The English Girl: A Novel Read online

  “What kind of job is it?” asked Lacroix, turning around.

  “A very simple one. In fact, it will only take a few minutes.”

  “How much?”

  “What do you mean?” asked Gabriel, feigning bewilderment.

  “How much money are you offering?” asked Lacroix, rubbing his first two fingers against his thumb.

  “I’m offering you something much more valuable than money.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Your life,” said Gabriel. “You see, Marcel, you’re going to tell me what your friend Paul did with the English girl. And if you don’t, I’m going to cut you to pieces and use you as chum.”

  The Israeli martial arts discipline known as Krav Maga is not known for its gracefulness, but then it was not designed with aesthetics in mind. Its sole purpose is to incapacitate or kill an adversary as quickly as possible. Unlike many Eastern disciplines, it does not frown upon the use of heavy objects to ward off an attacker of superior size and strength. In fact, instructors encourage their students to use whatever objects they have at their disposal to defend themselves. David did not grapple with Goliath, they are fond of saying. David hit Goliath with a rock. And only then did he cut off his head.

  Gabriel chose not a rock but the bottle of Pernod, which he seized by the neck and hurled, daggerlike, toward the charging figure of Marcel Lacroix. Fittingly, it struck him in the center of the forehead, opening a deep horizontal gash just above the ridge of his heavy brow. Unlike Goliath, who instantly toppled onto his face, Lacroix managed to remain on his feet, though just barely. Gabriel lunged forward and drove a knee into the Frenchman’s unprotected groin. From there, he worked his way violently upward, pummeling Lacroix’s midsection before breaking his jaw with a well-placed elbow. A second elbow, delivered to the temple, put Lacroix on the floor. Gabriel reached down and touched the side of the Frenchman’s neck to make certain he still had a pulse. Then, looking up, he saw Keller standing in the doorway, smiling. “Very impressive,” he said. “The Pernod was a lovely touch.”

  11

  OFF MARSEILLES

  The rain died at sunset but the mistral blew without remorse long after dark. It sang in the riggings of the boats huddled in the Old Port and chased round the decks of Moondance as Keller guided it expertly out to sea. Gabriel remained by his side on the flying bridge until they were clear of the harbor. Then he headed downstairs to the main salon where Marcel Lacroix lay facedown on the floor, bound, gagged, and blinded by silver duct tape. Gabriel rolled the Frenchman onto his back and tore away the blinding layer of tape with a single rough movement. Lacroix had regained consciousness; in his eyes there was no sign of fear, only rage. Keller had been right. The Frenchman did not frighten easily.

  Gabriel reapplied the duct tape blindfold and commenced a thorough search of the entire craft, beginning in the main salon and concluding in Lacroix’s stateroom. It produced a cache of illegal narcotics, approximately sixty thousand euros in cash, false passports and French driver’s permits in four different names, a hundred stolen credit cards, nine disposable cellular phones, an elaborate collection of print and electronic pornography, and a receipt with a telephone number scrawled on the back. The receipt was from a place called Bar du Haut on boulevard Jean Jaurès in Rognac, a working-class town north of Marseilles, not far from the airport. Gabriel had passed through it once in another lifetime. That was the kind of town Rognac was, a way station on a road to somewhere else.

  Gabriel checked the date on the receipt. Then he searched the calling histories of the nine cell phones for the number written on the back. He found it on three of the phones. In fact, Lacroix had called it twice that morning using two different devices.

  Gabriel slipped the cell phones, the receipt, and the cash into a nylon rucksack and returned to the main salon. Once again he tore the duct tape from Lacroix’s eyes, but this time he removed the gag as well. Lacroix’s face was now heavily distorted from the swelling caused by the broken jaw. Gabriel squeezed it tightly as he stared into the Frenchman’s eyes.

  “I’m going to ask you a few questions, Marcel. You have one chance to tell me the truth. Do you understand?” Gabriel asked, squeezing a little harder. “One chance.”

  Lacroix made no response other than to groan in pain.

  “One chance,” Gabriel said again, holding up his index finger to emphasize the point. “Are you listening?”

  Lacroix said nothing.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” said Gabriel. “Now, Marcel, I want you to tell me the names of the men who are holding the girl. And then I want you to tell me where I can find them.”

  “I don’t know anything about a girl.”

  “You’re lying, Marcel.”

  “No, I swear—”

  Before Lacroix could utter another word, Gabriel silenced him by sealing his mouth once again. Next he wrapped several feet of additional tape around the Frenchman’s head until only his nostrils were visible. Belowdecks he retrieved a length of nylon rope from a storage cabinet. Then he headed back upstairs to the flying bridge. Keller was clutching the wheel with both hands and squinting through the window at the turbulent seas.

  “How’s it going down there?” he asked.

  “Surprisingly, I wasn’t able to persuade him to cooperate.”

  “What’s the rope for?”

  “Additional persuasion.”

  “Anything I can do to help?”

  “Reduce speed and put us on autopilot.”

