Page 58 of The Killer’s Mark

‘I can assure you she doesn’t have higher clearance than me, Poe.’

‘I am authorised to receive and disseminate intelligence all the way up to exceptionally controlled intelligence. You are authorised to receive but not disseminate top-secret intelligence. My security clearance is therefore seven levels above yours, Hester Flynt.’

Hester crossed her arms, suspicious. ‘I’ve never heard of exceptionally controlled intelligence, Miss Bradshaw. Given what I’ve been involved with over the years, I find that highly suspicious.’

‘Only people authorised to receive exceptionally controlled intelligence know there is such a thing as exceptionally controlled intelligence. The only reason I can even tell you this classification exists is because you are authorised to receive limited top-secret intelligence. But as you are not authorised to disseminate top-secret intelligence, it will be a breach of the Official Secrets Act if you tell anyone else that this security classification exists.’

‘What about the kid? Does she have this secret security classification?’

‘I’m staying, old lady.’

Hester leaned into the screen. ‘She’s a feisty one, Poe.’

Poe nodded. ‘They both are,’ he said. ‘And trust me, Hester, only people who need to be on this call are on this call. I can get a senior member of the security service to vouch for Tilly if you want, but all we’d be doing is wasting time.’

Hester shrugged. ‘Eric did say I could trust you. That means I’ll have to trust the people you trust.’

Esmerée’s trick hand started thumping the table with the flat of her fist. Bradshaw picked up her laptop until it subsided. It lasted ten seconds. Esmerée grabbed her alien right hand with her non-alien left hand and wrestled it into submission. Poe had seen it so often now it barely registered.

‘Stupid freaking hand,’ she muttered when it was over.

Hester stared at her, astonished. ‘What the heck?’

‘Best not to ask,’ Poe said. ‘Now, you requested this meeting. I take it you know something we don’t?’

Hester glanced at Esmerée again, then nodded. ‘First I need to thank you, Poe.’

‘You do? Why?’

‘Because I thought I’d never have the privilege of seeing this man’s work again.’

Chapter 48

‘His name is Kai Jin,’ Hester said. ‘He was the most gifted portrait artist I ever had the privilege to teach.’

‘It’s definitely him?’ Poe asked.

‘I’d recognise his work anywhere.’

With Bradshaw’s help, Hester changed the conference call to a split screen – half her, half tattoo photograph. She used a cursor to demonstrate.

‘See here, the meticulous brush marks, the fluid style,’ she said. ‘The radiant effects of light on the face. He had an extraordinary range of half-tones, the ones that lie between shadow and light. Where illumination and darkness meet. I hadn’t seen anything like it since I’d studied the great portrait artists. Except I thought Kai was better. The renderings of light and form are lifelike, yet they also have an element of interpretation. The portrait isn’t a carbon copy of his subject. It was inner emotion that interested Kai. His paintings spoke to the soul; they did to me anyway.’

That was good enough for Poe. Eric Stryker hadn’t been wrong; Hester was the expert they needed. ‘Tell me about him,’ he said.

‘What do you want to know?’

‘Enough to find him.’

‘Kai was tormented,’ Hester began. ‘All the great artists are, of course, but his was more about external pressures than internal suffering.’ She paused. Looked as though she was figuring out the best way to explain. ‘His great-grandmother could trace her lineage back to the Song Dynasty. Her family was highly respected in China.’

‘What happened?’

‘The Japanese Imperial Army took her as a comfort woman. In other words, she was forced into sexual slavery. Endured it for most of the Second World War. When she was repatriated, she was pregnant. The child, Kai’s grandmother, was shunned. When she was old enough, she fled China for England. Made a new life for herself. She got married and had children, and those children got married and had children. One of those children was Kai. Unfortunately, his great-grandmother’s past caught up with the family. By this time they were integrated into the Chinese community in Newcastle. According to Kai, they even paid a percentage of the profits of their wholesale business to the Forty-Fours. I understand the Forty-Fours are one of the biggest triads in the world and I guess paying was easier than resisting. Anyway, because they paid the Forty-Fours, they enjoyed a level of protection even when their Japanese blood became known. It meant there were no reprisals, no repercussions.’

‘But?’

‘But children are cruel. The adults played the game. Did what the Forty-Fours told them and left the family alone. But you can’t tell seven-, eight-, nine-year-olds that. Kai was mercilessly bullied. Eventually he found a way to cope.’