Cold Hearts Read Free

and then in all probability
en passant
or at some school function. I didn’t remember her parents at any rate. I had a vague memory that she might have been one of four girls who had performed a pop song at an end-of-school social, but I was not certain.
    ‘Has anything special happened of late that gives you cause for concern?’
    ‘Yes, that’s just it. It was Friday evening. She turned down a trick.’ Then, as though I might not have understood the jargon, she added, ‘Refused a customer.’
    ‘I see. That must happen from time to time, I would imagine, mustn’t it?’
    ‘Yes, it does, but her reaction was so violent. And then Tanya said she would take him instead.’
    ‘Tanya?’
    ‘Yes, one of the others … out there.’
    ‘What happened next?’
    ‘Well, she went with him and came back a few hours later, in floods of tears, battered and beaten. She had bruises everywhere and looked absolutely terrible! She said she would report him, not to the police but to … well, you know, and if either of them showed their face out there another time she would kill them herself, if she got the chance.’
    ‘Them? She said
them
?’
    She nodded.
    ‘How did Maggi react to this?’
    ‘Well, she wasn’t there. Not then. She must have had a trick of her own. I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since!’
    ‘You haven’t seen her since this Tanya returned from her trick. Have I understood you correctly?’
    ‘Yes, you have understood me correctly!’ she exclaimed with impatience, as though she were talking to someone hard of hearing.
    ‘OK, have you considered going to the police?’
    ‘The cops?’ She looked at me with contempt. ‘Well, you know how they treat cases like this when it’s about people like me and Maggi. Why d’you think I’ve come to you?’
    ‘Did you know it was me? Thomas’s father?’
    She nodded, and for a moment or two a glimpse of childhood innocence seemed to flit across her face. ‘He … We were walking along Strandkaien once and he pointed up to one ofthese windows, and then he said: “My father’s got his office up there. He’s a private detective.”’
    I felt a stab of melancholy in my abdomen, a sudden yearning for the son who had walked past underneath with a school friend and had pointed up to my window, but who dropped by all too seldom.
    ‘Haven’t we met at some point?’
    ‘No, I don’t think so. I never went to your house. And I remember his mother better than I remember … you.’
    ‘Well … not so strange perhaps. But … back to the case. If she has in fact gone missing the police have quite a different set-up from mine.’
    ‘Really? Don’t you believe me?’
    ‘Yes, I do, indeed I do. But … it hasn’t been that long, has it. There may be a natural explanation for the whole thing. She didn’t have any plans for the weekend, did she, for example?’
    ‘No, imagine that. No, she did not! If she had she’d have told me beforehand.’ She pushed back the chair as though intending to get up. ‘Now tell me, are you going to take the job or not?’
    I cast a glance at the expensive screen and reminded myself that there were still a few instalments to pay.
    ‘Yes, I am. I can always try. But then I’ll need some more information.’
    ‘OK, shoot!’
    ‘I need the precise address in Strandgaten. You wouldn’t have a key for her flat, would you?’
    She nodded. ‘That’s the reason I know she isn’t there. We kept each other’s house keys, in case something like this happened. That one of us might go missing.’
    ‘Let’s take a look afterwards then.’
    ‘Us?’ She threw me a quizzical glance.
    ‘Yes, or I’ll go alone.’
    ‘That wasn’t because … I was thinking more about you and … your reputation.’
    ‘It’s pretty tarnished already. One migratory bird more or less won’t make much difference. What about her family, do you know them?’
    She heaved a sigh of despair. ‘You know girls like us don’t exactly receive family