Shroud of Concealment (Jake Dillon Adventure Thriller Series) Read Online Free PDF

the British Embassy. It was on record, as was Hart’s birth certificate. He had been born in New Delhi. Had grown up quickly, learning every trick in the book, and some more. But most of all, Hart had learnt about survival, making many mistakes along the way only made him more streetwise. It was not until Hart was in his early twenties that he began to emerge as a financial success in the high-density, high population marketplace that was on his doorstep. Some very wealthy people lived in New Delhi and by his late twenties Hart had become one of them.
    Hart however, kept a low profile. He didn’t mix a lot outside of business and this still appeared to be the case. He was a loner, it would seem. Unlike his son, who appeared to be the absolute opposite. There was a report from the university, mostly showing the boy’s progress, and it didn’t go into much detail about the relationship that he had with his father. Although one remark jumped out: that the son had shown concern about his father.
    Dillon found it strange that Daniel Hart was concerned for a father who was clearly more than capable of coping on his own with whatever was thrown at him. Daniel’s mother was not mentioned, except for on his birth certificate. There was no other information and no mention of marriage. It looked as if it had been a brief affair, with Hart taking on the sole responsibility of bringing up Daniel. And that seemed to be what the authorities had thought at the time.
    Dillon put everything back into the folder and was not particularly impressed by anything he’d read. The only certainty was that Charlie Hart was immensely wealthy and had the luxurious trappings to prove it. As for the background information, that was something different. Dillon and Havelock had once before gone down a similar road with a man called Farrant, now dead, who had an unbelievably sketchy background. The main difference was that Farrant hadn’t gone under the microscope of immigration until it was too late, whereas Hart had been thoroughly checked because he’d wanted to reside in the UK permanently.
    Dillon took a sip of his coffee and sprawled out on the sofa, thinking about the situation he was getting himself into. He wasn’t completely convinced that it was the right sort of job for him or the firm. But because it was Dunstan Havelock asking, he’d found it extremely difficult to refuse. Although he’d already decided that he wasn’t going to spend too much time on it. Havelock would be absolutely furious with what he had in mind, but if this mystery was going to be solved quickly, it would need to be approached head-on. And should have been in the first place.
    His first call was to Vince Sharp at Ferran & Cardini, who immediately found Hart’s ex-directory number using one of his little software programmes that he kept for such occasions. The second call he made was to Charlie Hart. A man answered the phone and Dillon was somewhat taken by surprise with the softly spoken voice at the other end.
    “Mr. Hart?”
    “Yes, who is this?”
    “My name is Bateman, sir. I’m a senior investigator with Worldwide Art Underwriters of London.”
    “How can I help you, Mr. Bateman? I’ve heard of your firm, of course.”
    “Most likely, you’ll not be able to help at all, sir. This is about something that has been passed on to us by the Art and Antiques Unit at New Scotland Yard. I’m simply following up this line of enquiry as it may coincide with another investigation that we’re involved with. Like I say, it’s probably nothing at all, sir. I understand that you have a valuable collection of paintings and that one of them...” Dillon quickly scanned the sheet of paper Havelock had given him in the file, “... is a painting by Vermeer, titled The Concert, dated 1665-66.”
    “This is correct. However, I actually have three Vermeer paintings in my collection.”
    “Quite so, sir. But this particular painting may be stolen.”
    “My dear Mr.