Page 59 of The Killer’s Mark

‘His art?’

Hester nodded. ‘Exactly. He threw himself into it. I’ve seen some of the stuff he did before he attended the Royal College of Art, and even then he was leagues above everyone else. I’m sure part of that is down to what happened to his great-grandmother. Just as the sexual slavery shaped her, three generations later it would shape the artist her great-grandson would become.’

‘You taught him at the Royal College?’

‘I shouldn’t really call it that. He didn’t need teaching. Maybe some of his excesses needed to be curbed, but really, I thought of my role as making sure his work was given the attention it deserved. Which I did.’

‘And then?’

‘And then he disappeared. Left college, left the art world. Truth be told, he left a hole in my professional life that has never been filled. It’s why I wanted to thank you. Not just for letting me see his work again but for letting me know that the rumours weren’t true.’

‘What rumours?’

‘Kai gambled, Poe. Possibly because of his childhood trauma, possibly because that’s just how some people are wired. And in the Chinese community, gambling doesn’t have the same social stigma it does in ours.’

‘He owed money?’

‘It seems his talents only stretched to painting. He accumulated serious debts with serious people.’

‘Triads?’

‘That’s the gossip.’

‘You don’t strike me as someone who listens to gossip, Hester,’ Poe said.

‘I don’t. But I heard it anyway. And Kai did disappear. When no one knows the reason, the information vacuum is filled with speculation. And like it or not, the rumour that cropped up most often was that he refused to pay the Forty-Fours what he owed, and they made an example of him. Kai wouldn’t have been the first, and I doubt he’ll be the last. I’d hoped he’d moved back to China. That one day I’d start to see his paintings again. But when I didn’t, the triad rumour become increasingly plausible.’

‘What did you hear?’

‘That they’d chopped off his hands,’ Hester said. ‘And without his art, he had no reason to live. That is why I’m so grateful to see this tattoo.’

Chapter 49

Poe started to feel uneasy. A potential triad link changed things. Ordinarily he’d have dismissed their involvement as a racial stereotype. A Chinese person disappears so the omnipresent big bad triads must be to blame. But Mark Buckby’s torture and murder had been arranged in the blink of an eye. A two-hour window. That screamed organised crime. The NCA was involved. The FBI was involved …

Triads. That was all he bloody needed.

There were three main triads operating in the UK: the 14K, the Sun Yee On and the Forty-Fours. They all had reputations for extreme acts of violence. All three used amputation as a punishment. It wasn’t difficult to imagine some triad enforcers taking a meat tenderiser to Buckby’s knees and ankles.

‘How do I find Kai Jin, Hester?’ he said.

‘I’m not sure I’m the best person to help you with that, Poe.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because the Kai I knew lived to paint. That there have been no new Kai Jins on the market since he disappeared means he isn’t painting. Yet that tattoo is evidence he’s alive. It’s a dichotomy. What would stop him painting? Why would he be doing tattoos? He didn’t do them before he disappeared. And it can’t be for the money. A new Kai Jin would fetch seven figures. There’s too much here for me to unpick.’

‘Let us worry about that, Hester. Just tell us what you can. If we assume he’s alive, and in the UK, where might he be?’

Hester frowned. ‘I don’t think it would be London. There are too many art schools and galleries and people like me. Someone would recognise him.’ She said nothing for almost a minute. ‘If you were sticking a gun to my head …’

‘Poe would never do that!’ Bradshaw said.

‘It’s an expression, Till-meis … Tilly,’ Esmerée said.

‘… I would say Newcastle. It’s where he’s originally from. It doesn’t have the art scene that say London or Glasgow, Bristol or Brighton have, but it does have a large Chinese community. And he was very close to his mother. If she’s still alive, he won’t be too far from her, and she’s too entrenched in her community to move.’

Which sounded like somewhere to start. Poe thanked Hester. Told her that if she thought of anything else, she shouldn’t hesitate to get in touch. And in return they would keep her informed. Let her know if they found him.