Page 36 of The Killer’s Mark

Knight led them into a small meeting room. Poe wondered if it had ever been used as a location. He gestured to the moulded plastic seats around a Formica table. It was sprinkled with sugar and stained with tea and coffee. He offered Poe his hand. Poe ignored it. He said, ‘No, thank you. I don’t want an STD.’

‘Do you know anyone who does want an STD, Poe?’ Bradshaw said.

‘You make a good point, Tilly.’

‘Have I done something to upset you, Mr Poe?’

‘I don’t know. Probably.’

‘Then I think I’d like to have my solicitor present.’

Poe leaned forward. Hardened his jaw. ‘If I leave this room, I don’t come back to this room, Mr Knight.’

‘I don’t know what that means.’

‘Yes you do,’ Poe said. He handed over one of the gumshoe business cards. He’d enjoyed the joke at first, but things were getting serious now. Perhaps they should get some new ones printed. Too late now, though. Knight held the card like Poe had passed him someone else’s toilet brush. He put it on the Formica table, where it immediately welded itself to the warm sugar.

‘I have been hired by a woman whose name shall remain confidential,’ Poe said. ‘This woman recently discovered that her daughter has been making pornographic films.’

Knight smirked. ‘And let me guess, she doesn’t like that?’

‘No, she does not.’

‘This business isn’t for everyone, I’m afraid.’

Poe paused a beat. ‘Good, you should be afraid.’

Knight stopped smirking.

‘My client’s daughter acquired some exceptional fake ID,’ Poe continued. ‘It’s so good, the counterterrorism police in Cumbria are investigating the supplier. Anyway, I digress. The counterterrorism police aren’t your problem, Mr Knight. Your problem is that although this ID stated she was eighteen, she was actually fourteen.’

‘Fourteen?’

‘A very mature-looking fourteen, but fourteen nonetheless. She ran away from home and spent a year in London making films with people like you.’

‘Don’t matter,’ Knight said. ‘All my models sign consent forms. They confirm they are performing voluntarily and that they are over eighteen.’

‘She lied, Mr Knight. And because she was a child, legally she couldn’t consent.’

‘If she lied, then she’s the one who’s in trouble, not me.’

Poe snorted. ‘Yeah, that’s exactly how the law sees it. The paedophile claims the girl said she was sixteen, so it’s her who goes to jail. You see that on the news all the time.’

Bradshaw said, ‘Poe is being sarcastic, Toby Knight.’

‘I got that, thank you!’ Knight snapped.

‘Raise your voice to Tilly one more time and I’ll throw you out of that window,’ Poe said. He said it with a smile, but Knight got the message.

‘Sorry, miss,’ he mumbled.

‘It’s a shame you’re a sole trader and not a limited company,’ Poe went on.

Knight studied him carefully. ‘Why’s that?’

‘Because a limited company is legally distinct from the identity of the owner. You’d have limited liability should Pure Pulse Productions incur any debt. In other words, your personal finances wouldn’t be at risk. But you’re a sole trader. And sole traders have full liability for debt. Your personal finances are at risk.’

‘Pure Pulse Productions has no debt, Mr Poe.’