Through Dead Eyes by Chris Priestley Read Free Book Online Page B

Pieter Graaf?,’ said Angelien. ‘He lived in a house on the opposite side of the canal from where your hotel is now.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘I have been given access to the letters and journals of Pieter Graaf for my research. They were mislabelled and have lain in a box in the university archive ever since they were donated by his family back in the 1880s. I’m very lucky actually. A friend came across them by accident and knew I was researching in this area –’
    ‘But why did he paint my mask?’ interrupted Alex.
    ‘I’m still trying to find out what that painting’s about. It’s a strange picture – unlike the rest of his work.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Graaf was a portrait painter mostly. Not a famous one, not Rembrandt or anything, but a successful one all the same. That picture is clearly more than just a painting of the girl.
    ‘He was a young painter on the make,’ said Angelien. ‘He had come to the city to make his fortune. There were plenty of vain and wealthy merchants here. It was a good move.
    ‘He was the son of wealthy merchants himself, in fact, so he must have found it easy to move in those circles. Amsterdam was the place to be if you wanted to earn your living as a painter. Paintings were seen as really fashionable in the Golden Age. Anyone who was anyone had to have paintings on the wall. They were everywhere – in homes, in shops, in warehouses.
    ‘Graaf was in competition with some of the greatest painters Holland has ever seen, but there was enough work to go round and enough money to pay for it.’
    Angelien pulled in her feet to let someone pass.
    ‘He lived pretty well and moved in high society. He seems to have enjoyed himself immensely if half of what is in his journals is true. But he was clearly fascinated with the family who lived opposite.’
    ‘So does that mean you know all about the girl?’ said Alex. ‘The girl in the painting?’
    ‘Hanna,’ said Angelien.
    The name seemed to echo round the stairwell and flutter towards Alex’s ear to die as a whisper.
    ‘Is that her name?’
    But some part of Alex already seemed to know this.
    Angelien nodded.
    ‘I do know some things,’ she said. ‘Quite a lot actually. But I haven’t finished reading the journals yet. I’ve only just been given access to Graaf’s journals and his writing is really hard to read a lot of the time. It’s taking for ever to decipher. Plus I’ve been a bit distracted with babysitting duties, as you know.’
    Angelien smiled and Alex smiled back, blushing a little.
    ‘Graaf seems to have been intrigued by the Van Kampens right from the start. He was always on the lookout for new clients and he wasn’t going to ignore a rich merchant living right opposite.
    ‘The painter went over to introduce himself and noted that Van Kampen had no wife, that he seemed very strict and severe and, even more surprisingly, that the daughter wore a mask.’
    ‘Did he meet Hanna?’ asked Alex.
    ‘No,’ said Angelien. ‘That’s the strange thing. He writes about her for years but never ever seems to physically meet her. Maybe that’s why he became so obsessed by her.’
    ‘But why did she wear the mask?’ asked Alex. ‘Did Graaf find out?’
    Angelien nodded.
    ‘Hanna had been badly burned in a fire as a small child. Her face had been horribly disfigured and so she wore that mask at all times and never left the house. She was so horrified by her appearance that she did not want to see it or to have others see it. They allowed no mirrors in the house for fear that Hanna would see her own terrible face.’
    Alex thought how strange it was that a young girl like Hanna had worn a mask showing the face of an old woman.
    ‘Do you really think the mask I bought could be the one from the painting?’ said Alex. ‘The one the girl is wearing?’
    ‘Who knows,’ she said. ‘Maybe. Anything’s possible, right? The mask itself looks like a Japanese noh mask – a mask used in Japanese