‘Esmerée’s mother, Océane Blue, was shacked up with some rich arsehole in the States.’

‘Vincent du Buk,’ Bradshaw confirmed. ‘He had a house in New York State and an apartment in Manhattan.’

‘Esmerée’s a bit fuzzy on their arrangement, but it seems he was something like her mother’s sugar daddy. Océane was basically at his beck and call.’

Bradshaw nodded.

‘On the surface, Vincent du Buk was a respectable businessman. He worked for a private equity firm on Wall Street. He had no criminal record and he wasn’t on anyone’s radar. According to your preliminary research, he was worth upwards of fifty million dollars.’