“No, I think it was someone he knew—”
“Your brother is . . . a child?”
“No, he’s in his thirties. But he’s disappeared.”
“And you are certain he has not, for example, gone away for a few days? Because that seems like the likeliest possibility, non?”
I have this growing feeling of hopelessness. I don’t feel like we’re getting anywhere here. “I’m fairly certain, yeah. It’s all pretty fucking weird—sorry—and he’s not answering his phone, he’s left his wallet, his keys.”
A long pause. “OK, Mademoiselle. Give me your name and your address, I will make a formal record and we will come back to you.”
“I—” I don’t want to be on any formal record of anything. What if they compare notes with the UK, run my name? And the way he says, “formal record,” in that bored flat voice, sounds like—yeah, we’ll think about doing something in a couple of years after we’ve done all the stuff that actually matters and maybe a bit of the stuff that doesn’t.
“Mademoiselle?” he prompts.
I hang up.
That was a total waste of time. But did I really expect anything else? The British police have never helped me before. Why did I think their French counterparts would be any different?
When I look up from my phone I realize I’ve lost my bearings. I must have been wandering aimlessly while I was on the call. I go to the map on my phone but it won’t load. As I try to get it to work my phone buzzes and a notification pops up:
You have used up all of your Roaming Data. To buy more, follow this link . . .
Shit, shit . . . It’s getting darker, too and somehow this only makes me feel more lost.
OK. Pull yourself together Jess. I can do this. I just need to find a busier street, then I can find a Metro station and a map.
But the streets get quieter and quieter until I can hear just one other set of footsteps, a little way behind me.
There’s a high wall on my right and I realize, glimpsing a little plaque nailed to it, that I’m skirting a cemetery. Above the wall I can just make out the taller tombs, the wing tips and bent head of a mourning angel. It’s almost completely dark now. I stop.
The footsteps behind me stop, too.
I walk faster. The footsteps quicken.
Someone is following me. I knew it. I round the curve of the wall so I’ll be out of sight for a few seconds. Then, instead of carrying on I stop and press myself back against the wall on the other side. My heart’s beating hard against my ribs. This is probably really fucking stupid. What I should be doing is running away, finding a busy street, surrounding myself with other people. But I have to know.
I wait until a figure appears. Tall, a dark coat. My chest is burning: I realize I’ve been holding my breath. The figure turns, slowly—looking around. Looking for me. They’re wearing a hood, and for a moment I can’t see their face.
Then they take a sudden step back; I know they’ve seen me. The hood falls down. I can see their face now in the light from the streetlamp. It’s a woman: young, beautiful enough to be a model. Dark brown hair cut in a sharp fringe, a mole on her high cheekbone, like a piece of punctuation. A hoodie under a leather jacket. She’s staring at me in surprise.
“Hello,” I say. I take a cautious step toward her, the shock ebbing away, especially now I can see she’s not the threatening figure I’d imagined. “Why were you following me?” She backs away. It feels like I have the upper hand now. “What do you want?” I ask, more insistently.
“I—I’m looking for Ben.” A strong accent, not French. Eastern European, maybe—the thick sound of the “I.” “He isn’t answering. He told me—only if it’s very important—to come to the apartment. I heard you asking about him last night. In the street.”
I think back to when I first arrived at the building, when I thought for a moment I saw a figure crouched in the shadows behind a parked car. “Was that you? Behind the car?”
She doesn’t say anything, which I suppose is as much of an answer as I’m going to get. I take another step toward her. She takes a step back.
“Why?” I ask her. “Why are you looking for Ben? What’s important?”
“Where is Ben?” is all she says. “I must speak with him.”
“That’s exactly what I’m trying to work out. I think something’s happened. He’s disappeared.”
It happens so quickly. Her face goes white. She looks so scared that I suddenly feel pretty scared myself. Then she swears in another language—it sounds like “koorvah.”