Long Lost - By Harlan Coben Page 0,16

part of Groupe Berleand. There were old-fashioned computer monitors, the kind that took up nearly half the desk space. Family pictures, banners of favorite sports teams, a poster for Coke, a calendar with hot women-the whole atmosphere was less a top-level police headquarters and more a muffler shop backroom in Hoboken.

"Groupe Berleand," I said. "So you're the chief?"

"I'm a captain in the Brigade Criminelle. This is my team. Sit."

"What, here?"

"Sure. That's Lefebvre's desk. Use his chair."

"No interrogation room?"

"You keep thinking you're in America. We conduct all interviews in the team office."

The other officers seemed oblivious to our doings. Two were enjoying coffees and chatting. The other typed at his desk. I sat. There was a box of wipes on his desk. Berleand plucked one out and started with the hand cleaning again.

"Tell me about your relationship with Terese Collins," he said.

"Why?"

"Because I enjoy being up to date on the latest gossip." There was steel beneath the quasi-humor. "Tell me about your relationship."

"I haven't seen her in eight years," I said.

"And yet here you two are."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"She called and invited me to spend a few days in your city."

"And you just dropped everything and flew over?"

My reply was a simple eyebrow arch.

Berleand smiled. "I almost blew another French stereotype, eh?"

"You're worrying me, Berleand."

"So you came for a romantic rendezvous?"

"No."

"Then?"

"I didn't know why she wanted me to come. I just sensed that she was in trouble."

"And you wanted to help?"

"Yes."

"Did you know what she needed help with?"

"Before I arrived? No."

"And now?"

"I do, yes."

"Would you mind telling me?"

"Do I have a choice?" I asked.

"Not really, no."

"Her ex-husband is missing. He called her, said he had something urgent to discuss with her, and then he vanished."

Berleand seemed surprised by either my answer or the fact that I was being so cooperative. I had my suspicions which.

"So Ms. Collins called you to, what, help find him?"

"Exactly."

"Why you?"

"She thinks I'm good at that sort of thing."

"I thought you told me you were an agent. That you represented entertainers. How does that make you good at finding missing people?"

"My business is a rather personal one. I'm called on to do a lot of bizarre things for my clients."

"I see," Berleand said.

Lefebvre came in. He still had the toothpick. He stroked his facial growth and stood to my right and stared nails at me. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Bad Cop. I looked at Berleand as if to say, Is this really necessary? He shrugged.

"You care about Ms. Collins, don't you?"

"Yes."

Lefebvre, playing his role to the hilt, stared more nails at me. He slowly took the toothpick out of his mouth and said, "Lying sheet!"

"Excuse me?"

"You," he said with an angry, thick French accent. "You are a lying sheeet!"

"And you," I countered, "are a lying pillowcase."

Berleand just stared at me.

"Sheet," I said. "Pillowcase. Get it?"

Berleand looked mortified. Couldn't blame him.

"Do you love Terese Collins?" he asked.

I stayed on the truth train. "I don't know."

"But you're close?"

"I haven't seen her in years."

"That doesn't change anything, does it?"

"No," I said. "I guess not."

"Do you know Rick Collins?"

For some reason, hearing him say it, I was surprised Terese took his name, but of course, they met in college. It would be natural, I guess. "No."

"Never met him?"

"Never."

"What can you tell me about him?"

"Not a damn thing."

Lefebvre put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed just a little. "Lying sheeet."

I looked back at him. "Please tell me that's not the same toothpick from the airport. Because if it is, we are talking seriously unsanitary."

Berleand said, "Is Ms. Collins correct?"

I turned back to him. "About what?"

"Are you good at finding people?"

I shrugged. "I think I know where Rick Collins is."

Berleand looked at Lefebvre. Lefebvre stood a little straighter.

"Oh? Where is he?"

"A nearby morgue," I said. "Somebody murdered him."
Chapter 7

BERLEAND took me out of the Groupe Berleand office and turned right.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

He wiped his hands on his pants legs and said, "Just follow me."

We walked in a corridor with an opening that dropped down five floors. A steel net covered the space.

"What's up with the net?" I asked.

"Two years ago we brought in a terrorist suspect. A woman, as a matter of fact. When we walked her down this hallway, she grabbed one of the guards and tried to throw them both over the railing."

I looked down. It was a long drop.

"They die?"

"No, another officer grabbed them by the ankles. But now we have the netting."

He took two steps up into what appeared to be the attic. "Watch your head," Berleand said