  Keller did as instructed and followed Gabriel down to the main salon. There they found Lacroix in obvious distress, his chest heaving as he struggled for air through the duct tape helmet. Gabriel rolled him onto his stomach and fed the nylon line through the bindings at his feet and ankles. After securing the line with a tight knot, he dragged Lacroix onto the afterdeck as though he were a freshly harpooned whale. Then, with Keller’s help, he lowered him onto the swim step and rolled him overboard. Lacroix struck the black water with a heavy thud and began to thrash wildly in an attempt to keep his head above the surface. Gabriel watched him for a moment and then scanned the horizon in all directions. Not a single light was visible. It seemed they were the last three men on earth.

  “How will you know when he’s had enough?” asked Keller as he watched Lacroix fighting for his life.

  “When he starts to sink,” replied Gabriel calmly.

  “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”

  “Don’t ever get on my bad side.”

  After forty-five seconds in the water, Lacroix went suddenly still. Gabriel and Keller hauled him quickly back on board and removed the duct tape from his mouth. For the next several minutes the Frenchman was unable to speak as he alternately gasped for air and coughed seawater from his lungs. When the retching finally stopped, Gabriel took hold of his broken jaw and squeezed.

  “You might not realize it at this moment,” he said, “but this is your lucky day, Marcel. Now, let’s try this again. Tell me where I can find the girl.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re lying to me, Marcel.”

  “No,” Lacroix said, shaking his head violently from side to side. “I’m telling you the truth. I have no idea where she is.”

  “But you know one of the men who’s holding her. In fact, you had drinks with him at a bar in Rognac a week after she disappeared. And you’ve been in contact with him ever since.”

  Lacroix was silent. Gabriel squeezed the broken jaw harder.

  “His name, Marcel. Tell me his name.”

  “Brossard,” Lacroix gasped through the pain. “His name is René Brossard.”

  Gabriel looked at Keller, who nodded his head.

  “Very good,” he said to Lacroix, releasing his grip. “Now keep talking. And don’t even think about lying to me. If you do, you’ll go back in the water. But the next time it will be forever.”

  12

  OFF MARSEILLES

  There were two opposing swivel chairs
on the afterdeck. Gabriel secured Lacroix to the one on the starboard side and then lowered himself into the other. Lacroix remained blindfolded, his tracksuit sodden from his brief swim in the ocean. Shivering violently, he pleaded for a change of clothing or a blanket. Then, after receiving no answer, he recounted a warm evening in mid-August when a man had appeared unannounced on Moondance, just as Gabriel had earlier that afternoon.

  “Paul?” asked Gabriel.

  “Yes, Paul.”

  “Had you ever met him before?”

  “No, but I’d seen him around.”

  “Where?”

  “Cannes.”

  “When?”

  “The film festival.”

  “This year?”

  “Yes, in May.”

  “You went to the Cannes Film Festival?”

  “I wasn’t on the guest list, if that’s what you’re asking. I was working.”

  “What kind of work?”

  “What do you think?”

  “Stealing from the movie stars and the beautiful people?”

  “It’s one of our busiest weeks of the year, a real boon to the local economy. The people from Hollywood are total idiots. We rob them blind every time they come here, and they never even seem to notice.”

  “What was Paul doing?”

  “He was hanging out with the beautiful people. I think I actually saw him going into the hall a couple of times to see the films.”

  “You think?”

  “He always looks different.”

  “He was running scams from the inside at Cannes?”

  “You’d have to ask him. We didn’t discuss it when he came to see me. We only talked about the job.”

  “He wanted to hire you and your boat to move the girl from Corsica to the mainland.”

  “No,” said Lacroix, shaking his head vehemently. “He never said a word about a girl.”

  “What did he say?”

  “That he wanted me to deliver a package.”

  “You didn’t ask what the package was?”

  “No.”

  “Is that the way you always operate?”

  “It depends.”

  “On what?”

  “On how much money is on the table.”

  “How much was there?”

  “Fifty thousand.”

  “Is that good?”

  “Very.”

  “Did he mention where he got your name?”

  “He got it from the don.”

  “Who’s the don?”

  “Don Orsati, the Corsican.”

  “What kind of work does the don do?”

  “He’s got his fingers into all kinds of rackets,” answered Lacroix, “but mainly he kills people. Occasionally, I give one of his men a lift. And sometimes I help make things disappear.”

  The purpose of Gabriel’s line of inquiry was twofold. It allowed him to test the veracity of Lacroix’s responses while at the same time covering his own tracks. Lacroix was now under the impression Gabriel had never had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a Corsican killer named Orsati. And, at least for the moment, he was answering Gabriel’s questions truthfully.

  “Did Paul tell you when the job was supposed to go down?”

  “No,” Lacroix answered, shaking his head. “He told me he would give me twenty-four hours’ notice, that I would probably hear from him in a week, ten days at most.”

  “How was he going to contact you?”

  “By phone.”

  “Do you still have the phone you used?”

  Lacroix nodded and then recited the number associated with the device.

  “He called as planned?”

  “On the eighth day.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He wanted me to pick him up the next morning at the cove just south of the Capo di Feno.”

  “What time?”

