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'I am simply doing my duty,' Braun said. 'My superiors told me to come to the museum to keep you informed, and that is what I've done.'

'We can perfectly understand you must think the situation is somewhat anomalous.'

'"Anomalous" is putting it mildly’ Braun said with a smile, trying to make his words sound as cynical as possible. 'First of all, our department does not normally keep information from the press about the activities of a possible psychopath. Tomorrow another young girl could turn up dead in the wood, and we would have a serious problem on our hands.' 'I understand,' Bosch agreed.

'Secondly, the fact that we have revealed details of our investigation to individuals such as yourselves is also uncommon for the police, in this country at least. We are not used to collaborating with private security companies, especially to this extent.' Further agreement.

'But…' Braun spread his hands as if to say: But I've been ordered to come and keep you informed, and that is what I am doing. 'Well, I'm at your service.'

He had no wish to show his disgust, but could not help it. That morning he had received no less than five phone calls from different departments, each successive one from higher up in the political hierarchy. The last had been from a top-ranking official in the Ministry of the Interior whose name never appeared in the newspapers. Braun had been told on no account to miss his appointment in the MuseumsQuartier, and had been urged to give Miss Wood and Bosch all available information. It was obvious the Van Tysch Foundation had wide-ranging and powerful political influence.

'Your coffee’ Bosch said, gesturing towards the cup. 'It'll go cold.' 'Thanks.'

Braun did not really want any more, but out of politeness lifted the cup and pretended to take a sip. While the two people opposite him exchanged routine remarks, he took a good look at them. He found the man called Bosch more agreeable than his female companion, but that wasn't saying much. He thought he must be around fifty. He looked serious enough, with a shining bald pate ringed with white hair, and distinguished-looking features. When they first met he had confessed to Braun that as a young man he had worked for the Dutch police, so in a way they were almost colleagues. But Miss Wood was something else again. She looked young, somewhere between twenty-five and thirty. Her straight black hair was cut short au garcon, and showed a perfect parting on the right-hand side. Her skinny frame was moulded into a sleeveless dress, and at the neckline was the red pass of the Van Tysch Foundation Security Department. Apart from that he could only see tons of make-up and those absurd dark glasses. Unlike her companion, Miss Wood never smiled, and spoke as though everyone around her was there to serve her. Braun felt sorry for Bosch for having to put up with the woman.

All at once, Felix Braun felt very odd. It was almost as if he had a split personality. He could see himself sitting in a room lit by red bulbs and decorated by a huge photo of two people squashed into a glass box, at a red table in the shape of a painter's palette, opposite two outlandish figures and waited on by a maid like an odalisk. He had just come out of an exhibition of naked, painted youngsters who all gave off different perfumes, and he was finding it hard to work out what a murder detective like him was doing in the middle of all this. He also found it hard to see what all this had to do with the events that had taken place. The ravaged body they had discovered that morning in the Wienerwald was of a poor fourteen-year-old adolescent, brutally murdered in one of the worst acts of sadism Braun had ever encountered. What link was there between that murder and this red room, an odalisk, two ridiculous characters, and a museum?

'In fact,' he said, and the change in his voice led the other two to break off their conversation and stare at him, 'I still can't quite grasp what role you two have to play in this case, apart from being the directors of a security firm that the main suspect belongs to. A brutal crime has been committed, and that is the sole responsibility of the police.'

'Do you know what hyperdramatic art is, Detective Braun?' Miss Wood suddenly asked.

'Who doesn't?' Braun replied. 'I've just seen the "Flowers" exhibition. And I've got a cousin who's bought a book of art for beginners. He wants to practise on all of us: every time I see him he wants to use me as his model…'

Bosch laughed together with Braun, but Miss Wood was as solemn as ever.

'Give me a definition,' she said. 'A definition?'

‘Yes. What do you think HD art is?'

'What's she after now?' Braun thought to himself. She made him nervous. He straightened the knot on his tie and cleared his throat, looking around as if he might find the right words in some corner of this red room.

'I'd say that it is people who stay stock-still and which others call paintings,' he replied. His irony bounced off the woman's stern face.

'It's exactly the opposite,' she retorted. She smiled for the first time. It was the most unpleasant smile Braun had ever seen. 'They are paintings which sometimes move and look like human beings. It's not a question of terminology, but of points of view, and that is the point of view we have at the Foundation.' Miss Wood's voice stung icily, as if each of her words was a veiled threat. 'The Foundation is responsible for protecting and promoting Bruno van Tysch's art throughout the world, and I personally am responsible for the Security Department. My task, and that of my companion here, Mr Lothar Bosch, is to make sure that none of Van Tysch's works suffers the slightest damage. And Annek Hollech was a painting worth much more than all our wages and pension plans put together, Detective Braun. She was called Deflowering, was a Van Tysch original, was considered one of the key works of contemporary painting, and now she has been destroyed.'

Braun was impressed by the cold fury of her staccato, almost whispering voice. Miss Wood paused before she went on. Her dark glasses stared at Braun, the twin reflection of the table gleaming from them.

'What you see as a murder is for us a serious attack on one of our works. As you will understand, we therefore feel ourselves intimately involved in the investigation, which is why we have asked to collaborate. Is that clear?' 'Perfectly.' 'Don't for a moment imagine we are going to get in your way at all,' Miss Wood went on. 'The police must do as they see fit, and the Foundation will do likewise. But I would ask you to inform us of any developments that may arise in the course of your investigation. Thank you.'

That was the end of the meeting. Led by the public relations woman who had received him when he arrived, Braun walked back along the labyrinthine corridors of the oval wing of the MuseumsQuartier. It was only when he was out in the street again, in the bright sunlight, that he regained his calm.

As he drove home, the exact name of the exhibit flashed into his head without warning. Magic Purple.

That was the name of the bright-red work of art who had the same fragrance as his wife. Scarlet, carmine, blood red.

3

The card was a turquoise-blue colour, the colour of magic spells, bluebirds over the rainbow, the azure sea. It glinted in the dining-room light. The phone number was written in the centre in fine black lines. All that was on the card was the number, probably a mobile, although the code was strange. While she was dialling it, Clara noticed that her fingernail was still shining with traces of paint from Girl in Front of a Looking Glass. At the second ring, a young woman's voice answered. 'Yes?' 'Hello, this is Clara Reyes.'

She was still thinking of what to say next when she realised the other person had hung up. She thought it must have been by accident, as sometimes happened with mobiles. They were such ghastly inventions which could be used for anything, even to talk, as Jorge used to joke. She pressed the redial button. The same voice replied, in exactly the same tone.