Free Apocalypse Baby by Virginie Despentes Page A

it’s out of my mouth, because it seems particularly insulting, but she just stares at me for a couple of moments, then bursts out laughing.
    â€˜You know, your mind is like Jurassic Park live.’
    â€˜Well anyway, she’s sixteen at the outside. You’re interested in her?’
    â€˜I’m interested in
all
girls. That’s simple, easy to remember, even you can do that. Right, now I’m off to see Antonella, the woman I sent to see the father. Are you coming, or do you want me to drop you off?’
    â€˜Whatever you like. Perhaps you want to keep your contact confidential.’
    â€˜Keep my what what? You really are weird. Lucky for you you met me, because on your own, where would you be?’
    The Hyena slows down at a pedestrian crossing and with a nod of her head lets a pregnant woman go by.
    â€˜See that one’s face? Don’t tell me she couldn’t have given it a bit of thought before reproducing… some people, nothing stops them.’
    â€˜Do you ever, when you’re on a case like this, do you ever feel frightened, I mean of what you’re going to find?’
    â€˜Yes. It’s happened to me before.’
    â€˜And that doesn’t upset you? You don’t imagine that Valentine could be in the grip of some sadist who’s torturing her? Or who’s even killed her. And yet here we are, taking our time.’
    â€˜No, frankly, I think she’s gone to see her mother. I think we’re going to spend a few days messing about in Paris so we can say we did, then we go straight for the mother. Don’t you think? If your mother had abandoned you, you’d want to go and see her, wouldn’t you, see what she’s like?’
    â€˜I don’t know, mine didn’t abandon me, on the contrary she calls me up all the time.’
    â€˜Well, anyway, OK, tomorrow when you go and see the parents, do me a favour and observe the father’s reactions when you mention her real mother. And the stepmother’s reactions too. The stepmother, a priori we’re suspicious of her, right?’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜Basic principle. All stepmothers are suspect. Don’t you know your fairy tales?’
    I burst out laughing, and she looks at me sideways. It must be the first time I’ve laughed at one of her jokes. I ask, ‘But why don’t we just go straight to the mother right away?’
    â€˜Because we’re allowing some time for Rafik to find out where she is.’
    â€˜Oh. You know Rafik?’
    Rafik is the cornerstone of the Reldanch agency, the guy who runs our IT systems. Everything goes through him, so much so that it’s difficult to ask him anything.
    â€˜Of course I know Rafik. How would I survive without Rafik?’
    In the Buttes-Chaumont park in north Paris, there’s a little sunshine and a lot of dogs. We wait, sitting on a bench, for the famous Antonella to arrive. She’s a good twenty minutes late. The Hyena is in a chatty mood.
    â€˜Antonella is wicked, but funny. Everyone who met her when she first got to Paris knows she’s only a shadow of her former self. She
was
a diva. She was working for the newspapers, Italian correspondent. In those days, if you were a journalist at that level, your address book filled up quickly, and if anything happened in town, it wasn’t hard to get to the spot. I don’t know when she started being an informer, I guess she had some relationship with a politician – her speciality was culture, but the two worlds often met. When I met her, she was consulted all the time and very protected. With all the internal in-fighting in the main parties, there was a huge demand for information for a few years. Antonella was in her element. But times change, the media empire collapsed, her protectors fell into disgrace. Now she does this and that. Same as everyone else, more or less, you’ll say. She comes pretty expensive though. The other journalists