The City Under the Skin by Geoff Nicholson Read Free Book Online

bus.”
    â€œI go out in a Cadillac; I come back on the bus.”
    â€œThat’s about the size of it.”
    â€œOkay.”
    She seemed to find that a perfectly reasonable state of affairs, and then another thought arrived.
    â€œAnd what’s going to happen to me when I get to your friend’s place?”
    Billy had even less idea of the answer to that.
    â€œThat’ll be a surprise,” he said.
    She let that one float away.
    â€œMy name’s Genevieve,” the woman said.
    â€œYou don’t look like a Genevieve,” said Billy.
    â€œI used to.”
    â€œMaybe you will again.”
    â€œYou think?”
    They approached Wrobleski’s compound, and Charlie, the efficient old gatekeeper, opened up the gate as the Cadillac arrived. Wrobleski and Akim were waiting in the courtyard, standing by the SUV, which seemed not to have moved since Billy’s last visit. He stopped his car, left the engine running, then got out and went around to the passenger side to let the woman out. He knew he was behaving like a chauffeur, yet it seemed the decent thing to do, to show the woman some respect. Genevieve got out, hugged the velvet rags to her, and stood swaying gently, moving to some distant music only she could hear.
    â€œNobody saw you, right?” Wrobleski said to Billy.
    It was the kind of question that allowed only one answer.
    â€œNobody saw me,” Billy lied.
    â€œIf somebody sees you, then you’ll have to do something about that.”
    â€œUnderstood,” said Billy.
    Akim took charge of the woman. He put an arm around her shoulders, seeming rather happier doing that than washing cars. He gave her something to drink, and he had something in his hand that looked like a syringe. Billy didn’t ask what was going to happen to her. It wasn’t his business, and he already knew you didn’t ask Wrobleski questions like that.
    *   *   *
    As Billy Moore drove away from Wrobleski’s compound, it started to rain: big thick globs of water stippling the Cadillac’s windshield. He waited as long as he could before turning on the wipers and watched the world become marbled. He drove with the window half-open so he could feel the spray on the side of his face, and at last he snapped the wipers into life, blurring, smoothing, eventually clearing his field of vision.
    Beside him on the passenger seat was an envelope of money Wrobleski had given him for his work. He decided it was time to open it. He pulled over, stopped the car in front of a shuttered halal supermarket, and unsealed the envelope. There was too much money inside. Billy could find a good use for all the cash that came his way—there was some upgrading to be done on the parking lot, and Carla was always begging for a new cell phone—but this was far more than you’d expect to be paid just for acting as driver to some homeless woman. Wrobleski was being generous, and that was flattering and worrying in equal proportions. Billy tried not to think about what was happening to Genevieve inside Wrobleski’s compound, but he couldn’t quite manage that.
    *   *   *
    Carla was awake and waiting for him when he got back. She was in her trailer, at her desk, an image of a lion on the screen of her laptop.
    â€œHave a good night out?” she asked.
    â€œI was working,” said Billy.
    â€œThis parking business takes up a lot of time, doesn’t it?”
    â€œIt sure does. What have you been doing?”
    Carla said, “I’ve been thinking about lions.”
    Billy looked at the screen and said, “So I see.”
    â€œYeah,” said Carla. “And about The Wizard of Oz . They talk about the Cowardly Lion like that’s something out of the ordinary, but it’s not, is it? All lions are cowardly. I mean, when they attack a herd of antelope, they always pick off the stragglers, the weak ones at the back, don’t