Page 128 of The Killer’s Mark

‘Can you open the door, please, Océane? You’re quite safe. We’re not the police and we’re not the Red Chamber.’

‘I told you; my name is—’

‘Donna Reed. But it used to be Océane Blue and before that it was Brandy Calhoun. You were born on a trailer park in Wheeler County, Georgia. You fled after your stepfather repeatedly attempted to rape you. You ended up in North Dakota working for a family-run honey business. One year you were gifted the complete works of Sherlock Holmes, which inspired your dream of keeping bees on a farm on the South Downs. You volunteered to be a Red Chamber concubine, presumably to get the start-up capital. At some point you found out that being a concubine was a death sentence. That the Red Chamber didn’t share the money as per the contract; they killed the women and kept it for themselves. You stuck a knife in Vincent du Buk’s neck and fled the country. Came here, which is as near to the South Downs as you can afford. You are, or you certainly were, supplementing your honey-business income by making porn films. The porn film is how we found you.’ Poe waited half a breath. ‘Have I missed anything, Matt?’

‘Other than me being eighty-five per cent certain I could pick her bare arse out of a line-up of bare arses, I don’t think so.’

‘I think I’d like you to leave now,’ the woman said, her voice quavering and cracking. ‘If you don’t, I’ll call the police.’

‘OK, we’ll wait,’ Poe said.

‘I’m not bluffing.’

‘Neither am I.’

The woman said nothing. It seemed she was pacing her caravan. Probably wondering what to do. Eventually she said, ‘I’m calling the police right now.’

‘And handing yourself in for the murder of Vincent du Buk?’ Poe said. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘I’ll take my chances.’

‘OK,’ Poe said. ‘But I should probably warn you that we’ve just caught a cop who the Red Chamber had on their payroll. I doubt she was the only one.’

Silence.

He pressed his advantage. ‘She’s handcuffed to the radiator in my office. What does that tell you?’

‘That you’re a really shitty person?’

‘It should tell you that we’re not cops.’

‘You could be Red Chamber.’

‘We’re not.’

‘And I couldn’t be a triad,’ Towler said. ‘Beansprouts give me the wild shites.’

‘I’m not opening this door,’ the woman said.

‘You’re in a tin can. If we were triad fuckheads, we’d have already set a fire underneath it. So do me a favour, love. Get dressed and open the fucking door. If you don’t, I’ll piss in one of your beehives and I won’t tell you which one.’

‘Don’t you touch my bees!’ she yelled.

The lock clicked. The door opened a crack. Light spilled out like a laser. Océane Blue peered at them. Still suspicious. ‘What’s Esmerée done this time?’ she said.

‘The Red Chamber have her,’ Poe said. ‘They’re going to kill her in a little over twenty-four hours.’

‘And what’s that got to do with me?’

Poe and Towler glanced at each other.

‘They want to do a swap,’ Poe said. ‘You for her. Obviously we aren’t going to let that happen, but we do need you to come with us.’

‘I can’t,’ Océane said. ‘I have a farmers’ market at nine o’clock, then I’m meeting with a deli owner at four. The owner might put in a recurring order for the Midnight Beekeeper’s premium range.’

‘Did you not hear Poe say they’re going to kill your daughter?’ Towler said incredulously.

‘I heard,’ she said. ‘I just don’t care.’