“Gibson left, the day after you did.”
“Oh.” To her credit, she seemed to realize how this might have looked, how it might have added an extra layer of worry and confusion to her disappearance.
“Like I said, something and nothing, and it’s never like it is in the films. Chances are, Gibson left because they decided to wind up the operation.”
She either believed him this time, or had accepted that she wouldn’t get anything more out of him, because she let the subject drop, saying only, “I can’t believe it—Adrienne always said.”
He briefly imagined himself having that conversation with Adrienne later today: Adrienne, you guessed all along but you’re the last to know, I was a spy and now the people I used to work for are coming after me, and I don’t know why or what they plan to do with me. Hopefully, it was a conversation she wouldn’t want to have, not tonight—not until he at least had something resembling answers.
Chapter Twenty
Finn had wondered a few times about Hailey’s journey across Europe, and now he had an idea what it had been like. She’d probably slept the whole way because, just as she’d slept in the taxi to Arlanda, so she did on the plane. It was a flight that was occasionally bumpy, but no sooner had they taken off than she fell asleep and didn’t wake until just before they touched down.
He thought she might fall asleep in the taxi, too, particularly as it took longer than usual in the late-afternoon traffic. But she didn’t, seeming excited, asking about Mathieu: where he lived (a big apartment), which arrondissement (Finn wasn’t sure, but it was nice), did he have kids (two boys, eight and six), what were their names (Pablo and Henri).
As they got there, one of the neighbors was just coming out of the street door, but Finn let it go and buzzed up to the apartment. Mathieu answered.
“Hi, Mathieu, it’s Finn.”
There was a pause, lasting a few seconds, and then the line died and the door opened. Finn pushed it, and stood aside for Hailey to walk in first. She looked at him in mock alarm at the frostiness of the reception.
Finn smiled. “If it comes to the worst, we’ll book into a hotel.”
Now she looked genuinely alarmed. “You don’t think it’ll come to that?”
It was touching, after all that had happened, that she was still enough of a teenager to be disturbed by the possibility of social embarrassment.
“No.”
He could have qualified his response—he was certain they’d take Hailey in for the night, but wasn’t so sure of his own welcome.
When they reached the apartment, he pressed the buzzer and was immediately left in no doubt. The door flew open, Adrienne in full fury.
Her eyes fixed on him, and in little more than a whisper, but one that only served to reinforce her rage, she said, “What the hell do you think—” Then she saw Hailey. Her face swam with confusion, which softened it again, her mouth almost forming a smile as she said, “Hailey?”
Finn looked at Hailey, realizing that Adrienne’s questioning voice might well have been based on uncertainty, because the girl standing before her now, with her gamine blonde hair and student clothes, was not the girl she’d seen a week or so ago.
“Hi, Adrienne,” said Hailey, sounding a little apologetic.
“But I don’t understand . . .” Adrienne stepped forward, kissed her on both cheeks, and hugged her.
She stepped back again then, as if remembering the more important matter of blocking the doorway.
Before she could speak, Finn said, “We’re on our way back from Sweden, but there was a problem with the flights. I was hoping Mathieu might put Hailey up for the night. I can check into a hotel.”
She looked full of hostility and suspicion, and he was struggling to understand how things had become so poisoned between them. He thought back to his departure for Béziers, to his last phone conversation with her, unable to detect anything within them that might have predicted this.
“What are you talking about? You’ve been in Sweden? Both of you?”
“It’s my fault,” said Hailey. They both turned to look at her, but she looked back only at Adrienne. “I did something stupid, Adrienne. I ran away, to Uppsala, to stay with a boy I met online. Mom and Dad didn’t know where I’d gone. Finn tracked me down and came and got me.”