Hard News by Jeffery Deaver Read Free Book Online

flipping through the book of fairy stories. She glanced down into the galley and saw Claire doing a small line of coke off her compact mirror.
    “Okay,” Rune said. “One more, then off to bed.”
    She looked at the story the book had fallen open to and laughed. “The Snow Princess.” Which seemed like a good choice since Claire had a nose blizzard going at the moment.
    “‘Once upon a time—’”
    “In a land far away,” Courtney yawned and lay down with her head in Rune’s lap.
    “That’s right. ‘… in a land far away, there lived an old couple who never had any children.’”
    “I’m a children.”
    “‘The man and woman loved each other dearly but dreamed about how happy they would be if only they had a daughter to share their life with. Then one winter, as the husband was walking home through the forest, he saw a snowman that some children had built and he had an idea. He went home and together, with his wife, they built a little princess out of snow.’”
    “What’s snow?”
    “Last winter, that white stuff.”
    “I don’t remember,” the girl said, frowning.
    “It comes out of the sky and it’s white.”
    “Feathers.”
    “No, it’s like wet.”
    “Milk.”
    “Never mind. Anyway, the couple went to bed and all night long they wished and wished real hard and what do you think happened?”
    “They got a little girl?”
    Rune nodded. “‘In the morning when they woke up there was the most beautiful little princess, who looked just like the girl the couple had made out of snow the night before. They hugged her and kissed her, and they spent all their time playing with her and taking the little girl for walks in the forest. The couple was so happy….
    “‘Then one day a handsome prince came riding along through the snow, and saw the snow princess playing in a snow-filled field beside the couple’s house. They looked at each other and fell in love.’”
    “What’s—?” Courtney began.
    “Never mind that. The thing is he wanted the snow princess to come live with him in his castle at the foot of the mountain. The snow princess’s parents were very sad and begged her not to go but she married the prince and went off to live with him in the castle.
    “‘They were very happy throughout the winter, then one day in early spring the sun came out, strong and hot, as the snow princess was walking with her husband….’”
    Rune paused and read ahead in the story—to the part where the sun gets hotter and hotter and the princess melts, the water running through her husband’s fingers into the ground until there’s nothing left of her. She looked up at the girl’s expectant face and thought: We’ve got a problem here.
    “Go on,” Courtney said.
    Pretending to read, Rune said, “Well, the sun was so hot that the snow princess remembered how much she missed her parents and she kissed her husband good-bye and climbed back up to the mountain village, where she moved back in with her parents, and got a job and met a neat guy, who was also made out of snow, and they lived happily ever after.”
    “I like that story,” Courtney said in her tone of an official pronouncement.
    Claire came out on deck. “Time for bed.”
    Courtney didn’t complain much. Rune kissed her good night then helped Claire put her pajamas on her and get her into bed.
    “You know, if you’re interested,” Claire said, “it’s much easier to meet men in Boston.”
    “You want me to go to Boston with you? Just to meet men?”
    “Sure, why not?”
    “Because most men are damaged to start with. Why should I go somewhere where it’s
easier
to meet men? I’d think you’d want to go where it’s harder.”
    “What’s wrong with men?”
    “Haven’t you noticed something?” Rune asked. “How many men do you know whose IQ matches their age?”
    “You gonna marry Sam?”
    “He’s a great guy,” Rune said defensively uneasy with the
M
word. “We have a good time….”
    Claire sighed. “He’s