Page 81 of The Killer’s Mark

Kai didn’t.

‘If you don’t open your mouth, Kai, I’ll smash your teeth out with a hammer.’

Still Kai’s mouth remained shut.

‘And whatever you force me to do to you, I’ll do to your mother when I return to Newcastle.’

Kai closed his eyes and began to tremble. But he opened his mouth. The triad didn’t hesitate. He pressed the tip of the meat hook into Kai’s tongue and forced it all the way through. It was like he was baiting a hook.

‘Open your eyes, Kai,’ he said.

Terrified of what the man might do to his dear mother, Kai complied.

And saw the triad was now holding a boning knife. The kind used to trim fat and tendons from cuts of meat. Well used and honed to cruel perfection.

The triad pulled the meat hook, stretching Kai’s tongue so far it felt as though he might rip it out.

He didn’t.

Not that it mattered. Not when he sliced off Kai’s tongue at the root.

‘Now you can’t ask questions you shouldn’t ask,’ he said calmly.

He jiggled the meat hook until the severed tongue fell to the floor. It sounded like dropped liver. He kicked it aside the way he might kick away a piece of trash, then, without warning, he leaned in, pressed the tip of the meat hook into Kai’s left ear and ruptured his eardrum. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that painful. Not compared to his tongue. The triad repeated the process with his right ear.

‘And now you can’t hear things you don’t like,’ he said to the now deaf Kai. He turned to the Surgeon. ‘Sew him up. I need him back at work next week.’

Part 3

The Man Who Went to Bed Early

Chapter 67

‘Have you seen this email?’ Poe said.

‘It’s not on your work account, Poe,’ Bradshaw replied. ‘It must have come through on your personal email. Who’s it from?’

‘The idiot whose balls I twisted in the Szechuan Palace. The one who told us not to mess with the Red Chamber. It appears he’s seen the error of his ways.’

‘Let me see.’ Bradshaw turned Poe’s laptop. She waited a beat, then said, ‘Gosh. What did you threaten him with, Poe? He’s given you everything. Video files, documents. He knows who murdered Mark Buckby. He even knows where Océane Blue is hiding.’

‘Holy shit!’ Esmerée said. She paused, then ad-libbed, ‘Maybe he liked having his nuts fondled, Poe. It’s a pity you didn’t stick your finger up his—’

‘We have to tell the police,’ Bradshaw said.

‘Why?’ Poe said, glad that Bradshaw hadn’t let Esmerée finish.

‘Because two people have been murdered.’

‘And they aren’t going to get any deader.’ He shook his head. ‘This is the kind of information people are killed for. I won’t put you at risk. I say we pretend we didn’t get it. Tilly, can you delete it? Make sure it can’t be recovered?’

‘I can, Poe. But it doesn’t mean I should.’

‘Do you want the Red Chamber turning up at Highwood? Because that’s what’ll happen if they find out we have this. They’ll kill everyone. Me, you, Estelle. Brunton. Esmerée. Probably Edgar, as he’s bound to try to protect us.’

‘I don’t want them to kill Edgar, Poe.’

‘Or me and Estelle?’