Page 110 of Under Her Protection

"Mademoiselle Cole."

"Yes."

"This is good work."

"Mm."

"We will move on the rue Bichat at first light.”

Chevalier closed the file.

He did not get up. Leo, who had not moved from the grey chair, did not get up either.

Her phone, in the inside pocket of the field jacket, vibrated once.

She took it out. She looked at the screen. She held the screen up in the angle that did not show Chevalier.

It was Avery.

"I have to take this. It is the residence."

"Take it."

She stood. She went to the small grey corner of the small grey room with her back to the table. She put the phone to her ear.

"Avery."

"Leo."

It was not Avery's voice. Or it was Avery's voice with the bottom of it gone, which was not a thing Leo had heard in Avery's voice since she had been seven years old in the back garden of a house in Coventry and a dog had bitten her on the arm.

"Avery."

"She is gone."

A beat.

"Avery."

"She is gone, Leo. I am at the rue de Chaillot. She is not here."

"From when."

"She told me she needed a Circle meeting at Maison Noire. I drove her in. She went into the red lounge and had me wait in the anteroom. I waited in the anteroom. At 6.40 Colette came in and said Vivienne was missing. I searched the whole building. She is not here. As you know there is no CCTV outside Maison Noir to protect the privacy of the guests.”

"Avery."

"She slipped me at Maison Noire, Leo. She slipped me on purpose."

Leo's hand, on the phone, went very still.

Behind her, at the grey table, Chevalier had stopped looking at the file and was looking at her. Barré had stopped writing.

"Avery."

"Yes."

"Where is her phone."