The Informer Read Online Free

view of the red, yellow, and blue lights of the city, at once cool and romantic. A chair stood at the side of the bed. The bubbles in the champagne rose in tiny globes, which she thought of as small worlds, all moving with a kind of rush. She sat down on the chair and faced him.
    “There’s so much trouble in the city these days,” he said. “Have you noticed?”
    “I guess,” said Gaelle. “I’m not interested in trouble.”
    She smiled, crossed her legs.
    “Of course, you can have a coffee and a sweet when there’s street fighting,” he said. “Is that what you do?”
    “I don’t know,” she said.
    He nodded and sipped his champagne. Then she thought, He isn’t going to touch me, at least not that way. He isn’t going to ask me to do that.
    “Or maybe drugs,” he said. “I’ll bet you like them? What do you like? Maybe that’s something we could help you with.”
    “What do you want?” she said.
    He looked right at her, thinking it over.
    “It’s pretty straightforward,” he said.
    He sat on the bed next to her, the mattress giving in with his weight. He was heavier than he looked.
    “You don’t mind if I sit a little closer, do you?” he said.
    “Fine. You’re paying for it,” she said.
    “That’s right,” he said.
    He sipped the champagne, the bubbles rising in those wavering chains.
    “Have you ever put a piece of caramelized ginger in your champagne?” he said. “It makes more bubbles.”
    “No,” she said.
    He glanced over at her and then out the window.
    “There’s so much trouble in the city these days,” he said. “And I guess because of that I came to see you tonight. We’ve been watching you.”
    She took a sip of the champagne and let the bubbles roll across her tongue, the slight pricking of them oddly refreshing, and as she felt the fizz of them, she thought, There isn’t much time. Now is the time to think of something.
    “All kinds of people come to see you,” said the man.
    “A lot of people come to see me,” said Gaelle.
    “Of course, of course,” said the man.
    He shrugged.
    “Look,” she said, “if you want to do something, let’s take care of it.”
    “In a minute,” he said. “My business is information.”
    “What’s that to me?” she said.
    “Yes, what that’s to you?” he said.
    She sat quietly, and the man did, too, and all she could hear was the slight rustling of his starched shirt as he breathed and as he reached out to take the class of champagne. Was it a good idea to deny that she had ever sold anything? She hadn’t dealt with this man, but maybe she had done something with one of his friends. He pursed his lips, touched the glass.
    “Do you want me to take off my dress?” she said.
    “Not yet,” he said.
    He spoke with an abstract air, as though he wanted her naked not because he had desire, but because she would be more vulnerable. He sat very still, staring out at the city. She guessed that he was trying to make adecision of some kind, and as she glanced at him, and felt the silence that surrounded him like the odor of dry ice, she guessed that she could break off the champagne glass, keeping just the stem. But then, she thought, what if someone else is here in the apartment.
    She began to stand up, but he took her hand with a speed that was utterly surprising. It was a kind of perfect gesture, quick, precise, gently taking her wrist.
    “Don’t make it harder for me,” he said.
    “What is hard for you?” she said.
    “I’m trying to be graceful. I’m not a gangster. I want you to understand that.”
    “Look,” she said. “I’ve got to go. Felix!”
    “What?” said Felix.
    “Hush,” said the man.
    “Felix!”
    She pulled herself away and stood back, toward the window. It was a piece of glass that was about six feet high by five feet wide, and she felt the city behind her, the distance between here and the street below.
    “You really are very smart, aren’t you?” he said.
    “No,” she said. “You