Apocalypse Baby Read Online Free Page B

to school. She didn’t come home, she hasn’t been in touch. Her grandmother’s offered five thousand euros if we can get her back in a fortnight. And…’
    â€˜Five thousand euros, alive or dead?’
    I suppose that’s the kind of question I ought to have thought of asking.
    â€˜I hope we’ll find her alive.’
    â€˜What do you think, runaway or kidnap?’
    â€˜No idea.’
    â€˜What kind of girl?’
    â€˜Difficult, sex-mad, off the rails.’
    â€˜What’s the family like?’
    â€˜The father’s a writer, with a private income, from the family pharmaceutical company somewhere near Lyon. He brought the kid up on his own, with the grandmother being around a lot. The mother took off when Valentine was two years old, doesn’t see her, and nobody seems to know at the moment where she is.’
    I open my backpack and bring out a photo of the kid. The Hyena hesitates to take it.
    â€˜I don’t really see how I can help you…’ She glances down at the picture, and seems to think for a while as she observes it. She hesitates. I feel reassured.
    â€˜And how much will you give me if I work with you?’
    â€˜The five thousand euros bonus. It’ll be in cash. And ifthere’s no result… we’ll have to work out how to divide up my pay.’
    â€˜At that kind of rate, I wouldn’t want to put myself out too much.’
    She smiles as she puts the glasses back on. I can’t tell if I amuse her or annoy her.
    She has started calling me ‘tu’ now. ‘So you let me keep the money, young Lucie, but are you going to work on it too, or do sweet FA?’
    â€˜I… I’d prefer to have someone working with me, in the sense that…’
    â€˜That you have absolutely no idea where to start. Well, at least that’s clear. Did you bring the file from when you tailed her?’
    â€˜It’s all on my laptop.’
    I bend down to take it out, but she stops me with a click of her fingers. ‘Can you put it on a USB?’
    The Hyena has put Valentine’s photo in the middle of the table facing her. ‘Teenagers aren’t really my thing. They usually have good reasons to clear off, don’t they?’
    â€˜She might have been kidnapped.’
    She puts her head on one side and seems lost in contemplation of the photo. She has beautiful hands, pale with long fingers, I notice that the nails are bitten down to the quick. She wears an enormous ring with a death’s head on it, a bit pathetic in my view, who does she think she is, the Keith Richards of the shit-stirrers? She concentrates for a moment on the portrait of Valentine, who is smiling into the camera, three-quarter angle, bright eyes, pretty dimples, glossy hair. Slightly plump. Like all girls of her age, in family photos theyjust look like nice kids. Then the Hyena fixes her eyes on me pensively, there’s something disquieting about the insistence of her gaze.
    â€˜Little girls with puppy fat are trying to cover up for their father’s lies.’
    Brilliant. I thought I was working with James Bond, and now I’m dealing with a family therapist. I don’t know how to answer in a way that doesn’t seem disagreeable, so I opt for being pragmatic.
    â€˜Teenagers go in for a lot of sugary drinks.’
    â€˜And why did the family take the step of having her watched?’
    â€˜I think they thought Valentine was… putting herself in danger.’
    â€˜What kind of danger?’
    â€˜You’d need to look at the other photos in the file, she…’
    â€˜Later. So what do they think
they’re
going to do, to protect her?’
    â€˜I haven’t had a chance to discuss that with them…’
    â€˜But all the time you’ve been doing this job, you must have some idea what the clients want, don’t you?’
    â€˜I don’t know. No. I don’t have anything to do with what