Page 56 of The Killer’s Mark

‘That’s it?’ Stryker asked. ‘Just a name and an introduction?’

‘That’s it, Eric. I need to talk to someone who might recognise the artist. I’m told they’ll have trained somewhere good. And the name you give me must know how to keep a secret. The last person who discussed the tattoo had a knife stuck in his throat.’

‘The Mark Buckby murder? That was you?’

‘You’ve heard about it? That was fast.’

‘You know how gossipy cops are, Poe.’ Stryker paused. ‘The tattoo is radioactive, then?’

‘Seems to be. Don’t know why yet.’

‘Let me have a think. I’ll make some calls.’

‘Thanks, Eric. The sherry’s on me next time I’m in town.’

He ended the call.

‘Now what?’ Esmerée said.

‘We wait.’

Chapter 46

Stryker called back thirty minutes later. He had a name and a number for Poe. Hester Flynt. He said she was expecting Poe’s call.

‘Let’s call her right this second,’ Esmerée said the moment Poe and Stryker’s conversation ended.

‘Not yet,’ Poe said. ‘I want to know who she is first.’

‘And how will—’

Poe held up his hand. Esmerée stopped talking. Bradshaw started to type. It didn’t take long.

‘Hester Flynt,’ Bradshaw said. ‘Curator of fine art at the National Portrait Gallery. She’s held senior positions at the Prado, the Louvre and the Art Institute of Chicago. The FBI’s Art Crime Team pay her a retainer of fourteen thousand dollars a year and the NYPD’s Special Fraud squad pay her ten thousand. She’s consulted for the Vatican and has briefed most major law enforcement agencies on how to detect forged paintings. She believes it’s the chemical composition of the paint that is key, not the canvas.’

‘No wonder Eric knows her. She probably has a Bat-Phone.’ Poe liked Batman. The camp Adam West one. Not the angst-filled whiners Bradshaw preferred. He was pleased with his pop-culture reference. He thought Bradshaw would be too.

‘It was Commissioner Gordon who had the Bat-Phone, Poe.’

‘You know what I mean.’

Bradshaw frowned. ‘I don’t think I do. Assuming Hester Flynt is Batman in your analogy, then surely—’

‘Jeez, lighten the hell up, Till-meister,’ Esmerée cut in. ‘Poe means that this Eric Stryker dude must consult with this Hester woman all the frigging time. That about right, Poe?’

‘It’s like you’re my personal interpreter,’ Poe said. ‘OK, so she’s well credentialled in the shady side of the art world. But an art fraud expert isn’t what we need. Indica said we might be able to identify the tattooist through their formal training. We need someone who might recognise the artist by the tattoo on Esmerée’s mother’s foot.’

‘If you and Miss Blue hadn’t interrupted me with your absurd Batman reference, Poe, I would have told you that as well as helping law enforcement, Hester Flynt has lectured at almost all the world’s major art colleges.’

‘Miss Blue?’ Esmerée said. ‘I upset you, Till-meister?’

Bradshaw ignored her.

Poe said, ‘Tilly? Are you happy for me to talk to her?’

‘I am, Poe. She’s worked some high-profile cases without her name ever cropping up. Cases where there was so much money at stake, the people standing to lose that money were doing some very nasty things. She knows how to keep her involvement hidden.’

‘Set up the call then.’