  “Three a.m.”

  “How was the pickup supposed to work?”

  “He wanted me to leave a dinghy on the beach and wait for him offshore.”

  Gabriel looked up toward the flying bridge where Keller stood watching the proceedings. The Englishman nodded, as if to say there was indeed a suitable cove on the Capo di Feno and that the scenario as described by Lacroix was entirely plausible.

  “When did you arrive on Corsica?” asked Gabriel.

  “A few minutes after midnight.”

  “You were alone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I swear.”

  “What time did you leave the dinghy on the beach?”

  “Two.”

  “How did you get back to Moondance?”

  “I walked,” quipped Lacroix, “just like Jesus.”

  Gabriel reached out and ripped the stud from Lacroix’s right ear.

  “It was just a joke,” gasped the Frenchman as blood flowed from his ruined lobe.

  “If I were you,” replied Gabriel, “I wouldn’t be making jokes about the Lord at a time like this. In fact, I would be doing everything I could to get on his good side.”

  Gabriel glanced up toward the flying bridge again and saw Keller trying to suppress a smile. Then he asked Lacroix to describe the events that followed. Paul, the Frenchman said, had arrived right on schedule, at three o’clock sharp. Lacroix had seen a single vehicle, a small four-wheel-drive, bumping down the steep track from the cliff tops to the cove with only its parking lamps burning. Then he had heard the throb of the dinghy’s outboard echoing back at him across the water. Then, when the dinghy nudged against the stern of Moondance, he had seen the girl.

  “Paul was with her?” asked Gabriel.

  “Yes.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “No, only Paul.”

  “She was conscious?”

  “Barely.”

  “What was she wearing?”

  “White dress, black hood over her head.”

  “You saw her face?”

  “Never.”

  “Any injuries?”

  “Her knees were bloody and she had scratches all over her arms. Bruises, too.”

  “Restraints?”

  “Her hands.”

  “Front or back?”

  “Back.”

  “What kind of restraints?”

  “Flex-cuffs, very professional.”

  “Go on.”

  “Paul laid the girl on a couch in the main salon and gave her a shot of something to keep her quiet. Then he came up to the bridge and told me where he wanted me to go.”

  “Where was it?”

  “The tidal creek just west of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. There’s a small marina. I’ve used it before. It’s an excellent spot. Paul had obviously done his homework.”

  Another glance at Keller. Another nod.

  “Did you go straight across?”

  “No,” Lacroix answered. “That would have brought us ashore in broad daylight. We spent the entire day at sea. Then we went in around eleven that night.”

  “Paul kept the girl in the salon the entire time?”

  “He took her to the head once, but otherwise . . .”

  “Otherwise what?”

  “She got the needle.”

  “Ketamine?”

  “I’m not a doctor.”

  “Really.”

  “You asked me a question, I gave you an answer.”

  “Did he take her ashore in the dinghy?”

  “No. I went straight into the marina. It’s the kind of place where you can park a car right next to your slip. Paul had one waiting. A black Mercedes.”

  “What kind of Mercedes?”

  “E-Class.”

  “Registration?”

  “French.”

  “Unoccupied?”

  “No. There were two men. One was leaning against the hood as we came in. The other one was behind the wheel.”

  “Did you know the one leaning against the hood?”

  “I’d never seen him before.”

&n
bsp; “But that wasn’t true of the one behind the wheel, was it, Marcel?”

  “No,” Lacroix answered. “The one behind the wheel was René Brossard.”

  René Brossard was a foot soldier in an up-and-coming Marseilles crime family with international connections. He specialized in muscle work—debt collection, enforcement, security. In his spare time, he worked as a bouncer in a nightclub near the Old Port, mainly because he liked the girls who came there. Lacroix knew him from the neighborhood. He also knew his phone number.

  “When did you call him?” asked Gabriel.

  “A few days after I read the first story in the newspaper about the English girl who vanished while on holiday in Corsica. I put two and two together and realized she was the girl I’d dropped at the marina in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.”

  “You’re something of a math genius?”

  “I can add,” Lacroix quipped.

  “You realized that Paul stood to get a lot of ransom money from someone, and you wanted a piece of the action.”

  “He misled me about the kind of job it was,” said Lacroix. “I would have never agreed to take part in a high-profile kidnapping for a mere fifty thousand.”

  “How much were you after?”

  “I try not to make a habit of negotiating with myself.”

  “Wise man,” said Gabriel. Then he asked Lacroix how long Brossard waited to return his call.

  “Two days.”

  “How much detail did you go into on the phone?”

  “Enough to make it clear what I was after. Brossard called me back a few hours later and told me to come to Bar du Haut the next afternoon at four.”

  “That was a very foolish thing to do, Marcel.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Paul might have been there instead of Brossard. And he might have put a bullet between your eyes for having the temerity to ask for more money.”

  “I can look after myself.”

  “If that were true,” said Gabriel, “you wouldn’t be taped to a chair on your own boat. But you were telling me about your conversation with René Brossard.”

  “He told me Paul wanted to be reasonable. After that, we entered into a period of negotiations.”